Real Smiles Orofacial Myology Thumbsucking Solutions

21/03/2025

This!

24/01/2025

This!
Never tape your child’s mouth without first talking to a health care professional.

It’s time to speak up- again!!

🚨 Parents, Beware of Mouth Taping for Kids 🚨

Mouth taping is being promoted online as a way to improve sleep or stop mouth breathing, but it can be dangerous—especially for children.

Here’s what you need to know:

❌ Breathing Obstruction: If your child has nasal congestion or sleep apnea, taping their mouth could block their airway.
❌ Choking Hazard: Mouth taping can prevent proper response to vomiting or difficulty breathing.
❌ Underlying Issues: Mouth breathing often signals problems like enlarged tonsils, allergies, or nasal blockages that need medical attention.
❌ No Evidence for Kids: There’s little scientific support for mouth taping, and the risks far outweigh any potential benefits.

💡 Instead of risky trends, focus on safe, proven alternatives:
✔️ Treat allergies and nasal congestion.
✔️ Encourage proper nasal hygiene.
✔️ Seek professional advice for mouth breathing concerns.

👩‍⚕️ If your child breathes through their mouth at night, consult a healthcare professional, such as an ENT specialist or pediatric dentist, to address the root cause.

To highlight the concerns I have, let me share my experiences When I come across people advocating for this, and ask them how they assess for underlying heart disease (which is not uncommon in children that are mouth breathing) and point out how taping the mouth can lead to that heart disease being worsened, they have no idea what I am talking about. They are totally oblivious. This goes to the heart of the matter (pun intended) as to the difference between a trained professional and a well meaning health advocate. The heart condition is called pulmonary hypertension and taping the mouth, you can achieve nasal breathing, but if there is obstruction (which there often is) the nasal breathing is being done against resistance. This is then overcome by increased respiratory effort. This effort also leads to more blood rushing to the heart. If that heart was struggling to start with, then things just got made a whole lot worse.

22/01/2025

I’m a certified Myo Munchee practitioner and can help you with all your Myo Munchee and Orofacial Myology needs.
Your New Dentsit Mooroolbark.

19/08/2024

https://www.calameo.com/sleeplabmagazine/read/006372046d333d6c2bd86?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2tWjoXZjWC0NwiPZwMbVDjroc7mI0584h4okhVZnvbhJ9yAshKaweWgdE_aem_IRK4TNnyBbLVXvkepFL-8Q

What a great article; sleep disordered breathing and Orofacial Myology.

04/07/2024

So much love for this beautiful little lady and the work I get to do!

27/06/2024

https://myomunchee.com/

How cute is Richie with her Myomunchee!

What is a Myomunchee?
A small chewing device, shaped like a mouth guard. The use of a Myomunchee helps to improve oral function and promote favourable facial growth, teeth position and jaw development.

The natural growth forces generated from correct chewing make a big contribution to growing faces and maintaining oral function for life.

Correct oral posture, breathing and chewing have been linked to facial development, jaw growth, correct swallow pattern, normal digestion and even concentration and memory.

Are you worried about the dental development of your child?
Perhaps it’s time to come see Katie at Real Smiles Orofacial Myology. Katie is a certified Myomunchee practitioner.

Your New Dentist
Mooroolbark
9727 1914

11/05/2024

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mums of the world, to all the people who’ve had a mum, have a mum, want to be a mum and do mum stuff. 💚

I am so thankful for my own mum, my step mum, my mother in law, my friend mums and for myself as a mum. My absolute most favourite thing in the world is being a mum to my 2 amazing boys who are now young men. 💙

Whatever your Mother’s Day looks like today, I wish you love and happiness 💕

04/05/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/c3PZb7VyABPAPGPq/?mibextid=WC7FNe

Should my child have adult teeth extracted to alleviate dental crowding before braces?

I ceased accepting orthodontist referrals to extract adult premolar teeth prior to braces when I started my dental sleep medicine training in 2012. But I still encounter many parents who have been recommended these extractions.

These photos are from a teen patient that presented to me for tongue-tie consult. Mum had a gut instinct the four premolar extractions recommended to alleviate dental crowding prior to braces was not the right direction. She deeply regrets not following her intuition.

I want to thank her for her consent to use these images, despite the bind she is in, to help other parents make more fully informed decisions.

These images help illustrate that when we extract teeth to relieve crowding, we often end up with excess dental space. A common approach to aligning the teeth and closing the spaces is to retract teeth, making the tongue space smaller.

This approach fails to address the underlying problem. The jaw has not grown properly. And at the root of this, is oral dysfunction – where the jaw and mouth muscles did not provide the functional stimulus to promote optimal jaw development in the earliest years of childhood. This is often linked to tongue-tie and mouth breathing.

