Myofunctional Therapy Singapore
What is Myofunctional Therapy?
Breathing through the nose is what nature intended us to do. But for some of us, nasal breathing doesn’t come so naturally, and we develop a mouth breathing habit. If something is amiss with how we breathe, it negatively impacts our oral and overall health.
At DP Dental, we can assist you in finding and addressing the root cause of your mouth breathing. Exercising our bodies helps to maintain balance, strength, and function. Similarly, by using myofunctional therapy, we can retrain the mouth, tongue, and face muscles to establish the ideal oral rest posture and enable proper breathing, chewing, and swallowing habits.
Myofunctional therapy is an evidence-based, minimally-invasive approach that is free of side effects.
The Goals of Myofunctional Therapy
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Through a series of guided myofunctional exercises, we aim for these oral habits to be formed:
Establishing Nasal Breathing
Lips together at rest
Upward Tongue resting posture in the palate
Improve chewing/swallowing habits
Do you Need Myofunctional Therapy?
Do you need Myofunctional Therapy?
Do you or your child …
- Snore
- Breathe through the mouth or have an open mouth posture?
- Experience restless/disturbed sleep?
- Have dark eye circles?
- Clench or grind teeth?
- Have a tongue-thrusting habit?
- Have crooked teeth?
- Feel excessively sleepy/tired
- Have a forward head posture?
- Find it hard to focus in school/work?
If you experience any of these symptoms or notice them in your child, we can help! Do approach us for a proper evaluation. By tackling the root causes early, you can make big health changes for yourself and/or your child.
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Benefits of Myofunctional Therapy
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Reduces Severity of Sleep Apnea
There is increasing evidence that myofunctional therapy can reduce the severity of sleep apnea. Research shows that myofunctional therapy decreases apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) by approximately 50% in adults and 62% in children. By establishing nasal breathing and proper tongue posture, it becomes easier to maintain an open airway while sleeping.
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Reduces the Need for Braces
Crooked or misaligned teeth are often caused by poor oral habits such as thumb sucking, prolonged use of the bottle/pacifier, mouth breathing, tongue thrust, improper swallowing patterns, and conditions such as tongue or lip-ties. By using myofunctional therapy to improve oral habits from a young age, we can support proper jaw development and minimise the need for braces later.
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Improves Facial Appearance
If you breathe through your mouth all of the time, it can narrow your dental arches and lead to a longer-than-normal face. Myofunctional therapy helps in forming proper oral habits and ideal oral rest posture, which over time, can reshape your face.
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Improves Digestion
To swallow properly, muscles and nerves in the tongue, cheeks and throat must work together in harmony. When a person swallows normally, the tip of the tongue presses firmly against the roof of the mouth, located slightly behind the front teeth. Myofunctional therapy eliminates many of the causes of poor swallowing and improper tongue placement.
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Helps Relieve TMJ Pain and Headache
Myofunctional therapy is an integral part of our TMD treatment plan. It strengthens and retrains the oral and facial muscles, and corrects resting tongue posture, which helps relieve TMJ pain and headache.
Tools for Correcting Resting Tongue and Lip Position
Here are some oral sensory tools used in our Myofunctional Habit Correction Programme, which help establish the ideal oral rest posture and develop proper chewing habits:
Myobrace
Myobrace is a special appliance for the mouth that is used to train the lips to develop a strong seal. It also helps to lift the tongue up to the roof of the mouth, which enables proper breathing and swallowing habits.
Myospots
Myospots are small, dissolvable, adhesive pads that adhere easily to the roof of the mouth by gently forcing them with your thumb against the hard palate behind the two front teeth. It acts as a tool to GUIDE the tongue to elevate and rest at the correct spot, on the roof of the mouth. It thus helps in creating a tongue elevation habit.
Myo Munchee
Myo Munchee is a silicone tool that helps exercise the oral muscles and improve chewing and swallowing habits. Proper and active chewing on this oral device enhances the strength of the jaw and mouth muscles and helps with lip seal.
Related Reads
Research on MFT
Dr. Yue Weng Cheu
Founder and Clinical Director of DP Dental
Dr Yue Weng Cheu is the Founder and Clinical Director of DP Dental, which currently operates two branches in Orchard and Katong. He is well-known for his functional and integrative approach to dentistry that promotes health and wellness of the whole person, and focuses on the root causes of oral disease.
Dr Yue graduated from NUS Dentistry with The Pierre Fauchard Academy Foundation Annual Scholarship Award. He is an internationally recognised expert and has given lectures locally and internationally on topics of Clinical Digital Photography, CAD-CAM Digital Dentistry, Laser Dentistry, TMD, Ankyloglossia, Myofunctional Therapy and Invisalign.
Aside from his various accreditations, he has completed the full TMD continuum at Occlusion Connections in USA, and finished his mini-residency on Dental Sleep Medicine with TUFTS University School of Medicine.
Through modern, evidence-based approaches, Dr Yue has successfully treated various cases of TMD and teeth misalignment, WITHOUT EXTRACTION. Dr Yue also works with various other health practitioners to restore tongue, breathing and sleep functions to effect multi-systems recovery for patients of all ages.
Dr Loh Ee Tyug
Senior Associate Dentist and Clinical Director, DP Dental Katong
Dr Loh Ee Tyug received her Bachelor of Dental Surgery from National University of Singapore in 2001, where she received numerous awards, including the FAC Ohlers Award for the Best Clinical Student.
Through years of practice, Dr Loh keeps herself updated by continually upgrading her skills and knowledge both locally and overseas in the fields of implantology, CAD/CAM (CEREC), TMD, Occlusion and Gnathology, Invisalign, Aesthetic Dentistry, Myobrace, Myofunctional habit corrections and Dental Sleep Medicine.
Being a firm believer in the philosophy that “Prevention is better than Cure”, in 2015 Dr Loh attended Myobrace Training in Australia alongside DP Dental’s directors to learn and train in myofunctional habit corrections and early intervention.
Dr Loh now pioneers the Myofunctional Therapy treatment at DP Dental.
Book a Consult with Our Myofunctional Therapist
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Our representative will reach out to you within 2 working days to confirm your booking.