Best Speech Therapy, PLLC

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Millions have the same 'bendy body' disease as my daughter. Why isn't the medical profession paying more attention? | CNN

Read more about Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome - we work with EDS at our office!

Millions have the same 'bendy body' disease as my daughter. Why isn't the medical profession paying more attention? | CNN Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a connective tissue disorder. When Sarah Lazarus' daughter was diagnosed with it, she discovered that the majority of cases are going undiagnosed for decades.

Narrow palates and palate expansion in children with obstructive sleep apnoea

Traditionally the first line treatment option for children with obstructive sleep apnoea has been removal of enlarged adenoids and tonsils.

But the surgery does not resolve breathing problems for many children with narrow palates, and there are many parents that don’t want to accept surgery for their children.

This has prompted a lot of research in recent years on the option of palate expansion including this great new review on the role of this intervention.

The take-home practice points are not to overlook narrow palates in children with these sleep and breathing disturbances, or the alternative option of palate expansion in the multidisciplinary approach to management.

Link to abstract:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36566679/

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We create a safe place for all of our clients !

When we feel safe, we can manage what comes our way and we are receptive to doing the work to blossom into amazing human beings.

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Great ideas! Imagery + movement is such a great way to help our kids learn

A huge thank you to my sweet patient Painted Tree Boutiques who cracks me up…

I love my awesome new super warm and cozy sweatshirt!!!

It’s perfect for this crazy Dallas weather!!!! 🥶 ❄️

Visit Jenny&Co Painted Tree for more fun stuff!!!

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Lucía, Marcia’s daughter, wears Healthy Start at night to help with closed mouth posture during nighttime sleep, maintain palatal width, and to guide facial growth!

It’s been a awesome tool to use after completion of orthodontic phase 1 work and to help with lip incompetence while we wait for Phase 2!

Christmas party fun! A great night to share some holiday magic with a wonderful team!

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Pre and post op therapy is essential to a favorable release!

We get this question asked all the time!
There are many reasons as to why it’s so important before and after a frenuloplasty👅👄👃

For those who have lived with a tongue-tie throughout their lives, myofunctional therapy becomes more than an awareness of learning proper oral rest posture. These individuals have learned to compensate by incorporating other muscles of the orofacial region (i.e. cheek, lip, and neck areas) in an attempt to perform the basic functions of breathing, chewing, and swallowing. This learned behavior leads to dysfunction and various disorders, known as compensatory behaviors.

Learn more www.thebreatheinstitute.com

Client of the week!!!

So proud of this client! In two therapy sessions she’s improved 3 mm for mouth opening! She brings her completed homework sheet weekly!!!

Thank you for your hard work!!!

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Quote of the Day

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I love this picture!!!

Great reminder that Therapy is not linear…. Progress is not linear!!!

Before and after Septoplasty 👃

A deviated septum is a condition in which the nasal septum, the bone and cartilage that divide the nasal cavity of the nose in half is significantly off center, or crooked, making breathing difficult. Most people have some sort of imbalance in the size of their breathing passages. In fact, estimates indicate that 80% of people, most unknowingly, have some sort of misalignment to their nasal septum.

Septoplasty, is a corrective surgical procedure done to straighten a deviated nasal septum – the nasal septum being the partition between the two nasal cavities. Ideally, the septum should run down the center of the nose. ZaghiMD.com

Make sure there isn’t anything structural preventing you from optimal !

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We’re so proud of Estefany! She spent last weekend at ASHA in NOLA learning to better serve our clients!

We are Butekyo trained SLPs who can help retrain nasal breathing!

Mouth breathing vs nose breathing - what's the difference?

The nose allows your lungs to get more oxygen from the air you breathe, and it helps your body send that oxygen directly to your brain. This clean oxygen can clear your mind and feed your genius!

Agitated mind, poor sleep, fatigue, brain fog and a lack of concentration and focus are all associated with mouth breathing. A calm mind, deeper sleep, waking up refreshed, clarity of mind, and a strong sense of concentration and focus are all associated with nose breathing.

Breathing through your nose draws a gas called nitric oxide into your lungs. It is then released into the sinuses around your nasal cavity. It keeps the blood vessels open, which means more blood can get into the organs, muscles and brain.
When you breathe through your mouth, you don't get the benefit of nitric oxide from the nasal cavity.

Nose breathing also improves thinking, knowing, remembering, judging, and problem-solving. By breathing through your nose, you can also respond to stress more. When you exhale through your nose, your brain can react more quickly.

So, this is why you should breathe through your nose.

