Family Myo Therapy

03/21/2023

03/08/2023

💪❤️ happy international women's day

02/01/2023

Do you see teeth marks on the sides of your tongue?
I definitely fall into that 89% myself! A multidisciplinary approach, including myofunctional therapy, can be life changing!

Tongue scalloping

Did you know tongue scalloping or tooth indents on the side of the tongue, are a strong clinical indicator of obstructive breathing during sleep?

Tongue scalloping is a result of low tongue tone and posture, and it’s often also a reflection of poor palate development and constricted tongue space.

Research suggests in a pool of people with tongue scalloping:

• 89% have severe collapses of the airway lasting ten seconds or more.
• 89% have reductions in oxygenation during the night

The researchers conclude its presence should prompt physicians to enquire about snoring history.

Here’s a link to the study abstract:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1016/j.otohns.2005.07.018

The sooner we can spread this information amongst medical and dental professionals the better.

Obstructive breathing is linked to chronic stress, inflammation, and sleep disruption. It is linked to increased risk of virtually every chronic health disease and reduced quality of life.

Many patients with these hidden airway problems are medicated for its symptoms.

This patient has spent her life revolving in and out of the GP’s office, and was on at least six medications, each with their own side effects, including immune suppression and dry mouth. This compounds the reduced quality of life.

Sleep is terrible, but beyond the prescription of a sleeping aid, sleep has not been investigated thoroughly.

There has been chronic use of medication for reflux, anxiety, and depression.

Healthcare must move from medication to placing more emphasis on healthy breathing and sleep as key pillars for good health and prevention of disease.

And our best opportunity to establish airway health is in childhood. This means promoting nasal breathing, and healthy mouth function and structural development early.

In this case, there is a tongue-tie, and the palate is underdeveloped resulting in constricted tongue-space.

There were so many warning signs that oral function and structural development were off track in early in life, starting with a history of breastfeeding difficulties. We just need to understand this and know what to look for, and patients like this are my biggest inspirations to keep getting the message out.

01/25/2023

I just love her posts! So informative! Teeth grinding is not normal at any age.

Dental erosion and airway reflux in children.

Teeth grinding related dental wear is one of the clues in the mouth that most strongly predicts a child has disturbed breathing during sleep. If a child is grinding their teeth during sleep, it is worth them being screened for sleep and airway problems.

The other type of dental wear that I see very commonly in children is erosion, or acid wear - magnified in the image.

This is typically seen in children who have ground and wore away their tooth enamel, exposing the yellow and softer dentine underneath.

Tooth enamel is harder than bone and the acid wears away the exposed dentine at a faster rate, giving it a scooped-out appearance.

Unless a child is sucking excessively on lemons, or having excessive coke or energy drinks, the most likely source of acid is reflux disease.

In airway reflux, a child who is breathing in more effortfully when they have airway restriction is going to have increased vacuum pressures in their thorax (region below the neck and above the stomach). Think of how a straw gets pinched if we suck too hard. This can allow stomach acids to be aerolised back into the throat and mouth. This can contribute to inflammation and swelling of the adenoids and tonsils.

Children with airway reflux (also called laryngopharyngeal reflux) may present with:

• Throat clearing
• Chronic cough
• Mild hoarseness
• Postnasal drip
• Reports of “Spew burps”
• Bad taste in the mouth or bad breath

Children may be misdiagnosed with asthma.

The constant acid exposure in the mouth can accelerate teeth-grinding related tooth wear and contribute to very obvious loss of tooth structure.

It can increase a child’s risk of dental decay. As much as we look at diet, and dental hygiene, mouth breathing and airway-reflux should not be overlooked as a risk factor. It is my observation that children who have had a lot of decay and fillings in the past often have a lot of these erosional wear facets.

It’s another example of the need for us to pay more attention to obstructive breathing as a root cause of common childhood problems.

01/12/2023

Palate expansion and improvements in auditory function

Eustachian Tube Dysfunction refers to when the eustachian tube is not able to properly fulfil its roles ventilating, protecting, and clearing the middle ear. This increases the risk of middle ear infections, glue ear, and conductive hearing loss.

There is growing evidence to support the role of palate expansion to help restore more normal eustachian tube function and to help address conductive hearing loss.

I think this is an important area of research because it despairs me to see so many children that have multiple rounds of surgery to insert grommets/ear tubes to address recurrent ear problems. Surgery has a place, but we also should also be looking at underlying causes to minimise scarring and more permanent hearing problems from repeated surgery.

