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What is Myofunctional Therapy?

Myofunctional therapy is a type of treatment that helps fix problems with the muscles and actions of your face and mouth. These problems called orofacial myofunctional disorders (OMDs), can make it hard to breathe, chew, swallow, and talk properly. Myofunctional therapy teaches you how to use your mouth muscles the right way to improve these functions and get rid of bad habits.

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Key Aspects of Myofunctional Therapy

  • Muscle Training: It involves exercises that strengthen and retrain the mouth and face muscles. These exercises help correct the resting position of the tongue, Improve swallowing patterns, and enhance breathing techniques.
  • Habit Correction: The therapy aims to correct habits such as thumb sucking, tongue thrusting, and prolonged use of pacifiers or bottles, which can lead to dental misalignments and other oral Issues.
  • Breathing Techniques: It often includes training for proper nasal breathing, which Is essential for overall health. Mouth breathing, a common issue addressed in myofunctional therapy, can lead to dental and health problems.
  • Speech Improvement: By strengthening and coordinating the muscles involved in speech, myofunctional therapy can help improve articulation and clarity of speech.
  • Collaboration with other treatments: Myofunctional therapy is often used In conjunction with orthodontic treatments, speech therapy, and other dental or medical Interventions to enhance overall effectiveness.

What Can Myofunctional Therapy Help With

  • Sleep apnea and snoring: Strengthens mouth and throat muscles, aiding in sleep apnea and reducing snoring.
  • Tongue position correction: Restrains improper tongue posture, addressing issues like tongue thrust.  
  • Speech clarity enhancement: Develop tongue and facial muscles, Improving articulation and clarity.
  • TMJ/TMD: Alleviates symptoms of temporomandibular joint disorders by promoting proper jaw alignment.
  • Orthodontic support: Assists orthodontic treatments, preventing relapse post-braces removal.
  • Facial aesthetics: Tones facial muscle, potentially reducing signs of aging.
  • Better breathing: Includes training in proper breathing techniques, emphasizing nasal breathing.

Benefits of Myofunctional Therapy

Myofunctional therapy has been shown to directly or indirectly help with the following:

  • Reducing or eliminating sleep apnea problems.
  • Improve nasal breathing and decrease mouth breathing.
  • Improving speech.
  • Eliminating poor oral habits.
  • Eliminating tongue thrusting.
  • May reduce headaches, TMJ, and neck/shoulder pain.
What is Myofunctional Therapy?

Innovative Collaboration

In a progressive approach to tackling sleep breathing disorders, a Doctor of Dentistry and a Myofunctional Therapist have joined forces to provide comprehensive patient care. The dentist focuses on diagnosing and treating dental-related causes, such as malocclusions or jaw misalignments, while the myofunctional therapist works on correcting issues with proper nose breathing, the position of the tongue, lip closing, food chewing and swallowing, facial expression, jaw movement, TMJ, facial bone development, body posture, and many more. Together, they create individualized treatment plans that improve airway function, enhance sleep quality, and ultimately boost their patients' overall health and well-being.

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