Dr Donny

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BDSc (Melbourne) FICOI FPFA FIADFE PGDip Orthodontics Dentofacial Orthopedics (UK)
AHPRA Registration DEN0001014091 My passion is functional health.

At my practice locations, I look after patients of all ages, from infants to adults. Because of my wholistic approach, I collaborate with health providers from various disciplines, in order to unlock and optimize each individual's unique potential. I am also an eager educator, having presented internationally at conferences and seminars, including Australia, USA, Canada, Japan, and Indonesia, at the time of writing. Additionally, I have also presented online, reaching audiences from all corners of the globe.

09/10/2026

5 THINGS I NO LONGER BELIEVE - PART 1

After 28 years of practising dentistry, I’ve come to question many things I was taught.

Some of these opinions may be controversial.

But experience should make us more curious, not more certain.

Here are five beliefs I no longer accept without question.

❌ 1. STRAIGHT TEETH MEAN A HEALTHY MOUTH.

Straight teeth don’t automatically mean healthy breathing, swallowing, tongue function or sleep.

A beautiful smile doesn’t always tell the whole story.

❌ 2. WE SHOULD WAIT UNTIL ALL THE ADULT TEETH ERUPT BEFORE INTERVENING.

Growth doesn’t wait for us.

Some developing problems deserve attention much earlier.

Early assessment doesn’t always mean early treatment. But it gives us the opportunity to intervene when appropriate.

❌ 3. MECHANICAL JAW EXPANSION CORRECTS THE UNDERLYING DYSFUNCTIONS.

We can expand the maxilla.

We can create more space.

We can change the dental arch.

But what about the tongue that still rests low?

The mouth breathing?

The dysfunctional swallow?

The lips that still struggle to close?

Changing the structure doesn’t automatically correct the function.

Expansion can be valuable, but it isn’t a substitute for identifying and managing underlying dysfunctions.

❌ 4. BIGGER JAWS AUTOMATICALLY MEAN BETTER BREATHING.

An increase in anatomical dimensions doesn’t necessarily translate into better breathing or sleep.

We must distinguish structural changes from meaningful functional outcomes.

❌ 5. MORE FORCE MEANS BETTER RESULTS.

Biology doesn’t always respond better to greater force.

I increasingly believe in respecting growth, physiology and the body’s capacity to adapt.

SLOW AND GENTLE, AS NATURE INTENDED.

After 28 years, one thing has become increasingly clear to me:

WE SHOULD NEVER CONFUSE CHANGING ANATOMY WITH RESTORING FUNCTION.

And these are only the first five.

🔥 PART 2 IS COMING.

Next, I’ll share five more beliefs I’ve changed my mind about, including tongue-ties, mouth breathing and functional disorders.

FOLLOW ME so you don’t miss it.

👇 Which of these five do you agree or disagree with?

07/10/2026

ANOTHER YEAR AROUND THE ☀️

🎂 Another year around the sun… and another bowl of noodles. 🍜

In my ancestral culture, noodles on your birthday are more than just food.

They represent longevity. A life that continues to unfold.

And there’s something about that tradition that means more to me with every birthday.

When we are younger, birthdays are about getting older.

As the years pass, they become more about being grateful that we get to grow older.

Grateful for the people who walk beside us.
Grateful for the lessons—especially the difficult ones.
Grateful for the opportunities to teach, learn, travel, connect and make a difference.
Grateful for family, friendships, purpose and health.

I’ve learned that a long life isn’t measured simply by the number of years we accumulate.

It’s measured by what we do with those years.

How deeply we love.
How generously we give.
How much we keep learning.
How many people we help along the way.
And whether we leave something meaningful behind.

So today, I’ll happily eat my birthday noodles. 🍜

Not because I’m afraid of getting older…

But because I’m incredibly grateful for the privilege of doing so.

Here’s to long noodles, a long life, good health, meaningful work, beautiful friendships, and many more chapters still to be written.

🙏❤️🍜

Another year older.
Hopefully another year wiser.
And definitely still hungry for what comes next.

24/09/2026

A LIVING LEGEND

Some people follow change.

Some people create it.

And then there are the rare few who understood something decades before the rest of the world was ready to hear it.

He understood that the human body was never designed to be forced into health.

It was designed to be guided back toward its natural intention.

He understood that nature has a blueprint.

That growth has an intelligence.

That function has a purpose.

And that when we stop fighting biology—and start listening to it—the human body often shows us what it has been trying to do all along.

Long before “functional health” became fashionable…

Long before integration became a buzzword…

Long before people started talking about treating the human being rather than isolated parts…

he was already there.

