Myofunctional Therapy
Myofunctional Therapy and Correcting Underlying Issues
Just because teeth or jaws are moved doesn’t mean that they will stay in that position. Many adults who have orthodontics as a child will stop wearing their retainers at some point. Once they stopped wearing their retainers, their teeth often slowly start shifting back out of position. The reason that this happens is because no one ever addressed the reason why their teeth were crooked in the first place. If the underlying reason is not corrected, then the healing will not be stable. One of the best ways to address the causes of unfavorable growth is through Myofunctional therapy. This therapy helps to retrain the musculature of the face and correct oral habits that can interfere with proper facial growth.
What is Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy?
Myofunctional therapy is a series of exercises to re-pattern and optimize oral and facial functions to promote stable and correct oral postures. This may include programs to eliminate oral habits (i.e. thumb sucking, tongue thrust) or referrals for correcting restricted frenum attachments.
Here is a brief list of the things we can help with:
- Keeping your tongue to the roof of your mouth
- Keeping your lips sealed
- Proper strength and tone of the muscles of the face
- Proper oral motor skills
- Eliminating tongue thrusts
- Eliminating thumb or digit sucking
- Improving eating (textures, types of food, messy eating, pocketing of food, speed of eating)
- And many other things!
