Myofunctional Associates of GA LLC

Who's ready for our next giveaway 🎉
The rules are simple:
1. Follow and like our page
2. Like this post
3. Tag a friend
That's it!!!
A winner will be chosen in two weeks and will be announced here on Facebook.
We are running the same giveaway on Instagram and we would love for you to enter over there as well! As always we appreciate your continued support 💙

Congratulations to our giveaway winner Matt Stowell and thank you to everyone who liked, commented and shared!
We are grateful for the continued support and look forward to more giveaways in the future! 🥳

GIVEAWAYYYY 🧨
We are hosting our first giveaway here at MyoFunctional Associates with the hopes of claiming your freedom against bad sleep and incorrect breathing 🇺🇸 All you have to do is follow the steps in the picture below ⬇️ and you’ll be entered to win a FREE mini intake assessment online or in-office, your first Myo session also FREE, and book “Sleep with Buteyko”!!! This is an awesome opportunity (and well over a $300 value) to get started on your Myo therapy journey 👏🏻 the winner will be announced next Friday June 14, and will be PM’ed and tagged here on Facebook.
‼️ PS - head on over to our Instagram…we may or may not be doing a separate giveaway there 😉 …and you can enter both!! ‼️
(((GIVEAWAY OPEN TO GEORGIA AND ALABAMA RESIDENTS ONLY)))

We understand that mouth breathing is a hard thing to unlearn, but that's why we are here! To stop mouth breathing you have to retrain the tongue and that involves keeping it suctioned to the upper dental arch at all times. When the tongue is correctly positioned in the mouth the rest will begin to follow.
Reach out to us if you think mouth breathing might be negatively impacting your quality of life…we can help!

Fascia is defined as fibrous connective tissue underlying the skin and surrounding muscles. This includes the muscles in your head, face, and neck! The best way to train fascia is to move it and stretch it…but we have to make sure we do this correctly. When fascia in the mouth is tight, it can cause tension and tightness in the muscles as well reduce flexibility. But what causes this to happen?
What many do not know is many times the tongue is the culprit. As people go through MyoFunctional therapy exercises they significantly strengthening the tongue as well as releasing tight or bound fascia.

A few nights ago I had the pleasure of speaking to a diverse group of true holistic practitioners. We had the opportunity to meet at naturopathic doctor's Chinese medicinal herbalists shop.
This incredible group of people included a world famous biologic holistic airway dentist, a cardiac risk management doctor and her health coach nurse, a sports medicine doctor who does CST....and that's just to name a few! The word "wow" is an understatement and I believe I have found my new study group!

Myofunctional therapy is our passion and we know it is crucial for so many...but what does myo consist of? Here at MyoFunctional Associates of GA and AL we believe myo shouldn't just consist of quick online sessions and exercises here and there. We are proud to offer an entire myofunctional toolbox full of things we've taken the time to research and learn so we can give our patient's the BEST experience possible.

Is open mouth breathing affecting your health?

I've learnt how to assess breathing in patients with observation, history, and a quick oral exam.

Night breathing is one of the most important markers of health. During sleep you have one job, to breathe!

If you don't breathe well, your brain is left to manage your airway in a panicked state.

Yes if your airway closes or decreases in volume, there are sensors in your airway that send signals to the brain. These are fight or flight signals that indicate choking.

On a sleep test, these airway disturbances are represented by cortical arousals. It's a measure of electrical stimulation of the brain, that is jolted to an alert state (but in many people, you don't wake up).

A sleep test will determine if the arousal happened with or without pausing in breathing (airflow) and drop in blood oxygen.

Both of these situations are terrible for your health, and can result in the brain starving of oxygen.

Mouth breathing, may not be harmful at first, but it's a pathway to these disordered patterns of breathing during sleep.

So if you or a family member mouth breathe, it's time to take steps to IMPROVE your breathing, and quality of sleep.

The way to do it is actually by building your body's acceptance of the byproducts of breath.

Holding your breath and building tolerance, helps your body function to tolerate and operate better with CO2.

Building CO2 tolerance can be done using breath holds and is a way to increase P53, growth hormone, and stem cell production which are stimulated during high quality sleep.

