Myofunctional Therapy
Myofunctional therapy is based on muscle rehabilitation exercises, teaching correct swallowing.
Orthodontics means: correct occlusal balance between the upper arch (maxillary) and the lower arch (mandible), therefore according to a mechanistic view, orthodontic therapy must aim at the rebalancing of dental malocclusions regardless of the causes that produced them without taking into account necessarily of the restoration of a correct neuromuscular function. While in myofunctional orthodontics the neuromuscular rebalancing, for example of a dysfunctional swallowing (cause or at least contributing cause of several types of dental malocclusions) is a priority and also useful in avoiding the so-called “relapses” (often patients of various age groups subjected to several years of orthodontic therapy are found after having finally removed the orthodontics to see altered position of the dental elements or the relationships between the arches, which seemed so well aligned), the result of a persistent imbalance of neuromuscular imbalance. Correct orthodontics therefore cannot be based exclusively on aesthetics or on textbook intercuspidation but must aim at the neuromuscular rebalancing of altered functions (e.g. myofunctional therapy, speech therapy, respiratory education, postural rebalancing …), considering the patient in his entirety as a human being ; today we cannot and must not, in any branch of medicine, proceed in watertight compartments!
Myofunctional devices (generally made of silicone), worn at night and for a few hours during the day (perhaps while playing Nintendo!), Are generally well accepted by patients in various age groups, with a very “psychological” impact. low or absent.
The concomitant active neuromuscular restoration therapies are very simple and require the collaboration of the patient and, for the little ones, of the parents. But they are precisely the most effective for the coding of new motor patterns at the level of the Central Nervous System.
