Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy

This is for people who like to read...there is a lot of information....

So I am going to do a sideways jog and change the subject for this post. I was going to post a blog on Central Sensitization, but this topic has been occupying the better part of my waking hours since I took the course at the end of August. I wanted spend some time organising my thoughts around this topic, and decided to create a new page on the HeadWorks website. Please feel free to head over to this page and have a read. It's interesting stuff. Sorry it's real wordy. I'll add some pictures later.

Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy is an exciting, emerging field of therapy that is involved in the neuromuscular retraining of the oral and facial muscles. It was actually first introduced in the 1900s by an orthodontist (Dr. Alfred Rogers) who experimented with facial muscle exercises.

Brief overview of history:

• In 1918, Dr. Rogers published: "Living Orthodontic Appliances", in which he cited that muscle function alone would correct malocclusion with no need for retention. (Can you imagine the controversy?)
• In the early 1900s, Dr. Benno E. Lischer first coined the term "Myofunctional Therapy" after studying with Dr. Rogers.
• In 1907, Dr. Edward Angle, an orthodontist, wrote articles on the effects of habits. He is responsible for classifying occlusion (Class I, II, III malocclusion).
• In 1925, Dr. Harvey Stallard studied 7000 children on sleep position and malposed tooth buds and concluded that, "Sleeping on the face during a child's formative years could create malocclusion."
• 1924-1940: Truesdell and Truesdell were the first to understand the relationship between swallowing anomalies and dysmorphosis. They advised patients to swallow in occlusion. They also felt that atypical swallowing was related to hypertrophy of the tonsils.
• An orthodontist, Dr. Klein is often quoted: "Living bone is extremely susceptible to the guidance and influence of pressure and stimuli.” (Klein, 1951)
• In the 1950s, speech therapists began to look at nasal obstruction, oral habits, swallowing, and how they affected speech.
• In 1960, Dr. Walter Straub had a theory that bottle feeding caused the "perverted" swallow. He developed a series of exercises to correct the swallow, and lectured with 500 cases on record. Dr. Straub wrote many articles published in the American Journal of Orthodontics.
• There are several other pioneers who developed exercises for successful therapy.

The past helps us understand the present and look to the future.