06/12/2026
Most people have never heard of myofunctional therapy. Which is wild, because the muscles involved, your tongue, lips, and cheeks, are doing something every few seconds of every single day. Breathing, swallowing, chewing. That's thousands of repetitions of whatever pattern you've got, whether it's working for you or against you.
When those patterns are off (think: low tongue rest posture, mouth breathing, tongue thrust on the swallow), the downstream effects aren't just "oral." We're talking airway, sleep, jaw pain, facial development, orthodontic relapse, neck posture. The list is longer than most people expect, and most providers aren't connecting the dots.
That's exactly what myofunctional therapy is designed to do. It's neuromuscular re-education, not just exercises. You're retraining how the muscles of the face and mouth function at rest and during the basic things your body does automatically. And when it works, it works because the underlying pattern has actually changed, not just temporarily corrected.
At Innovative Oral Solutions, this is our foundation. Whether we're working with someone managing TMJ symptoms, a patient who keeps getting told their sleep issues are "stress-related," or a provider looking for better outcomes post-ortho, the orofacial system is always where we start.
If you've never explored myofunctional therapy as part of your or your patients' care, it might be worth a closer look. The research is there. The results are there. It just hasn't gotten the mainstream attention it deserves yet.
We're working on that.
