Myofunctional therapy is a carefully balanced process that goes far beyond simply repeating exercises. A myofunctional therapist has specialized training to understand how much of each type of activity is needed and when to progress or adjust the plan. They consider all aspects of neuromuscular re-education, posture, breathing, and muscle coordination in a way that’s tailored to your unique needs.
For example, a patient who decided to add various YouTube exercises into her treatment plan on her own, hoping to speed up her results. Unfortunately, this overloaded her neural pathways and led to muscle fatigue and confusion rather than improvement. Without the proper guidance, she inadvertently slowed down her progress and risked reinforcing incorrect muscle patterns.
By working with a qualified myofunctional therapist, you ensure that your therapy is both safe and effective, preventing setbacks and promoting long-term success.
Neuromuscular re-education is the process of retraining the connection between your brain and muscles to restore healthy movement patterns. In Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy (OMT), this means teaching the tongue, lips, cheeks, and jaw to work together in ways that support optimal breathing, swallowing, speech, and posture. Through targeted exercises, patients build muscle strength, coordination, and awareness so that proper function becomes automatic in daily life.
Proprioception is essentially your body's internal sense of position and movement. Often described as the “sixth sense,” it’s what allows you to know where your body parts are without having to look. For myofunctional therapy, understanding and enhancing proprioception is key to improving muscle coordination, posture, and functional habits. Through targeted exercises, we help individuals become more aware of their oral and facial muscle positioning, leading to better overall function.
A sleep study provides detailed insight into how your body functions during rest, measuring breathing patterns, oxygen levels, heart rate, brain activity, and movement. Many airway and orofacial dysfunctions—such as mouth breathing, snoring, and poor tongue posture—can contribute to disrupted sleep without you even realizing it. The results help your healthcare team determine whether conditions like obstructive sleep apnea or other sleep-disordered breathing patterns are present, guiding an appropriate care plan and ensuring that myofunctional therapy is used safely and effectively.
Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy (OMT) focuses on improving the function of the tongue, lips, cheeks, and jaw through neuromuscular re-education. While it can play a powerful role in supporting breathing, swallowing, speech, and posture, OMT does not diagnose or treat medical conditions, structural abnormalities, or diseases. Some issues—such as severe airway obstruction, significant skeletal discrepancies, or neurological disorders—require care from other healthcare providers. In these cases, OMT is most effective when used alongside medical, dental, or surgical interventions as part of a collaborative care plan. Add an answer to this item.
When your dentist recommends Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy (OMT), it means they’ve noticed patterns in your oral function that could be impacting your teeth, bite, airway, or overall oral health. OMT works to retrain the muscles of the face, tongue, and jaw so they function in harmony, supporting proper breathing, swallowing, and oral posture. Your dentist may suggest OMT to help stabilize orthodontic results, reduce strain on the jaw joints, improve tongue posture, or address habits like mouth breathing or tongue thrusting.
Your dentist or orthodontist may recommend Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy (OMT) alongside orthodontic treatment to address the muscle patterns that influence tooth position and jaw development. The tongue, lips, and cheeks exert constant forces on the teeth—if these forces are unbalanced due to habits like mouth breathing, tongue thrusting, or poor oral posture, they can work against your orthodontic results. OMT retrains these muscles to function properly, helping stabilize your bite, support long-term alignment, and reduce the risk of relapse after braces or aligners.
Without Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy (OMT), releasing a tongue-tie may improve mobility but often does not correct the muscle patterns that developed while the tongue was restricted. Without retraining, the tongue may revert to old habits, such as low resting posture or incorrect swallowing, which can lead to relapse, scar tissue tightening, or incomplete healing. OMT helps you learn how to use your new range of motion effectively, supporting proper function and preventing the return of symptoms. Skipping therapy can limit the long-term benefits of your release.
Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy (OMT) is designed to restore proper muscle function, not to serve as a cosmetic procedure. However, many people notice changes in facial appearance as a natural byproduct of improved function. Compensatory movements from dysfunctional patterns can create deep lines and wrinkles over time, and these often soften when the muscles are retrained to work efficiently. If lips have weakened from chronic mouth breathing, proper use can help restore muscle tone and fullness. Certain parafunctional habits may contribute to a retruded jaw position, and with balanced function, some patients observe improved jaw structure. Likewise, muscles that have been pulled too tightly on one side of the face can create asymmetry, and OMT may help restore more balanced muscle activity. While results vary from person to person, functional improvements can sometimes bring subtle aesthetic benefits.