I Tried Thumb Pulling for 2 Years (Here's the Truth)

I spent 2 years doing this in a Buddhist monastery. 8 hours a day. My bones didn't move. Not one millimeter. In this video I break down exactly why thumb pulling can't work on adult bone, when it actually can (yes, there's a nuance), and what Dr. Newaz's CBCT-verified FME case proves about what real skeletal change looks like. If you've been at this for a year and nothing's happened, you don't need to try harder. You need a different tool. 🔗 RESOURCES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💬 1:1 Coaching with Ron https://jawhacks.com/coaching/ 📬 JawHacks Newsletter https://jawhacks.com/newsletter/ 📍 CHAPTERS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00:00 The thumb pulling pitch going around in looksmaxxing spaces 00:01:02 How this channel ended up in the looksmaxxing conversation 00:01:47 Hardmaxxing vs. looksmaxxing. My actual wheelhouse. 00:02:59 The question every client asks before committing to an expander 00:03:49 My 2014 monastery experiment: 2 years of mewing, 8 hours a day 00:06:44 The honest result: soft tissue changed, bones did not 00:08:21 You're stone, not clay. The core principle. 00:08:42 When sutures fuse and why age 8 is already too late 00:09:37 What force is actually required to move adult bone 00:10:21 The nuance: thumb pulling works in growing children 00:11:07 Steering growth vs. pushing a wall 00:13:15 The one exception: thumb pulling on top of a skeletal expander 00:13:38 How FME and MARPE open a protraction window 00:15:42 Cranial osteopathy combined with protraction during MARPE 00:16:25 The key to maxillary protraction in adults, per Dr. Manueli 00:18:16 The stretching turning protocol explained 00:21:45 The pterygomaxillary suture and why it locks the maxilla 00:22:01 Skull model: how LeFort surgery physically frees the maxilla 00:27:33 Why even a 10-TAD MARPE barely moves the PTM suture 00:27:54 Class I, II, III and why most people should not protract 00:29:09 Thumb pulling is unilateral. The mandible gets nothing. 00:30:31 How over-protracting a Class II creates a surgical patient 00:33:10 The before and after photo playbook: lighting, angles, Photoshop 00:34:44 CBCT superimposition is the only valid proof. Photos are not. 00:36:20 The self-delusion component: believing what you want to be true 00:37:26 What actually works: break the bone, reposition, stabilize, heal 00:38:49 Dr. Newaz's FME case: 8mm wide and 4mm forward at age 38 00:41:06 10 years of mewing vs. one expander cycle 00:42:47 The real cost: staying in your room instead of living your life 00:44:31 What I'd tell my 24-year-old monastery self 00:45:36 Real tools available in 2026 00:46:24 JawHacks Field Guide (free, 500 pages) and The Joint ⚠️ DISCLAIMER ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ NO MEDICAL OR DENTAL ADVICE. Ronald Ead and JAWHACKS, LLC, dba JawHacks (collectively, "we") does not give medical advice. We are not licensed medical professionals. The information provided in this video is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice. Always seek the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding your health or a medical condition.