What’s going around? 🤒
✨ Strep, and more step
✨ Flu, flu, lots of flu
✨ RSV
✨ Pink eye
✨ Lots of other viruses

Link in bio on how to support your child’s immune system during the cough and cold season. 🤒

Call us at 214-736-1954 if your child needs to be seen. We have same day appointments.

This…. I’m all for holistic and least invasive treatment but there is a time and place for modern medicine and surgery…. Thank goodness that we have so many options!

Kissing tonsils

Did you know that the most common reason for removing enlarged tonsils is obstructed breathing during sleep, and nothing to do with how many times a child has tonsillitis?

I’m all for avoiding surgery and addressing root causes where possible, but sometimes when the tonsils are completely blocking the throat, it can be more problematic watchfully waiting due to the impact of disturbed breathing and sleep on a child’s development.

Here are signs of disturbed sleep breathing to be aware of:

• Mouth breathing
• Snoring
• Pauses in breathing or gasping
• Neck hyperextension
• Teeth grinding
• Bedwetting
• Unexplained awakenings
• Night terrors
• Feeling unrefreshed on waking
• Being tired or wired through the day
• Difficulties with behaviour or emotional regulation
• Poor attention and concentration

Sometimes, the medical advice is to dismiss obstructive tonsils as there has not been enough episodes of tonsillitis to warrant removal.

However, an ENT specialist with a special interest in sleep and airway will take into account any symptoms of disturbed breathing and unrestorative sleep.

The other important thing to understand is that enlarged tonsils may actually be a symptom of dysfunctional breathing. Whilst most children with kissing tonsils will have an immediate improvement in the above sleep and daytime symptoms, many will still have some residual symptoms, or a recurrence of problems later.

The ultimate end goal should be to secure nasal breathing and airway health, and this most usually will involve addressing multiple risk factors and a team approach to care.

This is explained in greater detail for parents in my book Breathe, Sleep, Thrive. Here is the link to more details about the book if you want to read more:

https://amzn.asia/d/2J7FMWk

What’s going around? 🤒
✨ Strep
✨ RSV
✨ Adenovirus
✨ Pink eye
✨ Diarrhea
✨ Lots of flu cases
✨ Many other viruses

Call 214-736-1954 if your child needs to be seen. We have same day appointments.

Marcia out and about learning about breathing, myofunctional therapy, and more!!!!

Collaboration Cures 2022

Myofunctional therapy has been around for many years! SLPs have Bering doing oral motor for many many years!

🗣 Myofunctional therapy is not a NEW concept!
Orofacial Myofunctional therapy has been discussed as early as the 1800s with Dr. Edward Angle 🦷
He recognized the influence of mouth breathing on the resting posture and how it affected orthodontic treatment.

Following him , Dr. Alfred Rogers developed exercises to improve muscle function and tone.

Very simple technique we use with our clients for nasal breathing re-training!

How does this help clear the nose ?!?!

➡️ temporarily increases carbon dioxide levels in the blood, which will in turn open the nasal passages. 👃

Breathing exercises can often help but they don’t always work for everyone.

If your nasal congestion is severe and doesn’t get better despite practicing different nasal clearing methods, including daily rinses and sprays, then you should talk to a doctor to find out if there’s an underlying issue that needs to be treated.

Chronic illness theory….

The palate is the garage and the tongue is the car! The garage should be big enough to house the car ….

The maxilla has a scaffold and that’s the tongue 👅

When the tongue rests on the roof of the mouth it allows for optimal growth and development of our jaw!

The maxilla is meant to grow downward, forward, and outward.

A narrow palate can affect
➡️ breathing 👃
➡️ chewing 😁
➡️ speech sounds 🗣

The Two Kinds of Tongue Tie Releases

There are only two kinds of tongue tie releases: complete releases and incomplete releases. A complete release is one where the primary bound muscle under the tongue (called the genioglossus) is released from any restriction overlying it. This results in a diamond-shaped wound that is flush to the tissue on either side of it as the genioglossus has fallen back under the tongue.

Anything short of that release is an incomplete release. This includes:
1) a simple snip of a visible band
2) a simple lasering of a visible band
3) releasing the visible band and opening a small wound under the tongue
4) releasing the visible band and opening a small diamond-shaped wound, but that wound still sits on a shelf of muscle underneath

Whether it’s a 10% release, 50% release, or 95% release - it’s incomplete. As long as the genioglossus is held by some abnormal tissue, symptoms can persist. That being said, I’ve written before that I don’t think every single tongue always needs a 100% release (there are 5 randomized, controlled studies that show that partial release can help latching and ni**le pain). But if you are a parent of a baby who’s been released and you’re not noticing improvement in symptoms, there’s a chance that the tie was never fully released OR it was released but enough reattachment has occurred to re-bind the genioglossus.