Rehabilitative Approaches: Myofunctional Therapy and Retropalatal Narrowing and Snoring

Myofunctional therapy involves various exercises to train muscles in the soft palate, tongue, face, and pharynx. Vocal letters are used to train the palatopharyngeus, palatoglossus, uvula, tensor veli palatine, and levator veli palatine muscles. Tongue exercises involve sliding the tongue to the upper and side surfaces of the teeth, placing the tip in front of the palate, and pressing and sucking the tongue up to the palate. Face exercises involve inflating the cheeks, gargling, and sucking the cheeks to exercise the orbicularis oris muscle and the buccinator muscle. Icing stimulates the mouth, producing a cold, chilling, and numbing effect, causing reflexive contraction of the palate, tongue, and pharyngeal muscles.