Mike Mew's court case: why did it happen?

He lost his dental license in 2023 because he used an expander that created 'seizure-like' episodes in a child.

Mike Mew was stripped of his dental license in 2023 by the General Dental Council (GDC) in the UK after a prolonged disciplinary process lasting over seven years.

He likes to position it as the ‘system’ came after him for speaking out against traditional orthodontics. After all ‘Mewing’ had become a social phemonenon racking up billions of views on Youtube and Tiktok.

And while I think there is an element of truth to this… i also think there are flaws in how he view that this stuff works.

In my opinion he doesn’t ‘get’ the soft tissue. And this is key as i’ll explain in this article.

About the court case

In 2023, Mike Mew lost his dental license in the UK after a disciplinary hearing. The case centered around his treatment of a child patient who developed seizure-like episodes during orthodontic treatment between 2014 and 2016.

The General Dental Council found him guilty of misconduct for continuing treatment despite the child's adverse reactions. He was also criticized for failing to obtain proper consent and not adequately explaining the risks.

From the age of six, the patient was advised to use upper and lower arch expansion appliances and wear neck gear to "gain a substantial increase in nasal capacity", "improve the midface", "change the swallowing pattern" and "guide facial growth".

Dr Mew believed this would allow more space for the teeth and tongue so "all the 32 teeth align naturally without the need for fixed braces".

So in otherwords pretty classic ‘orthotropics’ stuff, which many dentists around the world actually offer.

I think Mike was probably using the Biobloc

The Biobloc appliance, developed by his father John Mew, was their primary treatment tool. It's basically a palatal expander that forces the jaw wider through mechanical force.

Yes they say that the tongue is what forces it wider, but basically the physics are such that when you push it wider it stays that way. And that to me is not all that different from using a screw-based expander (ie. unnatural force is being applied).

You can see an image of it above and a video of his father talking about how it works below.

The Mews believed this would guide facial growth and development. But there's a problem with this approach from my perspective - it completely ignores how soft tissue actually works.

Why i'm against the biobloc

I've said before that I'm against any kind of forced palatal expansion.

You can't just mechanically force the palate wider and expect good results. That's like trying to inflate a balloon by pulling it apart with your hands - you're just going to create stress and damage.

The right way is to ‘inflate the balloon’ by sticking to the two rules i mention:

1. add vertical

2. unlock the occlusion

And so you can wear a rubber mouthguard like a Myobrace or a Reviv One that i offer.

It is a repetitive process in which the occlusion changes a bit, the skull pops open a bit, and the body remodels.

When you do that, the palate widens on its own without force. And it doesn’t just open horizontally the way a Biobloc assumes.

Everything is changing 3-dimensionally in a natural process.

It is why despite the fact that Myobrace was established in 1989 and used on many thousands of kids (probably achieving expansion in many of them), you have never in 30+ years seen a major court case against it. Because it aligns with how things work naturally.

Mike both understands and misunderstands the soft tissue

Mike is one of the biggest proponents of soft tissue work like ‘Mewing’ and the stretch that good tongue position creates.

And yet he misses that an expander (ie. mechanical force) is completely bad for a human’s skull.

As a result I'm not surprised this incident happened. When you use mechanical force to expand the palate, you're fighting against the soft tissue instead of working with it. Eventually, something's got to give.

Which is why forced expansion will sometimes (maybe even often) damage the palate and damage the skull.

So it doesn’t surprise me that this could have caused ‘seizure-like episodes’ because doing it this way is essentially a bit like putting your skull in a vice in my view.

In this case, it manifested as neurological symptoms in the patient. And this makes complete sense from a biomechanical perspective.

I’ve talked in this earlier article about where I both agree and disagree with the Mews. And i specifically highlighted the Biobloc.

My take on the Mews

Note that I wrote this article condemning their use of the Biobloc even before i’d read this article about Mike Mew losing his license.

Do i have a crystal ball? Or do I just know some basic rules about how these biomechanics work?

Closing thoughts

The Mews, for all their good intentions, never fully understood how soft tissue works in my perspective.

They saw the problem - that modern faces aren't developing properly - but their solution was fundamentally flawed.

Instead of understanding that you need to work with the soft tissue and let it ‘inflate’ naturally, they still used some methods that force change through mechanical expansion.

It's ironic because the Mews were pioneers in recognizing that modern orthodontics was harmful. But their solution - the Biobloc - was just another form of forced mechanical change.

The real solution is much simpler in my view - you need to add vertical height between the teeth without locking the jaw position, and let the soft tissue guide the expansion naturally. No screws, no force, no risk of neurological complications.

This case will probably be used by the orthodontic establishment to discredit everything the Mews have said, which is unfortunate. Because while this specific treatment approach was wrong, they were right about the problems with modern orthodontics.

The lesson here isn't that we should stop questioning conventional orthodontics - it's that we need to understand these biomechanics better, especially the role of soft tissue.