In this case, mum had persisted with breastfeeding despite enormous difficulties. This child was constantly crying with air swallowing and reflux like symptoms. Her transition to solids was difficult, and it felt like there was no relief in sight. Tongue-tie was never identified. There has been a long history of disturbed sleep. She has been a chronic mouth breather, but this has never been addressed.

Ongoing issues include daytime fatigue, difficulties with emotional regulation, learning, and symptoms of anxiety and depression with involvement of a psychologist. Nobody has properly evaluated her sleep quality and breathing.

The problem with extracting teeth and making the mouth smaller is that the tongue already has insufficient space to rest and function properly. During sleep, it’s impossible to restore closed mouth breathing without the tongue being forced back and creating some degree of throat obstruction. Reducing tongue space with retractive orthodontics exacerbates the problem in a child already struggling.

What are the take home messages for parents?

✅ Look beyond straight teeth: Dental crowding is often a symptom of poor jaw development. Our jaws are the floor of our nasal passages, housing for the tongue, and bony support for our collapsible upper airway or throat. Good jaw development is essential for optimal sleep and breathing.

✅ Early intervention is key: Braces are normally offered around age 12 when 90% of facial growth development is complete. 60% of the adult sized face is formed by age 6 years. Healthy jaw development begins in early childhood.

✅ Holistic evaluation is the future: Ensure orthodontic evaluation and treatment plans consider factors such as tongue-tie, mouth breathing, and sleep quality.

✅ Get a second opinion: Tooth extractions are irreversible. Avoid rush decisions and seek multiple opinions if any uncertainty exists.

A message for health care professionals:

Consider joining Inspiration by Integration 2024: A Practical Guide to Children's Airway Health in Melbourne, August 30-31st. It will provide valuable insights and practical guidance for enhancing children's airway health. Through collaborative discussions, let's share knowledge and experiences to ensure fewer missed opportunities and better outcomes for more children. Take advantage of earlybird rates available until May 12.

12/03/2024

What does a 6 month thumb sucking and Orofacial Myology program look like?

It looks like this!!!!!

No barbaric orthodontic devices required. A fun and rewarding program to help kids quit their thumb and finger sucking habit and promote healthy and happy facial growth.

I absolutely love helping kids with their thumb sucking cessation journey.

Katie is seeing patients at Your New Dentist in Mooroolbark.



😁💙🦷👍🏼

03/03/2024

No snoring is not cute or funny!

Snoring is often viewed as humorous or innocuous, but experts say it's a design flaw — and a danger signal

23/02/2024

Loved reading Breathe, sleep, Thrive. It’s everything I’d been saying for 10 years. Now I have Dr Shereen Lim book to recommend and share. 💙

Mouth breathing: What every parent and child health care professional needs to know.

Here’s a patient story that I’m sharing to provoke greater attention to mouth breathing as a root cause of many child health and developmental issues.

I saw this 8.5 year old with his mother for consult yesterday.

His mother found us on an internet search around the following concerns:

• Chronic mouth breathing, despite 2 rounds of ENT surgery to remove adenoids, tonsils and insert grommets in early childhood.
• A dentist has confirmed high palate and overbite but dismissed this as an issue.
• He has always had behavioural issues incl a diagnosis of ADD. And they booked in for an autism diagnosis to get more access to more services.
• There is concern about his teeth ending up like dad’s – he had a long and narrow face and lots of problems with overcrowding, so she doesn’t want him to go down that way.

The biggest issues they want addressed are the mouth breathing and excessive teeth grinding.

Here’s some other issues I discover:

• He cried from the day he was born, until he could start running and ran away from everyone – he was medicated with Losec for reflux, he failed to put on weight, and at 6 months he wouldn’t take foods so was offered Pediasure
• Even now there are concerns with weight gain and they are on waitlist to see a nutritionist
• Taking Ducolax stool softener, and Benefiber to help address constipation
• Likes to lick his hands or objects like pencils, or chew on rope and rubbers
• A history of trips to the hospital for asthma attacks when he struggled to breathe, and a history of Ventolin
• Speech delay and 2 years of speech therapy to address speech delay, but he still has a stutter
• He’s had dental decay and extractions and fillings, and there are clear signs of erosion related to reflux disease on this teeth
• At night, he sleeps with his mouth open, neck hyperextended, breathes heavily and with some gasping. He has light, fragmented sleep. A sleep study has previously confirmed obstructive apneas.
• He takes Clonidine to help him wind down and get to sleep or he would stay up until 1am
• He is on dexamphetamine to help him get through school days
• He has been prescribed Intuitiv to help manage anxiety – the pediatrician said it would help but it hasn’t. He fears losing his loved ones.
• He still wets at night - his nappies are wet. He has been on Solicare for 2 years to see if can address an overactive bladder but this has not resolved the bedwetting
• He has been discharged from OT as they couldn’t help him any further
• Concentration and attention at school is difficult despite him having educational aides.
• There are lots of meltdowns throughout the day. Outbursts could be 10 mins or an hour. He is loved by all, yet he is exhausting for the entire family.

