Orofacial Myology

Orofacial Myology

Myofunctional therapy can be described as retraining  the patterns of the tongue, lips, jaw, and facial muscles through a series of specialized and targeted exercises to change existing patterns.

This therapy typically involves the use of a variety of tools. Non-nutritive tools are used to assist children with oral placement. Oral Motor Therapy benefits kids who have both speech and feeding deficits. If a child has a speech deficit, these tools assist the therapist in allowing the children to get the oral postures need to facilitate specific sounds. In regard to feeding therapy, the tools are used to provide safe, non-nutritive way to improve feeding skills.

These are disorders of the orofacial musculature, which can include:

• Resting position
• Open-mouth breathing. 
• Tongue thrusting (pushing the tongue against the teeth during speech or swallowing). 
• Difficulty with chewing
• Improper swallowing patterns, resulting in moving teeth (tongue thrust)
• Noxious oral habits like thumb or pacifier sucking. 

Heidi is one of a few Certified Orofacial Myologists (COM®) in the country.