We help adults with everything from mouth breathing, problems associated with orthodontics, sleep issues and pain of the face and temporomandibular joint.
When you experience an orofacial disorder as an adult, the pain can often be debilitating, interfering with your everyday life. The good news is, with the help of orofacial myology, you can be on your way to taking back control of your health.
The most common issues we see in adults are:
Painful mouth, jaw or face
Pain in any of these areas can have a severe impact on day-to-day life, due to their important role in eating, breathing and sleeping. The reasons for the pain are often related to incorrect muscle function or improper growth and development of the head and facial structure. When one thing isn’t working properly in this region, it can have a knock-on effect. For example, poor muscle tone or incorrect muscle function can be associated with sleep disordered breathing. Muscle dysfunction can lead to pain. Addressing the problem at its source will lead to a huge improvement in quality of life. Read more about Pain.
Sleep disorders and snoring
Sleep disorders are conditions that affect an individual’s ability to have sustained, restful sleep. Anything from snoring to sleep apnoea is called ‘sleep disordered breathing’. The disruption of breathing during sleep is due to the airways not working as they should, which can often mean that there are problems with the musculature itself. Disrupted sleep can have serious consequences including stroke, high blood pressure and sleep apnoea-related deaths. Read more about sleep disorders.
Disorders of the temporomandibular joint (TMD)
The joint that controls much of the movement in your jaw is the temporomandibular joint, or TMJ. It’s the hinge that connects your lower jaw to your skull and it’s an important part of breathing, eating and sleeping. Underlying problems in your facial muscles can often lead to issues with the TMJ. Because we use this joint so often, small issues can compound into more serious ones very quickly. It’s important to address them early. Read more about TMD.
How can we help?
We’re not interested in band-aid solutions. No two people share the same muscle dysfunction, so we spend time identifying your specific needs then commence work on training those muscles to function correctly.
To help you, we will work on things like:
The posture of your tongue when it’s resting
Chewing and swallowing patterns
The way you breathe
Strengthening particular muscles
Developing motor skills that will give you better control over your orofacial muscles.
Wherever it’s necessary, we will work with other health specialists to ensure our treatment enhances each other. This may include dentists, ENT specialists, respiratory physicians or sleep physicians to name just a few.
Depending on your issue, you may see results fairly quickly for example, upper & lower lips change with therapy in approximately three months head posture changes as the tongue posture elevates and people notice a reduction in facial pain.
The most important thing to remember is that you are working towards a long-term goal of restoring balance to your life.