5 Jawline Exercises for Reshaping Your Face

Close-up beauty portrait of young woman who gently strokes her pure skin with her hand from the jawline to the neck and shoulder

While some people are born with a naturally solid and nicely-structured jawline, others need the five exercises to reshape their jawline to make adjustments that enhance theirs. It’s scientifically proven that routinely performing jaw exercises can improve lower face and mid-face fullness.

You don’t need to rely solely upon your genetics to have a strong jawline. While you can’t alter your inherited jaw traits, you can strengthen and improve your jaw’s appearance with facial exercise.

What Is Your Jawline?

Your jawline makes up the lower mandibular bone which contributes to the shape of your lower face. The jawbone extends from your ears to your chin as one bone.

Excess fat and aging are two factors that affect the shape of your lower jaw. Some people get what’s called a double chin.

Closeup on a young man's jawline

Are There Different Shapes of Jawlines?

Yes. The shape of your jaw depends on the angle between your upper jawbones, the maxilla, and lower jawbones, the mandibular.

The six types of jawline shapes include the following.

  • Angular
  • D-Shaped
  • Diamond
  • Heart
  • Round
  • Square

What Are Things That Can Affect Your Jawline?

These factors most commonly cause your jawline to lose its definition.

Aging can cause the face shape to change. When you age, fat sometimes begins to build up in your neck, so the jaw muscles shrink, and the skin on your jawline often sags.

Thumb-sucking can change the shape of the jawline, especially when the child continues the habit past the age of five.

Thumb-sucking can also result in moving teeth around in the mouth, impacting jaw shape. A weak jaw can result in adults who suck their thumbs.

Missing teeth, for whatever reason, can also impact the shape of your jawline.

Mouth breathing is another thing that will affect how your jawline looks. Here are some things that mouth breathing can cause.

Facial features:

  • Elongated, narrow face – Long-face syndrome
  • Recessed jaw and chin
  • Midface deficiency
  • Small jaws that cannot accommodate permanent teeth
  • Sunken cheeks, where the cheekbones fail to develop fully

Besides impacting the shape of the jawline, children who breathe primarily through their mouths can experience sleeping disorders, irritation of the throat and lungs, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), and a reduced ability to absorb oxygen.

Mouth breathing can start in childhood due to allergies or asthma, but this issue can also impact adults. This problem can cause permanent jawline displacement.

The sooner you start jawline exercises, the better chance you can correct some of the effects of mouth breathing. Otherwise, you may need jaw surgery if that’s an option.

While you can opt for surgery to correct jawline problems, there are jawline exercises that can help, saving the surgical option as a last resort.

How Can Facial Exercise Help Your Jawline?

Jawline exercises are proven to define your jaw better and make you look younger, but they also help prevent jaw, neck, and head pain.

Studies have revealed that facial exercise may reduce the symptoms of temporomandibular disorders, like TMJ, and chronic pain in the jaw nerves, bones, and muscles.

Top 5 Exercises to Reshape Your Jawline

1. The Collarbone Backup

This collarbone exercise will activate the muscles under the chin supporting muscles for your jaw.

  • Sit in a chair or on the floor.
  • Set your head back several inches until the muscles on either side of your neck contract.
  • Keep your chest as still as you can while keeping your ears right over your shoulders.
  • Your chin should be parallel to the floor throughout the exercise.
  • Repeat this movement, but this time by pushing your head forward.

2. Smile

Your smile is more than just a gesture of friendliness or a sign of happiness or pleasure. A smile will tighten the skin muscles, making them tighter. Therefore, smiling is linked with feelings of joy and with improving your jawline.

  • Curve up the sides of your mouth to make a smile.
  • Perform the smile several times a day for optimal results.

The muscles for smiling include the jaw and cheek muscles.

Close up portrait of young African America woman smiling against gray wall

3. Vowel Exercises

Did you know that making your vowel sounds will stretch your mouth and strengthen the muscles around your lips?

  • You perform this exercise by opening your mouth, keeping your lips pursed together, and creating a circle or an “O.”
  • Now, incorporate the “E” sound, saying “oo ee, oo ee, oo ee.”
  • Overemphasize the “oo ee, oo ee, oo ee” sounds.
  • Perform three sets of 10.

The targeted muscles in this facial exercise include the area between your nose and upper lip and the sides of both lips.

4. The Jawbone Restorer

This facial exercise works the jawline area of the face.

