A Natural Face-Lift?

Natural Face-Lift with Oral-Facial Myo-Functional Therapy

What factors decide your face and smile? The answer is much more than genes.

What can influence weak chin, buck teeth, underbite, overbite, open bite, long “horsey” face, or squat “bull dog” face? The answer is important for both suffering adults and growing children.

Form Follows Function is a basic law of Nature. Myo- is Greek for muscles, and Myo-functional Therapy is much-overlooked natural solution in your appearance and medical-dental problems.

Inside Your Face

Good facial form comes from a balanced dental-facial skeleton, which provides optimal air and blood supply for superior functions. Unattractive faces have unbalanced features that can cut down quality of life and drive up health care costs.

Below the surface, layers of muscles are anchored to your dental-facial skeleton. These muscles play a big role in life: eating, drinking, swallowing, speaking, smiling, socializing, and expressing feelings.

In particular, the tongue on the inside and the lips and cheek muscles on the outside shape your appearance through the Law of Form and Function. This is why Oral-facial Myo-functional Therapy (OMT) can help many head-neck-jaw-dental problems.

Swallowing Function Drives Dental-Facial Form

Swallowing is a vital function to sustain life and maintain health. It is a complex maneuver involving many mouth and throat muscles and the tongue.

On average, we swallow 1,200 times a day. Imagine the shape of your abdomen if you did that many sit-ups a day! Now imagine the consequences of swallowing INCORRECTLY that many times a day from age 1 on.

A correct swallow uses only the throat muscles without facial grimace around the mouth. An Abnormal Swallow (AS) can get food and saliva down, but with the side effects of disfigure jaws and face over time.

As is a hidden cause of malocclusion (bad bite) that requires expanders and braces in children. In adults, AS perpetuates chronic pain, fatigue, snoring, teeth grinding, and greater wear-and-tear in the face and throughout the body.

Signs of AS

• wrinkles around the mouth
• deep chin cleft
• lack of lip seal
• chapped lips
• finger sucking
• snoring
• teeth grinding
• pain in head-jaws-neck-shoulders
• tongue thrusting
• bad bite

Facial and dental appearance as shaped by “Tug of War” between the tongue on the inside and the lips and cheeks on the outside and teeth in between. reverse smile lines and deep creases around the mouth.

Inside-Outside: A Tug-Of-War

Behind all abnormal swallows lurks an over- or under-active tongue. Imagine a tug-of-war between the lips and cheeks on the outside, the tongue on the inside, and teeth in between.

In Scenario A, the tongue on the inside is stronger. So, the front teeth are pushed outward, resulting in buck teeth, open bite, weak chin, gaping lips, or various combinations. In Scenario B, the lips and chin muscles on the outside are stronger. Therefore, the lower front teeth are pushed inward, which contributes to crowded teeth, clicking jaw joints (TMJ), neck pain, snoring, and wrinkles around the mouth.

Other Complicating Factors:

Teeth straightened with braces can relapse if abnormal swallow persists with either scenario. Both scenarios can be further complicated by the following conditions:

• Tongue tie, which anchors the tongue to the lower jaw and keeps it from reaching the root of the palate. Tongue tie prevents the tongue from working as Nature’s expander and handicaps growth of the mid-face.
• Mouth breathing, which separates the tongue from the palate even if there is no tongue tie
• Swollen tonsils and adnoids from allergies, pet danders, and food sensitivities
• Unfavorable habits: finger sucking, lip biting, nail/pencil chewing, jaw clenching
• Poor head posture, as in playing video games or working on lap tops
• Sedentary lifestyle without exercising all four limbs and big muscles regularly.
• Obesity at any age
• Tongue cushioning between upper and lower teeth to relieve the stress on jaw joints
• Lack of iodine and low thyroid function

In summary, oral-facial muscles can shape teeth and face like the wind form sand dunes. Tongue posture and swallowing are powerful factors in dental configurations and facial forms. Until these frequently-applied forces are balanced, the resulting form and function will relapse despite treatment. Oral-facial Myofunctional Therapy is a natural solution.

Here are some examples:

Oral-facial Myofunctional Therapy is a natural solution

Here are some examples:

Myo-Functional Therapy as Natural Face Lift

Myo-functional Therapy (MFT) is physical therapy exercises to balance the tongue on the inside with oral-facial muscles on the outside. Practiced diligently and done correctly, OMFT can be a powerful non-surgical solution for a number of dental-facial conditions mentioned earlier.

Before treatment can begin, the following steps are needed:

• Baseline Questionnaire to be completed by the patient
• Examination and diagnosis by a qualified dentist regarding the causes of malocclusion, and the aforementioned checklist of additional contributing factors
• Diagnostic Records of presenting conditions, including dental-facial and postural photos, dental models, dental X-rays, and CT imaging to evaluate airway, sinuses, jaw joints, facial asymmetry, head-neck misalignment, and more.