My Story
I had all of the myofunctional disorders, and I was never told. This is ME in the picture. A candid photo from when I was 17. Yup, my mouth was always hanging open like that.
I realized it as a teen and started closing my mouth a little so it was less embarrassing but continued mouth breathing. I had chronic allergies since I was a small kid and had was always congested in my nose and could only breathe with my mouth. If I tried to nose breathe I felt like I was suffocating or was self-conscious about how it whistled. I was self-conscious about my bad breath so I chewed a lot of gum.
This was from enlarged tonsils, I was prone to strep throat and colds and was threatened with tonsillectomy but didn’t get them out. Every time I went to the dentist as a kid I felt like I couldn’t breathe with my mouth open and all the water, I gagged on xrays and impressions.
I had severe dental anxiety and had to take anxiety medication before. Every time I went for my dental checkup I had gingivitis and bleeding and swollen gums (my lips were not self cleaning like they were supposed to because of my parted lips.) I had cavities every checkup. I was told I had a strong tongue and would fight the dentist and hygienist with my tongue as I choked and gagged on water.
I was able to breastfeed as a baby without any issues so everyone assumed I was fine and didn’t have a tongue tie. As long as I can remember I was a bad sleeper. I needed 8 or more hours and would still feel super tired. It’s not that I couldn’t sleep, it was that I was a wild sleeper. I was a thrasher, kicker, sleep talker, would wake myself up grinding my teeth since I was a tiny kid.
I also had undiagnosed sleep apnea since I was a kid from mouth breathing and a sneaky posterior tongue tie. I would wake up gasping for air, snoring, grinding, kicking, rolling around the bed, kicking off blankets, sweating. I’ve had general anxiety disorder since I was a kid, and that has a big link to sleep disorders.
I had nightmares every night of my life until I had my tongue tie fixed. I needed 10 hours to feel good and rested. Myofunctional disorders and anxiety habits go hand in hand, some people say they are OCD habits. Mine were lip licking, lip biting, nail biting, nail picking, hair fiddling, foot tapping, cheek biting.
I did have an abnormal swallow because I used my cheeks to swallow. I had TMJ disorder where my jaw hurt, would pop, get stuck open when I yawned, headaches, clenched, ground my teeth, wore a nightguard but it didn’t fix it just made it more comfortable for my jaw and kept me from wearing teeth down.
These were the symptoms, but the results were I had a low resting tongue which caused an underdeveloped upper jaw bone and a lower jaw that is too far back or retrognathic. My middle part of my face is flat, this is more than a cosmetic thing, it means that my maxilla bone is under developed which is a clue into having a small airway. My palate was high and narrow, I had crowded teeth and was told my mouth was “too small” and they pulled out 4 of my permanent teeth, or bicuspid extraction is what they call it.
Of course, now we know not to do that because it makes the mouth smaller and a tinier airway space. My airway was dangerously narrow behind where my posterior tongue tie was. I developed large bone growths on the roof of my mouth called a palatal tori, and thickened bone next to my tongue on the lower jaw lingual tori.
A Happy Ending
I had palate expander as a kid, but it wasn’t enough, my teeth match up in a good tooth bite but my jaw bones are not aligned in a good bite. I have a deep bite, and overjet and a class 2 skeletal profile. I have had sleep disordered breathing, sleep apnea until I discovered myofunctional therapy, and had my tongue tie release. It has literally SAVED MY LIFE.
I have found tricks for opening up my nasal passages and am a nose breather now! Since I started exclusively nose breathing, my allergies are mostly gone, my exercise asthma is gone, my acid reflux is generally better, and I feel like my brain fog is lifting! Also, the night of my tongue tie release, I stopped grinding my teeth! My tongue tie was choking me in my sleep, and once it could lift up into my mouth more, I stopped grinding and choking.
This is why I AM SOOOO PASSIONATE about telling people, teaching and educating about MYOFUNCTIONAL DISORDERS. I am a healer and teacher, and so many peolple have never been informed about how much they need orofacial myofunctional therapy. Send me a message today in the form below so that we can get you the help you deserve ASAP!