  • Put your thumbs together and place them at the tip of your chin as you rest your other fingers below your ears.
  • Push your chin down into your thumbs for resistance.
  • Now, slide your thumbs along your jawbone with medium pressure, stopping below each ear.
  • Perform this exercise 10 times.

5. Neck Curl-Up

This exercise is for your face, like what a crunch or curl is for your abs.

  • Lie on your back, pressing your tongue to the top of your mouth.
  • Bring your chin down to your chest as you lift your head two or three inches off the floor.
  • Perform this exercise 10 times.

The rarely used neck muscles engage during this facial exercise. If you feel pain, stop and take your time to do this.

What About Mewing?

While mewing is a facial exercise developed by John Mew, a 1970s orthodontist, there have been no credible studies on its impact of mewing.

Mewing has the names “the tongue press” or “the tongue twister.”

Despite the popularity of mewing, there is no proof that this jawline exercise has any significant impact on restructuring the jawline.

The only support for mewing has come from its founder, John Mew, who claims it helped his children. There is nothing that says mewing is harmful, and it may have some temporary effects.

John Mew‘s original intention for mewing was to help with tooth and jaw alignment.

Does Making the Fish Face Help Facial Muscles?

The “fish face” is categorized as a double chin corrective facial exercise. It’s another popular facial exercise known to help people get rid of their double chin.

Fish face didn’t make these top 5 exercises to reshape your jawline list. It may be fun and cute, but it’s not in the top 5 best ways to sculpt your jawline.

Most people think that getting a double chin is exclusive to age or obesity, but it can also develop from poor posture or be a genetic trait.

That doesn’t mean that making a fish face won’t help you tone the underneath of your chin to reduce the look of a double chin. For many people, this exercise can help sculpt the jawline.

If you want to try the fish face exercise, suck in your cheekbones, exaggerate the movement to make the fish face, hold it for 30 seconds, let it go, and repeat that ten times.

woman with wavy hair in white jacket making fish face with pout lips and amazed big eyes

What Is Jawzrsize?

The Jawzrsize is a silicone sphere fitness tool related to jaw exercise if you’ve never heard of it.

That’s made evident by the name of the ball. It’s supposed to help you with a jaw workout by biting down on it as directed.

Like mewing, there isn’t much scientific evidence that supports how well these tools work.

What Else Can You Do to Improve Your Jawline?

Dietary Changes

Besides surgery, you can also make lifestyle changes like your diet.

Your diet affects your facial structure in several ways. Foods that can cause weight gain, resulting in excess fat in the jawline include those with refined carbohydrates and excess salt and sugar.

Foods you can eat that will improve your overall diet and help reduce fatty buildup across your jawline include foods rich in fiber, foods rich in vitamin C, foods with plenty of Beta-carotene, and foods with lots of antioxidants.

Your diet affects more than just your health and wellness. It can also impact your facial structure.

Facial Massage

A facial massage is not only a relaxing part of a good self-care routine. It’s also an excellent way to boost blood circulation. A proper face massage can reduce swelling, tension, and stiffness, which can help with specific jawline shapes.

One of the most impactful elements of facial massage is how it improves lymphatic circulation. The lymph nodes have no pumping action that helps the lymphatic system flow faster.

Lymph nodes carry toxins that can build up under your skin, causing a dull appearance. It can also cause edema under the skin, making it look like you have a little double chin.

Facial massage helps drain the lymph, stimulating collagen and other skin nutrients.

Several kinds of tools like facial rollers and Gua tools can aid in this kind of self-massage. Alternatively, you can go to the spa and have it done.

chin and jawline face lifting massage

Drink More Water

If you aren’t getting enough water or fluids, you can get dehydrated. Dehydration affects your skin somewhat differently than dry skin.

What’s the difference between dry skin and dehydrated skin? Dry skin happens from the outside when there is a lack of exterior moisture or low humidity.

Dehydrated skin is lacking in internal moisture or lack of fluids.

Dry skin can look dry and cracked, but dehydrated skin will appear more wrinkled, uneven, and dull. Try pinching your neck or cheeks.

If the wrinkles between your fingers don’t go away as soon as you let go, you are experiencing dehydration of your skin. It would help if you consumed more fluids, like water.

The recommended amounts of water to drink per day are 15.5 cups for men and 11.5 cups for women. Also, around 20% of your fluid intake comes from other beverages you drink and foods you eat throughout the day.

