2018 Volume 56 Issue 1 Pages 1-11
Oral myofunctional therapy (MFT) is a specialized training technique taught to patients for selftreatment of a variety of oral muscle functional disorders and habit patterns that disrupt normal oral and dental development. Although various training methods have been proposed, there are few reports on the effects of training in individual subjects. The purpose of this study was to clarify the effects of various MFT methods in 20 children (15 boys, 5 girls : average age 7 years 7 months) who underwent training at our hospital. The results revealed that the percentage of children with poor lip seal improved from 55% to 33%,while tongue thrust during swallowing and articulating improved from 100% to 50% and 95% to 60% respectively. We also found that “Water Slurp Swallow” training significantly contributed to improved tongue thrust during swallowing. However, even though the subjects were able to master the training methods, they failed to obtain correct oral functions, thus new training methods as well as the timing for starting training must be considered. Oral function is regarded as important throughout life, with childhood a crucial stage for establishing a healthy foundation. Our results also showed that 20% of the child subjects had oral functional difficulties without morphological problems, indicating that both morphological and functional problems should be evaluated. MFT is an effective method for support of oral function and development.
