Ashley Johnson, BSDH, RDH, OMFT

04/17/2026

Keeping our Orofacial muscles toned and coordinated helps support a healthy smile for a lifetime! 😊

04/16/2026

Happy Selena Day! ♥️

04/09/2026

For my fellow dental professionals ♥️

03/28/2026

If only this little girl knew about the importance of all these things back in 1992.

It is my passion and purpose to help improve the quality of lives around me.
With love, your friendly neighborhood Myofunctional Therapist

03/23/2026

03/18/2026

When you begin a new strength habit, the first three to five weeks of improvement have little to do with muscle growth.

The big change is happening within the nervous system. It’s neurological re-education training.

Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy (OMT) uses neuromuscular re-education training to help change the motor plans that the body learned in compensatory patterns.

OMT uses a series of repetitive movements of the tongue, lips, facial muscles, etc. to achieve goals of jaw stability, strengthening of orofacial muscles, tongue tone and control, & facilitate predominant nasal breathing.

Your brain learns to recruit more muscle fibers, fire them faster, and coordinate the movement with less interference from opposing muscles. Neural adaptation comes first. Structural change follows.

In the first month of a new exercise habit, when you look in the mirror and nothing seems different. Under the surface something is happening. Your brain is being rewired. You are becoming more capable before you become more visible.

It is happening in the architecture of your nervous system, in the signals passing between your brain and your muscles, in the quiet rewiring that precedes every visible change.

Once the brain learns to retain the new movements, they stop being “exercises” and become part of you.

03/16/2026

02/24/2026

Light: The Ultimate Probiotic

How Light Sculpts the Microbiome

Everyone is searching for the right probiotic.

Very few are fixing their light environment.

Your microbiome follows a circadian rhythm. Gut bacteria shift in diversity, activity, and metabolite production based on signals from your brain’s master clock — and that clock is set by light entering your eyes at sunrise.

Morning sunlight → retina → suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) → vagus nerve → gut.

That signal tells your digestive system:
• When to produce stomach acid
• When to release enzymes
• When to move (motility)
• When to repair and regenerate

We talk about food shaping the gut.

But light sculpts it first.

When you wake under artificial light, stay indoors all day, and use screens late into the night, circadian coordination fragments.

The result:
• Sluggish digestion
• Bloating
• Irregular acid production
• Microbial imbalance
• Increased inflammatory signaling

No capsule can override a broken circadian signal.

Your gut lining runs on mitochondrial energy.
Your mitochondria respond to light cues.
No light rhythm = no coherent gut rhythm.

Artificial light at night suppresses melatonin — one of the most important antioxidants in the gut. Flattened melatonin rhythms alter microbial balance and immune signaling.

The microbiome doesn’t just respond to what you eat.
It responds to the environment your nervous system is broadcasting.

Your gut is not just chemical.
It’s electrical.
It’s rhythmic.
It’s light-responsive.

Before asking,
“What probiotic should I take?”

Ask,
“When was the last time my eyes saw sunrise, when was the last time sun hit my gut?

Fix the light.
The terrain begins to shift.

You can help support gut health from a circadian and mitochondrial foundation — restoring rhythm, light environment, and cellular energy.

Modern life makes it difficult to consistently get enough natural light exposure — especially direct light on the body and abdomen — to fully support these rhythms.

Red light and near-infrared lights can help support mitochondrial energy and circadian signaling.

02/22/2026

Humming daily helps to maintain your health increasing oxygenation through amplified nitric oxide production & keeping your body primed for rest and repair through activation of your vagus nerve.

02/10/2026

Grateful for the opportunity to continue learn and connect with others at the Breathe and Thrive Symposium hosted by The American Laser Study Club.

It was a delight to hear all of the amazing presentations and open discussions & see many interdisciplinary points of view on ways to improve airway health throughout a lifetime.

12/22/2025

11/29/2025

Your dentist wasn't lying when they said brushing before bed matters. But it's not just about your teeth anymore. New research reveals that skipping your nighttime brush could be silently damaging your heart. The bacteria multiplying in your mouth while you sleep might be doing something far more dangerous than causing bad breath, and scientists now have the evidence to prove it.