When our facial muscles or mouth muscles aren’t functioning properly, it can affect the rest of our body. Orofacial Myofunctional Disorders, or OMDs, involve disorders of the muscles and functions of the face and mouth. These disorders can often lead to issues with facial skeletal growth, breastfeeding, and speech.
OMDs can also lead to abnormal biting, unaligned teeth, chewing, TMJ (temporomandibular joint movement) symptoms, and difficulty swallowing.
Your sleeping patterns may also be affected by OMDs. Thanks to myofunctional therapy, however, patients are now able to train their mouths and muscles to combat OMD symptoms.
Myofunctional therapy can be helpful for patients who want to find relief from OMD symptoms such as mouth pain, jaw pain, speech difficulty, and poor sleeping habits. To learn if myofunctional therapy is right for you, read our FAQ below.
What Is Myofunctional Therapy?
Myofunctional therapy is a form of exercise therapy that involves repetitive training for the muscles around your face, mouth, and tongue. These specialized exercises focus on certain muscles specifically, allowing patients to feel improvement when it comes to talking, eating, and breathing. Myofunctional therapy can be customized to each patient’s concerns and conditions, making it highly effective when targeting treatment areas and a great alternative to surgery.
What Conditions Can Myofunctional Therapy Treat?
Myofunctional therapy can help strengthen muscle movement in the face and around the mouth to help treat the following conditions:
- TMJ symptoms
- Oral pain
- Blocked nasal passages
- Misplaced tongue position
- Maxillofacial development
- Sleep apnea
- Snoring
- Nasal obstruction
- Oral hygiene
- Bruxism
- Neck and shoulder pain
- Speech problems
- Chewing problems
Who Is A Candidate For Myofunctional Therapy?
Anyone can participate in myofunctional therapy as long as you have the ability to commit to routine muscle training. Ideal candidates for myofunctional therapy are people who have speech problems developed from an OMD, such as lisps or difficulty articulating proper sounds. If you have TMJ/TMD, oral pain, or jaw issues, myofunctional therapy can also be highly beneficial. Lastly, patients who suffer from sleep apnea, interrupted rest, fatigue, and snoring will notice improvement in their sleeping habits when they use myofunctional therapy to improve their breathing.
How Does Myofunctional Therapy Work?
The key to the effectiveness of myofunctional therapy is repetition. Because myofunctional therapy involves training the muscles with repetitive movements, it is essential that patients are committed and continuous with their muscle exercises.
With help from your therapist, neuromuscular re-education exercises will teach your muscles, nerves, and brain how to move and function in the proper way. Depending on your OMD symptoms, dysfunction, or facial pain you experience, your myofunctional therapy plan can be tailored to focus on the muscles that need the most re-training.
In general, myofunctional therapy exercises may focus on tongue position to help address eating, chewing, and speech concerns. It can also improve nasal breathing to eliminate sleep apnea symptoms, such as snoring. Myofunctional therapy can also help normalize movement to release tension in the jaw, neck, and shoulders.
If you are interested in myofunctional therapy, we work closely with Coulson & Associates in Denver. Please give their office a call at (303)759-2760.
