As I have seen so many faces and tried to analyze why the asymmetry happens by learning from medical mentors, I have tentatively concluded that there are 3 generic patterns in facial asymmetry. Here are the 3 patterns, and let’s try to improve, according to the pattern.
Disclaimer: The 3 are general ideas, and none of them might apply to you.
I will explain patterns #1, #2, and #3, and the bigger the number is, the more asymmetry it means in general. Ex. If your face is pattern #3, that means your face is very asymmetrical.
Facial Asymmetry Pattern #1:
This is the most common, I think. In my case, my left jaw is the dominant side, although a lot of people are right jaw dominant. My dominant left cheek is higher than the other non-dominant right side because I use more on the dominant side. The muscles in the dominant side are more active and lift up the skin higher. So, your dominant side is higher up, and the non-dominant is downward.
If your face is slightly tilting to the dominant side, your shoulder on the dominant side might be higher too. Then the other side becomes longer, which can lift up the non-dominant side’s eye higher and the cheek is saggier. If this is the case, the dominant side’s shoulder and/or neck might be having some tension, because they are being overworked. That is the pattern #1.
By the way, I did a video about why your right is more dominant and your left face is saggier. It is related to your organ positions and diaphragm situation. Check the video if you are interested in it. I learned the concept from the Posture Restoration Institute. Anyway, in general, right-side dominance is more common like right-hand dominance is more common.
I think my face applies to this pattern #1, so if you carefully look at my face, you notice on the non-dominant side (left), the eye is higher and the cheek is saggier. If this applies to you, especially if you have neck pain, I would like you to try the neck stretch exercise.
- The facial non-dominant side’s hands are on the dominant side’s temple area. (Don’t be confused by hand dominance, which is not always the same as facial dominance.) Keep your head straight.
- The facial dominant side’s hand is on the shoulder.
- Stretch the dominant side’s neck at 45 degrees.
- Feel the good stretch for 10 seconds.
- (Option) You can stretch the temple area up to even more stretch.
- (Option) You can also look up to feel the Stenocloidmastoid being stretched for another 10 seconds or so. As you can see in our Anatomy, those neck muscles are overworking in general, so it’s good to stretch.
- Slowly come back. (Warning: Don’t come back too quickly especially if you have neck pain.)
If you are not sure which jaw is dominant, please check our tutorial about how to find which jaw is dominant. It is super important to know which side, otherwise you can worsen the asymmetry. Assuming you know which side is dominant, you can try our Face Adjustment (Facial Chiropractic).
Facial Asymmetry Pattern #2
Your dominant side is higher, because the muscles are more developed, and even the eye on the dominant side is higher too. In pattern #1, the eye on the dominant side is lower, but in #2 it is higher.
There are 4 kinds of chewing muscles. 1. Masseters, 2. Temples, 3. Lateral Pterygoid, 4. Medial Pterygoid. You can check where the muscles are in our Anatomy. Place your palms on your temple muscles, and imagine you are chewing. Aren’t the temples moving a bit? Don’t you feel more movement on the dominant side? If this applies to you, it makes sense that even the eye is higher, because your dominant chewing is stronger than pattern #1.
Ex.
Pattern #2: You are chewing on the dominant side at 75% and 25% on the opposite side.(Pattern #1: 65% and 35%) In general, you want to eat at 50:50 on both cheeks at the same time. If you don't know what the 50:50 chewing system is, check our How to Eat tutorial.
Because your dominant chewing level is higher, you might be engaging other muscles around the chewing muscles too much. That's how you get the eye on the dominant side up as well. In this case, I would try Jupiter’s chewing gum practice. Chewing gum on the NONDOMINANT side X 3 times/day, to activate the non-dominant side. Each chewing can be a couple of min per gum.
Facial Asymmetry Pattern #3
This might be the most asymmetrical among the 3 patterns. The non-dominant side is down and maybe the eye is down too. If that's the case, you might be doing dominant chewing DOWN. You guys know that I always tell you to chew up. By doing so, you can activate the cheek muscles upward every time you eat. Please check the How to Eat video if you don't know what chewing up means.
In this case, instead of Jupiter’s, it’d be better and safer to train a 50:50 chewing system first, because if you chew down on the nondominant side accidentally, it can mess up the functional system. I don't want to risk your face. You can also try temple adjustment for eye balance too.
- Know that you will rotate back the temple with the saggy eye, and rotate forward the temple with a higher eye at the same time.
- Place your lower palms on the temple areas.
- Inhale.
- Slowly exhale while rotating the temples accordingly.
- Repeat X 3
The reason why this imbalance occurs maybe not only the chewing habit but also the body’s asymmetry habits. So it is important to care the body symmetry, regardless of which pattern your face is, because the reason for your dominant chewing habit comes from your body’s asymmetry pattern. It is like a chicken-egg situation.
I'm not smart enough to know everything, as I'm still learning every day. That is why I appreciate your comments to learn. In general, it is a good idea to try something for a while, and if it doesn’t work for you, you move on to the next.