MYOFUNCTIONAL THERAPY

MYOFUNCTIONAL THERAPY

The coordination between chewing, swallowing, and speaking relies on various parts of the mouth and is supported by the oral and facial muscles. It is essential for efficient feeding and clear speech. Nasal breathing is important for balanced facial development, muscle tone, and overall health. Several factors like mouth breathing, tongue-tie, and prolonged sucking habits can affect facial development. Early detection and treatment of these issues are vital to prevent problems.

When a structural issue affects how muscles work in the mouth, fixing the structure comes first. For instance, if there's a blockage in the nose, it needs to be cleared so that breathing through the nose can happen properly. This helps coordinate breathing with other mouth functions. Then, dental or orthodontic work can create a balanced mouth structure, which allows a speech therapist to help retrain tongue function for activities like eating and talking. Myofunctional therapy ensures that the new mouth structure works well by retraining mouth muscles.

What is myofunctional therapy?

Myofunctional therapy is collective training and strengthening of oral and facial muscles by certain exercises. During myofunctional therapy, the goal is to make mouth muscles stronger, more flexible, and better coordinated for tasks like chewing and swallowing. This means ensuring the jaw muscles can stabilize the jaw during swallowing, move it for chewing, and have enough strength for effective chewing. The tongue should move freely and contract well to help move food around the mouth and swallow it properly. During speech, the tongue needs to touch different parts of the mouth. Facial muscles, like those in the cheeks and lips, help keep food in the mouth while eating, produce specific speech sounds, and aid in oral hygiene by clearing food particles.

Obtaining proper mouth and nose functions involves complex functions like breathing, chewing, swallowing, and speaking, controlled by specific brain patterns. Besides muscle strength and coordination, structured training programs are essential for improvement. Learning new motor patterns relies on various head and neck structures influenced by sensory signals. Biofeedback can aid patients in understanding their muscle recruitment process. Addressing speech issues is crucial too, involving audiological, linguistic, and phonological aspects. Effective treatment often requires collaboration among dentists and orthodontists.

Oral myofunctional therapy and training will be provided by your dentist and under their guidance and supervision.

Conclusion:

Myofunctional therapy should be part of care starting from birth because oral myofunctional disorders can be prevented or lessened at any stage of life. While there are more assessment and therapy tools available now, more research is needed to confirm their effectiveness.