Braces, expanders, and aligners move teeth and bone. None of them retrain the muscles surrounding those structures — the tongue, lips, and cheeks — and that’s precisely the job of a myofunctional therapist.

Myofunctional therapy focuses on how the tongue, lips, and cheeks function daily: where the tongue rests, how someone swallows, and whether breathing defaults to the nose or the mouth. These habits carry more weight in orthodontic outcomes than most people expect. A tongue that pushes against or between the teeth on every swallow (a tongue thrust), or one that rests low instead of against the palate, can quietly reverse orthodontic movement or keep an expanded palate from holding its new width.

We typically refer patients to a myofunctional therapist when we see:

• A persistent tongue thrust during swallowing
• A low tongue resting posture linked to a narrow palate
• Mouth breathing that continues even after a physical obstruction has been medically cleared
• Thumb-sucking or pacifier habits that have already shaped the bite
• Elevated relapse risk following palatal expansion, where retraining tongue posture helps the new width hold long-term

The process itself involves guided exercises, practiced at home and reinforced in sessions, aimed at building correct resting patterns for the tongue and lips along with nasal breathing habits. It’s a genuine time commitment, usually several months, but it’s what turns structural treatment into something durable rather than temporary.

Think of it as the piece that makes everything else stick. Dr. Zitterkopf can widen a palate or straighten a bite, but if the tongue and lips keep working against that new structure every day, the muscles tend to win eventually. Myofunctional therapy gets the muscles working with the new structure instead of against it.

If your child has a known tongue thrust, ongoing mouth breathing, or a habit shaping their bite, ask our Falcon team whether a myofunctional therapy referral belongs in their treatment plan.