Here's some steps to start:

- On your next walk take a few relaxed breaths followed by a relaxed, exhale.
- Plug your nose and take as many steps as you can.
- Hold your breath until you feel a strong desire to breathe, don't leave yourself gasp for air.
- Count your steps

Practice, feel comfortable in that space, and you will build better cellular capabilities for night time breathing.

Don't discount oxygenating your brain at night!

Do you breathe through the mouth?

We already know that dysfunctional breathing includes:
- Mouth breathing
- Fast, upper chest breathing
- Irregular breathing, and
- Feeling like you can't take a satisfying breath.

Now, let's look at functional breathing. What exactly is it, and how will you start doing it?

Healthy breathing has 3 simple dimensions that enhance sleep and help your brain work better:
1. Breathe Light: To improve blood flow and oxygen delivery to the brain
2. Breathe Slow: To achieve a balanced state of mind - calm but alert, and
3. Breathe Deep: To increase attention.

To optimize these dimensions of healthy breathing, you must breathe through your nose.

So important to nasal breathe as it can affect our mental health. Sometimes severely.

Structural, functional and behavioral impact of allergic rhinitis on olfactory pathway and prefrontal cortex - PubMed We confirmed olfactory dysfunction in a rat model of AR and we identified modifications in synaptic activity by reduction of Syn optical density in the GL of the OB and in the PFC. This was accompanied by structural changes in glutamatergic and GABAergic activity in essential components of the olfac...

To enjoy a restful night's sleep, it is important to practise good sleep hygiene.
Most of us know that this involves less screen time and alcohol just before bed, but many of us resist the idea, because watching the TV with a glass of wine is a nice way to wind down. Unfortunately, this habit doesnt relly help you relax. In reality, it stimulates the nervous system, preventing you from sleeping well.

Try these tips ahead of your night's sleep:

- Avoid blue light. Try wearing blue light glasses if you are using your phone, laptop or watchin TV before bed.
- Switch your phone to flight mode.
- Yor bedroom should be cool, airy, silent and dark.
- Dont eat or drink alcohol

A racing mind and breathing irregularities both contribute to insomnia.

Try these tips to help you with your night's sleep.

We have known for many years bitguards are not the answer for MANY.

Dental practitioner approaches to bruxism: Preliminary findings from the national dental practice-based research network - PubMed PBRN - Practice-Based Research NetworkMMA - Masticatory muscle activitySB - Sleep bruxismAB - Awake bruxismTMJ - Temporomandibular jointOSA - Obstructive sleep apnea.

Did you know your child’s habits influence their jaw development?

I think it’s important for parents to understand that you can make conscious decisions as to how your child grows and develops.

Many people think crooked teeth are genetic or bad luck, but there are known functional habits that stunt the growth of the jaw.

Both extended pacifier use and thumb sucking demonstrates the way we use our mouth shapes its growth and development.

In dental practice I see patients with open bites in adults quite regularly.

They either think it’s normal and say ‘Oh yes my front teeth don’t meet, it’s hard to bite food’, or want to correct the issue.

When we use root cause and functional diagnoses principles we can see that dental issues must be intervened in earlier, but there is also hope for those who have grown with the issue throughout their life.

Orthodontics and braces to correct this issue act to ‘drag’ the teeth down to close the bite.

Another approach is to correct the cause or causes.

Looking at the photos above you can see a child at ages 2-4 who develop an open bite has high risk of other oral health problems.

These include:
Mouth breathing
Low tongue swallow.

In adults you can have reasonable success to correct these cases by addressing the causes. Training the tongue NOT to go into this place and orthopaedic guards to either prevent or recorrect the underdeveloped upper jaw.

However, treatment like this is always dependent on training and habit formation. So, it’s a lot of time and effort.

In kids you can close these bites in 3 months.

By using an approach that we want to correct oral habits at ages 4-6 instead of waiting until age 12-13.

The other side of the coin is that pacifier and thumb sucking habits hold hard in kids.

We only used a pacifier very sparingly for the first 4 or so months then made sure to remove so that the baby can establish close oral posture.