Here is a link to the latest study in print this month.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165587622003858

01/10/2023

Reading her book now! Let me know if you'd like to borrow it when I'm finished.
Never stop learning and growing.

Childhood snoring alters brain structure.

“This is the largest study of its kind detailing the association between snoring and brain abnormalities,” said study lead author Amal Isaiah, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Otorhinolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery and Pediatrics at UMSOM. “These brain changes are similar to what you would see in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Children have a loss of cognitive control, which is additionally associated with disruptive behavior.”

Read more here.
https://www.medschool.umaryland.edu/news/2021/UM-School-of-Medicine-Researchers-Find-Habitual-Snoring-Linked-to-Significant-Brain-Changes-in-Children-.html

01/10/2023

12/09/2022

The number of people, including children, diagnosed and medicated for hyperactive disorders without first investigating sleep, should be concerning.

If you or your child are being treated for ADHD symptoms, please ask yourself what could be causing the symptoms. Maybe it's not sleep related, but studies are showing a strong link between the two.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3313633/

12/05/2022

Did you know orofacial myofunctional therapy can help with TMJ disfunction?

A simple Google scholar search can show the studies.

My goal is to help improve the quality of life for those suffering with effects of orofacial myofunctional disorders (OMD) and prevent OMD effects in the younger population.

Effects of OMD'S can include: TMJ disfunction, malocclusion, speech problems, sleep disordered breathing(apnea, snoring, etc), abnormal facial growth, forward head posture, swallowing problems, plus more!

If you're interested in scheduling an appointment or have questions, please DM me!

12/02/2022

10/17/2022

Please look into sleep disorders if you or a loved one are diagnosed with ADHD.

Myofunctional therapy can help correct the likely cause of sleep disordered breathing, orofacial myofunctional disorders. A team approach of various practitioners can be very helpful!

Children who have trouble paying attention, don’t learn well, or have poor impulse control are behaviors commonly associated with ADHD.

Or, are they really signs of lack of sleep?

Whether it’s sleep, or ADHD, for parents and clinicians, the two issues can be hard to separate.

For a start, the most common treatment for ADHD, is to prescribe a stimulant, Ritalin.

ADHD is a disorder that begins in childhood and encompasses symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.

These symptoms interfere with functioning at school, at work, and in social situations. ADHD is present in approximately 5% of children, and it is more common in boys.

An estimated 25 to 50% of people with ADHD experience sleep problems, ranging from insomnia to secondary sleep conditions.

Doctors are starting to connect the importance of treating sleep problems and the impact this can have on both ADHD symptoms and quality of life for ADHD patients and their families.

The big issue may be that sleep disorders are likely underdiagnosed in children. Physicians depend on polysomnography that use parameters that are only diagnosed, when obstructive sleep apnea is detected.

That requires an AHI (apnea hypopnea index) to reach a certain threshold, ie. the child has to stop breathing for long enough.

In a functional dental examination, sleep disorders are screened for through a broad set of symptoms and anatomical presentations.

It allows for additional information to identify the risk of airway resistance, hopefully before any sleep condition can reach apnea.

These may include:

• Narrow high palate
• Open mouth posture
• Mouth breathing
• Snoring
• Crooked teeth
• Underbite or overbites
• Teeth grinding
• Bed wetting
• Day time sleepiness
• Dark circles under eyes

If your child has one of these signs, and you suspect it’s affecting their performance at school, they may be suffering from a breathing related sleep disorder.

Does your child show any of these signs?

10/13/2022

Orofacial myofunctional therapy can improve the resting position of the tongue.

But why is that important?

Improper oral rest posture can cause, sleep disorder breathing, TMJ disfunction, and abnormal growth of facial and jaw structures, just to name a few.

When the tongue rests low in the mouth, it can fall into the airway while sleeping. Poor sleep is linked to numerous health problems such as ADHD, anxiety and depression, heart problems, high blood pressure, stroke, and many more.
Our bodies need restful, deep sleep to heal and recharge.

Signs to look for: chronic daytime fatigue, headaches upon waking, nightmares, snoring, open mouth breathing during day or night, jaw shifted to the side, inability to close the lips, drooling, tongue resting low or protruding out, long/narrow facial structure.

Where does your tongue normally rest?