Observing.

Questioning.

Thinking differently.

Respecting the intention of nature.

He was ahead of his time then.

The extraordinary thing?

He still is.

There are practitioners who teach you techniques.

There are teachers who change the way you practise.

And then, occasionally, you meet someone who changes the way you see the human body altogether.

That is a living legend.

And sometimes the greatest privilege is simply having the opportunity to sit beside one… and listen.

Nature was always the teacher.
He just learned how to listen before most of us did.

23/09/2026

THE CHANGE-MAKERS

Every paradigm shift begins with people willing to see what others haven’t seen yet.

To question what has always been done.
To challenge conventional thinking.
To look beyond symptoms.
To search for deeper connections.
To collaborate instead of working in isolation.

These are the people helping shape the next chapter of functional health.

Different backgrounds.
Different professions.
Different experiences.
Different perspectives.

But one shared belief:

There has to be a better way to understand health.

Functional health is not about one profession owning the answer.

It is about bringing knowledge together.

Listening.
Questioning.
Learning.
Collaborating.
Evolving.

Because meaningful change rarely begins with certainty.

It begins with curiosity.

And when enough curious minds come together with the courage to challenge the status quo…

a paradigm begins to shift.

These are more than faces.

These are the Faces of Change Makers.

And this is only the beginning.

21/09/2026

ALF INTEGRATION MELBOURNE

An incredible day of learning from Dr. Darick Nordstrom, Dr. Mona Moy and Dr. Najib Saifi.

A room filled with dentists, osteopaths, chiropractors, speech pathologists, orofacial myofunctional therapists, and others. All gathered to discuss how we can move forward in our collaborative approach to patient care.

One truly special event that got us all thinking, feeding our curiosities, and opening up our minds.

09/09/2026

🚨 YOUR TONGUE IS GROWING YOUR FACE.

Yes… the tongue. 👅

Most people think the tongue is simply for eating, swallowing and talking.

But during childhood, the tongue is also part of the functional environment influencing how the jaws and face develop.

When the tongue rests appropriately against the palate, alongside nasal breathing, lip seal, chewing and swallowing, it can help support:

🦷 Development of the dental arches
👃 Nasal breathing
👅 Palatal and maxillary development
😁 Space for developing teeth
😴 Healthy airway function
🧠 Balanced orofacial function

But when the tongue habitually rests low, the mouth remains open, or nasal breathing is compromised, the forces shaping the growing face change.

And over YEARS, those small functional differences may matter.

This is why I keep saying:

FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION.
AND FUNCTION FOLLOWS FORM.

We shouldn’t just ask:

❌ “Are the teeth straight?”

We should also ask:

🔥 Where is the tongue?
🔥 How is the child breathing?
🔥 Can the lips close comfortably?
🔥 How are they swallowing and chewing?
🔥 WHY did the jaws develop this way?

Orthodontics shouldn’t only be about moving teeth.

Understand the function.
Guide the growth.
Then create stability.

👅 The tongue may be small…
but its job is enormous.

Save this for every parent who thinks crooked teeth are just about teeth.

05/09/2026

ONE OR NONE 🔄

For too long, dentistry has focused on one question:
“How do we make the teeth fit?”

But perhaps the better question is:
“WHY didn’t the teeth fit in the first place?”

Teeth don’t exist in isolation.

They develop within jaws influenced by breathing, tongue posture, swallowing, chewing, muscle activity, airway, neuromuscular patterns and the environment.

And it works BOTH ways.

Function can influence the environment in which form develops.
But form can also determine what function is possible.

A narrow palate may change where the tongue can rest.
Dental crowding may reflect limited space within the developing arches.
Jaw relationships can influence how we chew, swallow and breathe.

So simply moving teeth may only address what we see.

That is why I developed the REASONSS Framework.

Regulation & Reflexes
Elasticity & Environment
Airway & Breathing
Sleep & Nutrition
Orofacial
Neuromuscular
Structure
Stability

Because the goal isn’t just straight teeth.

It is to understand the REASONSS behind the form, improve the functions influencing development, support the structure, and ultimately create stability.

FORM ↔ FUNCTION

They are not competing philosophies.

They are ONE — or they are NONE.

And that is why…

THE MOUTH NEVER WORKS ALONE…

Address

Suite 01-14, Level 1, Menara See Hoy Chan, 374, Jln Tun Razak, Taman U Thant
Kuala Lumpur
50400

Website

https://themyofunctionalcentre.com.au/, https://amzn.asia/d/06WEqwsF, https://www.mdpi.com/2694-2526/50/1/2

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