Chewing Gum

Gum chewing can help strengthen your facial muscles and is likely the easiest form of facial exercise. Since chewing gum activates the jawline, it’s considered an effective way to help get or maintain a sharper jaw structure.

These are all things you can do, besides surgery, that will help you get a more chiseled jawline.

Since genetics play a role in your jawline shape, facial exercise isn’t always as effective. That’s when surgery could be an option.

Get Better Sleep

How can getting better sleep help you get a better jawline?

A good night’s sleep will make your face fresher and your jaws more toned. The lack of good sleep makes your face and jaws look puffy and make a double chin seem bigger.

How much sleep is enough sleep? The recommended amount of sleep for the overall health of your body is between 7 and 9 hours for an adult.

Sleep quality also plays into getting the right amount of sleep. If you are still tired upon arousal in the mornings, you may not be getting sound sleep.

Grow a Beard

If you can, grow a beard to hide your jawline. By trimming your beard in specific ways, you can make it look like you have a chiseled jawline.

Apply Contouring Makeup

You might be surprised how much properly applied contour can change your jawline’s appearance.

To add depth and definition, you can use contour makeup, bronzer, or brownish eyeshadows along and below your cheeks and jaws.

Adding highlights and lighter colored coverup, you can further enhance the contoured areas.

What Is Jawline Surgery?

Jawline surgery is called orthognathic surgery in the medical industry. Its purpose is to correct jaw irregularities related to the jawbone and realign the teeth. When a person has problems with chewing, this is a necessary surgery.

Jaw surgery is a corrective solution for various types of jaw issues that orthodontics alone cannot resolve. Oral, face, and jaw surgery is all performed on the maxillofacial regions of the face.

It can correct problems associated with chewing, swallowing, speech, biting, temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ), obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), congenital disabilities, and injuries to the face.

However, orthognathic surgery can also enhance facial appearance.

While most jawline surgeons only perform surgeries for specific problems where it’s necessary or helpful to the person’s situation, some will offer purely cosmetic options when someone wants to look better.

Reshaping the jawline requires laser tools or micro saws to remove small amounts of the jawbone. They also add implants to enhance the jaw.

The two common types of jawline cosmetic surgery include:

  1. Jaw reduction typically takes bone from the back part of the jaw to make the jawline look slimmer and smoother.
  2. Jaw enhancement adds volume at the back of the jawbone or along the jawline, which implants help. This kind of surgery can add more definition to a weak jaw, help improve a recessed jaw or make the jawline longer.

Jawline surgery also plays a role in aligning the jaw and teeth when misalignment occurs.

Orthognathic surgeons commonly work closely with orthodontists when making corrections for things like a crossbite, overbite, underbite, open bit, jaw repositioning, and other jaw surgeries that are helpful and functional for the patient.

Before and after of jaw reduction surgery

What Are Other Cosmetic Procedures for Jawline Improvement?

Botox and Dermal Fillers

Botox is an injection procedure where the botulinum toxin injects into the jaw muscles. The idea is to give your face a “V’ shape by slimming the edges of your face.

Dermal fillers are soft gel packs that doctors inject under your skin. These are either synthetic or natural materials.

Neck Lift

Another cosmetic procedure used to improve the jawline is a neck lift. It is when your neck lifts.

The intention is to tighten and contour muscles, fat, and skin. In some cases, a neck lift involves excess fat removal.

Neck Liposuction

If you’ve heard of liposuction, you know that this means they suck and remove the fat out of the fatty areas of the neck, jaw, and chin.

This cosmetic procedure can improve the definition of the jawline and jaw strength. The results of such a procedure are permanent.

Thread Lifts

Thread lifts are sewn into the skin to help tighten the jaw and define it. These sutures are temporary. Each procedure lasts for between 6 and 12 months.

Chin Augmentation

Chin augmentation usually means chin implants in the chin. This kind of implant improves chin and jaw definition.

Chin implants are synthetic, similar to the chin’s natural tissue.

Women tested before chin augmentation surgery

Fat Grafting

Another way to augment the chin and jawline is fat grafting. There are no implants used in this process.

This jaw surgery involves fat removal from one part of your body that transfers to your chin.

The belly fat is the fat used for fat grafting.

Conclusion

If you want to reshape your jawline naturally, the above exercises can help. If your jawline problems are because of genetics, you can reduce the appearance of certain jaw anomalies, but usually, that requires a consultation with an orthodontist.

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