Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy Can Help Ease Restless Nights

DULUTH, Minn. — If you have problems with snoring, mouth breathing, teeth grinding, sleep apnea, or speech disorders it may stem from your tongue being in the wrong position of your mouth.

Hygienists from Mount Royal Dentistry have been offering Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy since 2020 through individual sessions online. But this summer, seven adolescents attended group therapy sessions to work on tongue positioning and breathing exercises in hopes to disconnect and relearn how to properly use your tongue. Graham Bomen has attended his last group therapy session and shared one of the exercises that he’s been working on over the summer.

“It’s like a, it has a metal tube but then you like stick like a rubber thing on it. Then you push your tongue with the straw up to the tip of your mouth right here then you just suck,” said Bomen, one of the seven who participated in group therapy.

Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy is aimed to help with correct tongue placement and usage, as well as opening up the trachea. Hygienists from Mount Royal are excited for their first summer group session to be completed as they were overall proud of the results of their patients.

“So someone thinks like, ‘okay, maybe I have some of these symptoms.’ Typically we start with a consultation where we have a patient come in and we go over a pretty in-depth questionnaire that we have them fill out,” said Registered Dental Hygienists and Orofacial Myofunctional Therapists Naomi VonRueden. “And then we take measurements and pictures, all those things. Then we kind of make a custom plan for each patient.”

“Then we can also assess for tongue ties, because sometimes it’s not just dysfunction of the tongue, but actually a physical restriction that’s preventing the tongue from doing what it needs to do,” said Janelle Soukkala, Registered Dental Hygienists and Orofacial Myofunctional Therapists.

Tongue ties may prove as a roadblock for those undergoing the therapy, but Mount Royal is able to perform the quick procedure. Mount Royal is currently the only dentist office in the Duluth area that offers Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy. Private sessions are available with more information on their website.