Myofunctional Therapy
Orofacial myofunctional therapy (OMT) is quite the mouthful to say - PUN INTENDED! Let’s call it myo for short.
What in the sam hill is myofunctional therapy? It’s not new, although some practitioners may like to believe that. Treatment of OMDs has been acknowledged since the early 1900’s with robust research and literature available to support is an underutilized treatment. Myo is a therapy modality and therapy focus sitting square at the intersection of oral function and structures and airway health. How so? Let’s dive in.
Per the International Association of Orofacial Myology (IAOM), orofacial myofunctional disorders (OMDs) “are the nexus of structure and function and therefore in some cases a structural anomaly results in functional challenges and in other cases atypical oral habits and limited functional skills result in undesirable structural changes.” Examples provided include ankyloglossia (lingual restriction/tongue tie) impacting feeding and speech or low tongue posture causing open bite/malocclusion and other muscle compensations.
OMDs can effect anyone across the lifespan but actual myo intervention is recommended for children of a cognitive level that can comprehend exercises and show awareness of their preexisting habits. For children younger than about 5, for difficulties with mouth breathing, tongue thrusting, or the like, feeding therapy from specially trained SLP is recommended.
Myofunctional Therapy addresses presence of mouth breathing, oral habits. low tongue posture, tongue thrust swallowing, and functional impacts of lingual restrictions (tethered oral tissues/tongue tie).
It is highly individualized based on patient need and can be for children or adults.
Circling back the wealth of knowledge from the IAOM, here they provide a pretty succint list of things that could potentially happen when leaving an OMD untreated.
“Long term mouth-breathing patterns that compromises overall healthy breathing
Detrimental oral habits that impede further growth and development
Atypical patterns that impact chewing and swallowing
The improper development/alignment of the teeth
The improper development of jaw growth and facial structure
Slowing the process of orthodontic treatment
Undermining the long-term stability of orthodontic treatment, resulting in malocclusion relapse
Negative impact of the stability and function of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ)
Atypical Speech patterns
Drawing negative attention to oneself due to open mouth postures or noisy chewing and swallowing patterns
How I, MyLisa, went down the “myo rabbit hole” is a story for another day but once I began viewing patients through the lens of orofacial functioning or my “myo eyes,” I could not unsee the untreated and underlying signs in patients that had been staring me in the eyes for YEARS. I just didn’t know.
But now, we know better so we DO BETTER. Myo gets me fired up because it’s life changing. Just call me “Myo My.” :)
MyLisa Thiels, MS, CCC-SLP
Speech Language Pathologist, Endoscopist, and Orofacial Myofunctional Therapist
Joy Speech and Myofunctional Therapy
