Myofunctional Therapy | Eat, Sleep, Breath, Live Better

Myofunctional Therapy can help you to reach your health goals, and maintain a healthy body, by ensuring that your basic needs of eating, sleeping, and breathing are optimized.

What is Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy? | It is like physiotherapy for the muscles of your face and mouth. The main goal of Myofunctional Therapy is to promote the development and maintenance of a healthy mouth and airway, by achieving good nasal breathing habits, proper chewing and swallowing, ensuring healthy digestion, and restorative sleep.

Who can benefit? | Children, seniors, adults, those with special needs, anyone who wants to be healthy can benefit from Myofunctional Therapy. To determine suitability ask yourself the following questions:

• Have I had, or could I benefit from braces?
• Do I snore?
• Do I wake feeling refreshed?
• Am I missing a tooth/teeth?
• Do I have any of the following habits: clenching, grinding, mouth breathing, cheek/lip chewing, night-time drooling, slouching?
• Would others describe me as a noisy, messy, or picky eater?
• Do others report that I mumble or have a lisp?
• Do I have trouble keeping good posture?
• Do I experience any of the following: difficulty concentrating, persistent neck tension, headaches, TMJ pain, chronic nasal congestion, poor digestion, heartburn, night waking?
• Have you been told you build tartar/plaque quickly or are prone gum disease or cavities?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the questions, you most likely do not have a healthy tongue resting position or swallowing pattern. Healthy tongue positioning and healthy swallowing are fundamental for overall health. Proper tongue posture is essential for the development of facial bones and roof of the mouth as well as teeth alignment, which in turn will impact your airway, speech, and digestive systems. Simply put; your lips, cheeks, and tongue are your face’s braces!

With Myofunctional Therapy, you can prevent orthodontic relapse, clenching, grinding, bite changes, crowding, snoring, poor digestion, mouth breathing, speech difficulties, dry mouth, poor oral health, poor quality sleep, and slouching. Myofunctional Therapy can help you to reach your health goals, and maintain a healthy body, by ensuring that your basic needs of eating, sleeping, and breathing are optimized.

Remember the questions you asked yourself earlier?  Any “yes” answers? If so, contact Elements Dental and have Mary Jo Robson, RDH, Myofunctional Therapist, empower you to be your healthiest, and answer “No” to poor health.