What is Myofunctional Therapy?
Orofacial myofunctional therapy (OMT) helps to improve and correct jaw underdevelopment and other disorders of the jaw, lips and/or tongue, which may prevent proper breathing. Abnormal movements of the face and mouth during common daily activities can also lead to jaw pain, jaw clicking and more.
What is Myofunctional Therapy?
Myofunctional therapy targets TMD (temporomandibular disorders), myofacial, and related health conditions, which can result from an underdeveloped or weak jaw, along with oral habits like tongue thrusting or thumb sucking. In addition, babies may be born with anatomical issues of the face, mouth or jaw, which cause them to suffer orofacial myofunctional disorders. Myofunctional therapy includes exercises, treatments and oral appliances to correct tongue, lip or jaw positioning problems that occur when resting, speaking, chewing or swallowing.
Myofunctional therapy can be especially beneficial for children, since untreated sleep breathing disorders and functional jaw problems can slow childhood development. Adults may feel that sleep issues, such as snoring, are normal as you age–but this is untrue. In fact, sleep disordered breathing can accelerate aging. Your breathing and sleep problems can be corrected, improving your health and quality of life, at any age.
What Conditions and Symptoms Can Myofunctional Therapy Treat?
As expert dentists focused on breathing and sleep disorders, our team helps patients, from children to seniors, improve jaw function. Customized myofunctional treatments can improve and/or correct a wide variety of issues:
- Obstructive sleep apnea: A type of sleep disordered breathing, which can cause breathing pauses during sleep, snoring, disturbed sleep, daytime sleepiness and stress. Symptoms are often first noticed by husbands, wives, partners or parents.
- Ankyloglossia: A congenital (present at birth) oral issue, often called tongue-tie. In some individuals, the membrane connecting the tongue to the lower jaw is too thick and short, limiting tongue tip mobility. This can interfere with speech and eating/swallowing.
- TMD (temporomandibular joint disorder): TMD symptoms include jaw pain, jaw noise (clicking or crunching) and sticking, where the jaw becomes stuck open or closed
- ADHD symptoms
- Nightmares
- Poor school performance
- Mouth breathing
- Daytime sleepiness
- Hypertension
- Memory problems
- Obesity
- And many more
