Oral Myofunctional Pattern in Children With Anterior Open Bite

Behavioral interventions, like orofacial myofunctional therapy (OMT), target brain reorganization and plasticity by establishing new motor patterns or re-establishing old ones. The aim of OMT is to correct pathological function and resting positions based on the equilibrium theory. A service model that is often used in OMT is the model provided by Garliner, which includes a 10 week OMT program with a frequency of one session of 45 minutes per week together with home practice. Treatment sessions will be used to introduce and practice new exercises, to monitor home practice and motivation of the patients. Additionally, the participant will be instructed to perform the same exercises from the treatment session at home daily. This intervention will consist of (1) creating awareness, (2) establishing nasal breathing, (3) labial seal and lip closure exercises, (4) tongue posture exercises, (5) lip and tongue strengthening, (6) practicing a physiological swallowing act.

Behavioral interventions, like orofacial myofunctional therapy (OMT), target brain reorganization and plasticity by establishing new motor patterns or re-establishing old ones. The aim of OMT is to correct pathological function and resting positions based on the equilibrium theory. A service model that is often used in OMT is the model provided by Garliner, which includes a 10 week OMT program with a frequency of one session of 45 minutes per week together with home practice. Treatment sessions will be used to introduce and practice new exercises, to monitor home practice and motivation of the patients. Additionally, the participant will be instructed to perform the same exercises from the treatment session at home daily. This intervention will consist of (1) creating awareness, (2) establishing nasal breathing, (3) labial seal and lip closure exercises, (4) tongue posture exercises.

The sham treatment program will include exercises from an evidence-based vocal warm up program, with exclusion of the exercises that include active involvement of the tongue or lips. Exercises that will be included are: open mouth approach, glottal fry, producing ascending and descending tones and the hand-over-mouth technique. These exercises aim to improve the dynamics of the extrinsic and intrinsic laryngeal muscles and therefore are expected not to interfere with the content of the OMT program. Furthermore, exercises regarding body posture (no focus on articulators), relaxation and voice onset will be included. This sham treatment program will be provided by the same speech-language pathologist with comparable motivation techniques as those applied in the real OMT programs.