Myofunctional therapy has become more and more recognized over the past four decades, but it’s still not widely known or understood. This is because most dentists, pediatricians, orthodontists, and ENTs were simply never trained in myofunctional therapy as part of their medical or dental education, so they don’t fully understand it. This is definitely changing as the whole body approach to healthcare becomes more popular.

Specific causes of mouth breathing can include:

• Food sensitivities and allergies
• Enlarged tonsils or adenoids
• Chronic nasal congestion
• Respiratory infection
• Asthma
• Deviated septum
• Nasal polyps

Each of these issues can make it difficult or impossible for a person to breathe through their nose, and when this happens, their only option is to breathe through their mouth. If this isn’t corrected, it can become a habit that’s set for life.

Mouth breathing can cause a range of symptoms that can affect all parts of our body from our teeth to our digestive system. Some of these symptoms include:

• Underdeveloped upper and lower jaws
• Impact wisdom teeth
• Crowded and poorly positioned teeth
• Orthodontic relapse
• Changes to facial appearance
• Bad breath
• Stomach pain and problems
• Delayed speech and language development in children
• ADD and ADHD-like symptoms in children

The therapy is a 12-week program with prescribed exercises each week. Forming new habits can be difficult  but the exercises are fun and easy and fun and with time and practice nearly everyone has improvement.

Not at all. In fact, it’s actually quite easy. If you practice the exercises for five minutes, twice a day you will get excellent results. The exercises are simple and fun to do!

Yes. Mouth breathing and snoring go hand in hand. If you can learn to breathe through your nose during the night, and strengthen the muscles in your throat, then you will snore less. Myofunctional therapy exercises have been shown to be helpful with other types of sleep disordered breathing (like sleep apnea and UARS) as well.  

Most of the patients who seek myofunctional therapy are adults. With children, we are preventing problems later in life, but with adult patients we are working to correct the symptoms and problems they are having currently. Adults can get amazing results and can make life-changing progress.