Jenni June talks Myofunctional Therapy with the Experts!

Jenni June: Welcome parents, I am Jenni June, certified baby and sleep consultant and lactation counselor. I have a special segment for you today different from what I usually do. And it is because it is outside my scope of practice. I want to talk about something called Myofunctional Therapy. Now what is Myofucnitonal Therapy? Well I brought some friends with me that are going to describe what that is, break it down for you, and tell you what to look for and why it is so important. Dr. Martin Gorman and Sanda Pinkerton are here with me and Sanda is going to tell you what that means.

Dr. Sanda Valcu-Pinkerton: Thank you Jenni. Well myofunctional therapy is a series of exercises for children with poor oral habits. To promote optimal facial habits, growth, and development. And most important how to breathe.

Jenni June: Sanda tell me what are the symptoms you would look for in a child that you believe would need myofuncitonal therapy.

Dr. Sanda Valcu-Pinkerton: Well the most common ones are mouth breathing, tongue thrusting, and crowded teeth, grinding teeth during sleep, dark circles under the eyes, allergies, hyperactivity, and also short attention span.

Dr. Martin N. Gorman: We have realized that in the course of the practice that a number of adult patients we try to treat for different disorders have a lot of the symptoms that Sanda described, improper oral facial development. And they don’t sleep well; they have TMD issues, etc. We come to realize that this is an improper biological development of these adults and it all started when they were little kids at two, three, or five years old. If these issues are addressed at such a young age we can alter their development by teaching them proper myofuncitonal habits. What they should be doing, how they should be doing it during the day. When they do it all day, it carries over to the evening to when they are sleeping. So they grow and develop properly.

Jenni June: Wow wonderful, most of us don’t know that stuff. Now until about a year ago I didn’t know that stuff. And I feel that this is important for learning about proper facial growth and development at such a young age. Because we can really change the way their face grows and the way they sleep and the way they breathe.

Dr. Martin N. Gorman: And even at the ears, kids get a ton of ear infections. And it is a function of the tongue not working correctly. And instead of nasal breathing or mouth breathing Eustachian tubes don’t get the airflow that they should have so they don’t grow and develop correctly. And small things like that they’re affected but people don’t know about it.


Jenni June: And that might even start about being tongue tied as a little baby.

Dr. Martin N. Gorman: Nursing. If you are tongue-ties the baby the baby can nurse correctly, breastfeeding. And it all starts there. One of the issues I think should be mentioned is that if you wait too long, what happens is the muscles are pulling on the bones incorrectly with a different swallowing and breathing the child is doing to survive. The bones are permanently altered. And that it is obviously more difficult to change the shape of bones once they develop so its really critical to start treating children at 3, 4, 5 years old.

That makes perfect sense. Well thank you both for being here and for educating my audience about myofunctional therapy. And how important it is to catch this stuff early.


Thanks for watching,

We hope this video provides some useful insights into how children develop from an early age, and introduced you to some measures we can all take to give them the best possible chance at optimal health!

Please visit www.MyofunctionalTherapyLA.com for more information, or email us at [email protected]. Of of course feel free to call our office at 818.995-1891.

Of course don't forget to also check out Jenni June at www.JenniJune.com for all the best advice on child and family sleep health and hygiene!