What is Myofunctional Therapy?

What Is Myofunctional Therapy?

Myofunctional therapy is like physical therapy—but for your face, mouth, and airway muscles.

It helps train proper habits around:

• Breathing (ideally through the nose)

• Rest posture of the tongue and lips

• Swallowing

• Speaking

• Facial development

All of these muscles are connected. When they’re not working in harmony, it can lead to issues that many people just accept as “normal.”

Here are some things people often brush off—but are actually red flags that myofunctional therapy can help:

• Mouth breathing (especially during sleep)

• Snoring—at any age

• Chronic allergies or congestion

• Open mouth posture

• Messy or loud eating

• Speech sound issues

• Tongue thrust (pushing tongue forward while swallowing)

• Nail biting or thumb sucking

• Teeth grinding

• Forward head posture

• Dark under-eye circles (from poor oxygenation)

• Restless sleep or waking up tired

A lot of people—even children—struggle with these things for years, not realizing that they can be connected to how the muscles of the face and mouth are working.

So What Causes These Issues?

Great question. Sometimes it’s due to:

• Tethered oral tissues (like a tongue tie or lip tie)

• Extended use of pacifiers or bottles

• Thumb sucking beyond infancy

• Chronic mouth breathing from allergies or congestion

• Poor oral habits during development

These small things can quietly shape the way the face grows, how the teeth come in, how a child sleeps, and how someone feels overall.

How Does Myofunctional Therapy Help?

Myofunctional therapy uses simple, targeted exercises to retrain the muscles of the tongue, lips, cheeks, and jaw. It’s gentle and non-invasive.

Over time, therapy helps to:

• Encourage nasal breathing

• Improve sleep quality

• Support clearer speech

• Help with better chewing and swallowing

• Create more balanced facial development (especially in kids)

• Prepare the body for procedures like tongue tie release or orthodontics

It’s also often used alongside other treatments—like speech therapy, orthodontics, airway dentistry, or ENT care.

Why Is This So Overlooked?

Honestly? Because it’s not well-known in traditional medicine yet, and many people don’t think to connect things like sleep or posture to the muscles inside the mouth.

Symptoms get treated one by one—like giving allergy meds, removing tonsils, or getting braces—but the root cause (how the muscles and function are working) is often missed.

How Do I Know If My Child (or I) Need It?

If you or your child:

• Breathe through your mouth most of the time

• Snore or grind your teeth at night

• Have trouble with certain speech sounds

• Have had braces but the teeth moved again

• Struggle with sleep or focus

• Have a tongue/lip tie diagnosis

• Have jaw pain/tension

…it might be worth exploring myofunctional therapy.

Myofunctional therapy isn’t just about the tongue—it’s about helping your whole body function better. It's a big-picture approach to small things that add up.

 If you’ve been searching for answers and feel like something’s been overlooked, you’re not crazy—and you’re not alone. Book an assessment today, we would love to help!