TL;DR I'm 27, I have traditional braces on and I'm seeing fast progress with mewing when I read I shouldn't, so now I'm thinking getting retainers won't hinder progress either.
For context, I'm 27 and I've had a slight overbite since I was a teen, and my upper part of the skull is wide while my mandible is more narrow (very visible on a low body fat %) I got braces last December to fix slightly crowded upper and lower teeth (1 year plan)
I gotta say, I've been very happy with how straight my teeth have become, but also with how mewing has been much easier for me since my teeth got straighter.
I've been able to mew correctly after 4 months in with the braces and I SWEAR for my life my mandible is not as recessed and asymmetry is almost GONE, my lips also look bigger due to my bottom lip being more forward, and the outer corners of my eyes look more pulled sideways so not as round anymore, i'm so confused as to why that happened but I look better so bring it on.
My doubts are these: I have traditional braces on and from what I've read, I shouldn't be seeing any results from mewing due to the pushing inward of the braces, specially this fast and at this age, so what's going on?
The results are obvious in the mirror and in selfies/ pictures others have taken of me, in no way am I tripping. My confidence has gone up and I like seeing myself in the mirror, and I get a lot more people checking me out.
Lastly, I've been told I should get retainers after my braces are removed or otherwise I will just lose my straight teeth. My mom who has been a natural mewer all her life (and has excellent features) quickly lost progress from the braces she used some years ago due to not using retainers, same case happened with an aunt. I've read retainers will hinder mewing so I don" know what to do after I get my braces removed.
Thanks in advance.