I’d love to hear your experiences on thumb sucking and pacifier use.

Phenominal study

Outcome of nasal measurements in patients with OSA - Mounting evidence of a nasal endotype - PubMed Acoustic rhinometry is significantly associated with 4-phase rhinomanometry. However, acoustic rhinometry measurements are not associated with the respiratory indices routinely measured in OSA in a clinical setting. 4-phase rhinomanometry is a more suitable method for detecting clinically relevant n...

Relationship of obstructive sleep apnea with periodontal condition and its local and systemic risk factors - PubMed To study the factors that can facilitate the progression of OSA and periodontitis, physicians and dentists should be advised to provide comprehensive care for patients with both pathologies.

Frequency of Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Patients Presenting with Tooth Fractures: A Prospective Controlled Study - PubMed Several factors in the pathophysiology of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may increase the likelihood of excessive occlusal loads. Increased occlusal loads may compromise a tooth's mechanical resistance. This prospective controlled study assessed the frequency of OSA in patients presenting with tooth....

It is sometimes beneficial for individuals to start their Myo Munchee with passive use. This means that the Munchee is sitting in the mouth, and the lips are just resting, sealed around the appliance

For some, this means that their lips are not yet together, as they are still working towards a good lip seal.

This can still be beneficial, because we can result in a release for the soft tissues of the throat and the jaws.

Someone is ready for active use when they can comfortably have their lips together around the appliance.

This tells us that they can hold the appliance in place comfortably and the jaws are able to be in the right posture to chew.

Remember – lip seal is imperative!

Breathing from the diaphragm accomplishes many things.

What is Nasal Obstruction?

👃 the nasal passages are blocked and prevent a normal or comfortable amount of air flow passing through the nose.

👃 Even the slightest narrowing of the nasal valve can lead to reduction in airflow.

There are different reason why you may feeling the nasal obstruction. Is lateral wall collapse contributing to it???

Try the Cottle Maneuver

Using 1-2 fingers gently pull on your cheek laterally to open the valve.

Does your breathing improve?
If yes come see us about your options which may include the LATERA implant.

We've been wrong many times before.

Sometimes it helps to admit that.

The conversation on the correct exposure to sun and its benefits for the body is slowly growing.

This article aims to alert the medical community and public health authorities to accumulating evidence on health benefits from sun exposure, which suggests that insufficient sun exposure is a significant public health problem.

Studies in the past decade indicate that insufficient sun exposure may be responsible for 340,000 deaths in the United States and 480,000 deaths in Europe per year, and an increased incidence of breast cancer, colorectal cancer, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, autism, asthma, type 1 diabetes and myopia.

Vitamin D has long been considered the principal mediator of beneficial effects of sun exposure. However, oral vitamin D supplementation has not been convincingly shown to prevent the above conditions; thus, serum 25(OH)D as an indicator of vitamin D status may be a proxy for and not a mediator of beneficial effects of sun exposure.

New candidate mechanisms include the release of nitric oxide from the skin and direct effects of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) on peripheral blood cells. Collectively, this evidence indicates it would be wise for people living outside the tropics to ensure they expose their skin sufficiently to the sun.

Were we wrong about sun exposure?

We get this question asked all the time!
There are many reasons as to why it’s so important before and after a frenuloplasty👅👄👃

For those who have lived with a tongue-tie throughout their lives, myofunctional therapy becomes more than an awareness of learning proper oral rest posture. These individuals have learned to compensate by incorporating other muscles of the orofacial region (i.e. cheek, lip, and neck areas) in an attempt to perform the basic functions of breathing, chewing, and swallowing. This learned behavior leads to dysfunction and various disorders, known as compensatory behaviors.

Learn more www.thebreatheinstitute.com

It works!!!

Relationships between brain tissue damage, oxygen desaturation, and disease severity in obstructive sleep apnea evaluated by diffusion tensor imaging - PubMed OSA subjects show negative and positive correlations, indicating increase and decrease diffusivity values, resulting from chronic and acute changes in those areas. The extent of injury in OSA partially depends on the extent of AHI and O2 desaturation, with the effects representing continu...