Myofunctional Therapy
We like to think of myofunctional therapy as exercise for your mouth or taking your face to the gym! It helps with proper tongue placement, tongue positioning, swallowing, chewing.
Form follows Function
If we have poor function (mouthbreathing, reverse swallow, low tongue posture), then we will have poor form (crowded teeth, small airway, narrow palate, ect).
You can benefit from myofunctional therapy if you have any of the following.
Habits (thumb, finger sucking)
Irregular chewing, swallowing
Mouth breathers
People with low tongue posture (possibly oral restriction present)
Sleep apnea
Sleep disordered breathing
Speech and articulation
Oral dysfunction
Current literature demonstrates that myofunctional therapy decreases apnea-hypopnea index by approximately 50% in adults and 62% in children. Myofunctional therapy could serve as an adjunct to other obstructive sleep apnea treatments.
Myomunchee
We start kids on myomunchee to help take their face to the gym! Here are some of the benefits of myomunchee:
Teeth, Tongue, and Gums
Increase salivary flow
Helps clean teeth
Improves gum health
Can help improve swallow pattern
Jaw and Bite
Improve chewing patterns
Increase jaw strength
Tone of jaw and bite muescles
Integrate chewing practice with other treatments
Lips, Breath, and Face
Dribbling, drooling and mouth breathing
Oral motor issues
Improves lip muscle tone
Helps messy eaters practice chewing
For more information regarding myofunctional therapy, see the following websites:
https://www.mytonguetherapy.com
https://www.thebreatheinstitute.com/myofunctional-therapy.html
