Myofunctional Therapy can be a helpful adjunct to the treatment of sleep apnea, reflux and aerophagia.
Correcting the swallow pattern helps in building the lifting of the soft palate and increasing nasal breathing. This allows for greater airflow and decrease of snoring. In turn there is more oxygen taken in continuously.
When a correct swallow exists it causes more force in the initiation of the swallow. […]
In a perfect world anyone having orthodontic treatment, or substantial dental treatment should have a Myofunctional Evaluation. This will alert both the patient and the dentist to any potential difficulty that may impact the outcome of treatment. The assumption is often made that if form is changed, then function will follow. Form in this case is the relationship of the teeth to one another, or changes in positioning of the jaw, or major changes in a cosmetic way. The function is the relationship of the oral muscles, primarily the tongue, lips and cheeks and how they impact the dentition.
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Often it is asked, “When should oral motor therapy begin?” Believe it or not, as early as infancy. Infants who are premature, born with a syndrome such as Down, cleft lip and/or palate, cerebral palsy etc. all need oral stimulation for overall development, or for the development of skills needed for feeding. The mouth is an infant’s early learning center, and the more responsive it is, the more stimulation and knowledge the infant can gain.
Many of these oral skills can be handled by choosing wisely in the use of the kind of pacifier the infant has, or the kind of nipple on the bottle. Providing the infant with mouth tickles and oral play can create a path of more normal oral development. […]