Why Should You Consider a Certified Myofunctional Therapist?
Each person is different and will require individualized plans that you can’t find in a book. There are different parts to the therapy which sequentially activate the orofacial muscles. The first part is just for all the muscles working to get the lips to stay together. We activate the masseter muscles in a symmetrical pattern and develop nasal breathing as primary by developing a lip seal and a palatal tongue rest position
The second part is actually chewing (being able to masticate and manipulate the food in the correct place), and swallowing, where your tongue is going up and back rather than down and forward. In order to habituate this even in our sleep, we must swallow correctly.
We can then work more aggressively on functional posturing. If someone is sitting with a forward upward tilted head, it’s virtually impossible to swallow comfortably. A forward head posture causes an alteration in the swallowing mechanism due to muscle tension. We can correct the actual functional posturing and swallowing by giving you easy to do exercises and teaching you to be aware of where your tongue is at all times. Pretty soon, your new behavior becomes a habit that you no longer have to think about.. Your body easily adapts to this normalized rest posture and improved function.
Another one of our goals is to get your lips closed all the time, except when you’re speaking or eating. Your nose’s primary function is inhaling oxygen, followed by filtering air, warming, and moisturizing it, and also killing micro-organisms with the natural production of nitric oxide. There’s also an enzyme that’s excreted by the little hairs in your nose that actually has an anti-allergy effect on the body. Actually, it’s healthier to breathe through your nose on every level because your body gets more usable oxygen thus maintaining a more normal carbon dioxide level which is better.”