Tongue Thrust Therapy & Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy
An Orofacial Myofuntional Disorder can impact many aspects of daily life including posture, breathing, drinking, eating, and talking.
OMD includes behaviors and patterns created by inappropriate muscle function and incorrect habits involving the tonuge, lips, jaw, and face (IAOM, 2014).
What are some possible red flags?
- Chronic mouth breathing and/or forward tongue position while breathing
- Abnormal dental alignment (e.g., anterior open bite ~ when molars make contact and incisors to not)
- Tongue thrust/inverted swallowing patterns
- Picky eating and/or food texture avoidance
- Difficulty forming a food bolus (i.e., messy eating)
- Persistent speech sound errors and/or recurring speech sound errors following speech therapy
- Prolonged use of pacifier, bottle, and/or sippy cup
- Prolonged oral habits (e.g., thumb sucking)
- Limited tongue range of motion
- (i.e., difficulty clearing food from cheeks/molars or sticking tongue out to lick an ice cream cone)
- Difficulty with feeding/swallowing at birth
- Sleeping problems or snoring
- Facial pain (i.e., jaw or neck pain)
- Clenching or grinding teeth
- Headaches
Why should I consider treatment?
If not addressed, Orofacial Myofunctional Disorders can have a lifelong impact on facial symmetry/appearance, dental alignment, speech articulation, sleep health, focus/attention, and overall quality of life.
Improvements from treatment can be seen in a matter of weeks and can reduce the potential for relapse following orthodontic intervention. Consider the following before and after pictures. This patient was referred by her orthodontist and presented with the following symptoms: forward tongue position while breathing, difficulty forming a food bolus, tongue thrust/inverted swallowing pattern, mouth breathing, and speech sound errors. Upon completion of our program, all of her symptoms were resolved.
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