This is completely heartbreaking to me to hear. I can only imagine the exhaustion and desperation this family have experienced in finding answers. No one wants their child medicated, yet his life has been one medication after another, seeing multiple health care professionals, and he is still not close to thriving.

Yet it’s immediately obvious to me, that the underlying problem is this child is under chronic stress from difficulties breathing.

He has a narrow v-shaped palate, tongue-tie, and lip incompetence (his lips can’t seal without strain) – all risk factors for poor breathing and sleep.

Here’s what I want every parent and health care professional to know:

• Rule out tongue-tie and excessive intake of air before medicating children for reflux, and consider it when medications don’t alleviate symptoms.
• Rule out sleep and airway problems before medicating for ADHD.
• Understand that ENT surgery is never a cure. Airway problems are multi-factorial and we need to address all the risk factors including poor jaw development and oral dysfunction and restore nasal breathing for long-term resolution.
• Check your speech therapist is screening for sleep and airway problems, poor mouth structure and oral dysfunction function before commencing therapy. The growing number trained in myofunctional therapy are best equipped to do this.
• If a child has multiple decays – rule out or address any underlying mouth breathing or breathing related reflux and the presence of acid in the mouth that could be increasing risk.
• Bedwetting and teeth grinding are strong red flags a child is not breathing well during sleep. Rule out and manage airway problems before medicating.
• When there is poor weight gain, don’t overlook the importance of restful sleep. Growth hormone is released during the deep phases of sleep.
• When a child’s breathing is dysfunctional, it can be linked to a chronic activation of the fight or flight response. This can be linked to symptoms such as insomnia, anxiety, and digestive issues.
• Mouth breathing is also a risk factor for asthma, sleep disturbed breathing, and sensory processing issues, further highlighting the importance of addressing it in children's health.

If you have read this far THANKYOU!

I hope that it can inspire more curiosity from both professionals and parents and encourage you to take action. Please share it with anyone you think may relate to this story.

We can help children by promoting healthy breathing, sleep, and airway development as early as possible. We just need to know what to look for.

To fill this void, please help spread word about Breathe, Sleep, Thrive (my book) and Inspiration by Integration 2024: A Practical Guide to Children's Airway Health - my upcoming integrative children’s airway health event for health care professionals in Melbourne.

Together, let's strive to create a healthier, happier future for our children.

22/02/2024

Pacifier cessation

Here’s a review of a child I saw 17 months ago, at age 3 years.

His parents eliminated dummy use after the initial consult and introduced some use of a Myo Munchee appliance for 6 months.

There has been closure of his anterior bite, and some improvement in his upper arch form.

The palate is still narrow, and there is a skeletal crossbite with a functional shift of his lower jaw to the right.

He will still benefit from palate expansion to get the jaw structures back on track in the future, but I am suggesting they return to Myo Munchee, with a focus on perfect lip seal and increasing duration of results to promote better muscle habits.

This will help promote better stability of results when he is more ready to proceed with palate expansion.

18/02/2024

Happy 10+ years of doing Orofacial Myology to me!!!

Love helping grow happy healthy smiles Real Smiles Orofacial Myology Thumbsucking Solutions

Did you know we have a special day in Orofacial Myology?

I’m so grateful for a career in this industry. I only hope to continue helping patients and educating professionals who are just as passionate.

30/12/2023

What a great year I’ve had at Your New Dentsit in Mooroolbark seeing all the wonderful families for Orofacial Myology and Thumbsucking Solution programs.

Looking forward to helping you all grow healthy functional smiles in 2024.

Make all your dreams come true.
I wish you all health and happiness. 💙

https://yournewdentist.com.au/

21/12/2023

Cross-bite correction for 8 year old

Here’s a quick structural change, with improved facial symmetry achieved for an 8 year old.

The next phase of treatment is to address the underlying poor muscle habits at the root of the poor jaw development through myofunctional therapy, a habit correcting appliance, and tongue-tie release. This will promote stability of results and guide more favourable growth.

This phase of treatment will be longer, but made easier with the quick boost in tongue space.

Disclaimer:

Any orthodontic procedure carries risk, and individual results may vary.
Before proceeding with treatment, you should seek a second opinion with a specialist orthodontist.

07/12/2023

LAST CHANCE TO WHITENING YOUR SMILE BEFORE CHRISTMAS!

Only 3 Appointments available-
Friday 15th 9am and 1030am
Wednesday 20th 12noon

Then I’m away and on holidays until the 10th January.

10/11/2023

This! 💙😁🦷

When I started my Orofacial Myology journey 10 years ago, I was brushed off and told to ‘stay in my lane’!

Very happy to now see more awareness of the importance of ‘growing’ healthy bodies and smiles that breathe and sleep well.