We have a passion for helping patients OF ALL AGES to achieve healthy oral function and naturally beautiful faces.
You may not be familiar with the term “orofacial myofunctional disorders”, often abbreviated as OMDs, but suffering from them can cause serious health and wellness concerns. Helping prevent and minimize craniomandibular dysfunctions can be life-changing for patients.
The musculature of your head and neck must work in perfect harmony in order for you to be able to function ideally. Improper force distribution during early childhood growth and development can have a lasting effect on your ability to breath, swallow, chew, and speak. Improper function can also dramatically change the way you look, altering your smile in addition to your cheeks, chin, jawline, and neck profile.
OMDs can be fixed and many of the negative effects CAN BE REVERSED in children and adults. Solutions given by providers who do not have a thorough understanding of myofunctional disorders and how to treat them do not address the underlying cause of the conditions and are not able to help the patient reach their full potential in health and aesthetics.
Orofacial myofunctional disorders include:
- Abnormal thumb, finger, lip, and tongue sucking habits
- Poor lip seal or open resting lip posture
- Tongue-tie or tongue thrust
- Difficulty breastfeeding due to the inability of newborn to latch
- Mouth breathing
Negative effects of OMDs include:
- Crooked or Crowded Teeth
- Orthodontic Relapse (movement after ortho alignment
- Gummy Smile
- Slanted Crooked Smile
- Narrow Arch (darkness in the corners of the smile)
- Mouth breathing
- Sunken Cheek Bones
- Retruded or Small Chin
- Lack of Proper Jawline Definition
- Head and Neck Pain
- Increased risk for Sleep Disordered Breathing (Sleep Apnea and UARS)
- Forward Head Posture / Upper Cervical Compression
- Advanced Aging of the Face due to Improper Facial Proportions
Myofunctional dental therapy has many benefits, including:
- Helps aid in craniofacial development
- Restores proper nasal breathing for health and longevity
- Ensures proper tongue swallowing and chewing
- Creates and restores a balanced smile
- Stimulates remodeling of bone
- Eliminates oral habits (e.g. nail-biting, thumb sucking, lip licking)
- Reduces risk factors for Sleep Apnea
- Reduces AHI for patients with Sleep Apnea (lowers apnea score)
- Prevents orthodontic relapse without retainers
What are our goals in treating Myofunctional Therapy?
- Identify and address underlying the root cause of parafunctional habits such as clenching, grinding, tongue thrust, and mouth breathing
- Improve overall dental health by reducing risk factors for cavities and gum infection
- Reduce AHI (apnea-hypopnea index) in patients who suffer from Sleep Apnea. Myofunctional Therapy has been shown to reduce AHI by up to 50% in adults and over 60% in children, making it a powerful stand-alone therapy option for mild apnea, and a wonderful tool to use in combination with Mandibular Advancement Devices (Sleep Device) for moderate apnea
- Reduce head, neck, and shoulder pain
- Support proper growth and development in children
- Safely manage tongue-tie releases in a way that does not increase the risk of sleep breathing disorders
- Improve newborn latch and support healthy breastfeeding habits
