Johnson

This 12 year old began therapy with a lips-apart posture and mouth breathing habit. Other problems: extreme nasal congestion, “obnoxious” eating habits (e.g., open-mouth chewing, burping, gulping, fast, noisy), headaches, poor posture, facial asymmetry, slurred and unclear speech. She showed symptoms of TMJ and a bilateral posterior open bite, poor tongue rest posture and a tongue thrust swallow. She tended to move her tongue around a lot and, while concentrating, habitually leaned and pushed her tongue forward.

Therapy improved her appearance and posture. She learned to breathe through her nose and stopped her poor habit patterns. It literally changed her life. The only thing that didn’t change was her bite, and she was referred back to her orthodontist for help with that.