Sensory/motor therapy for the treatment of oral dyskinesia. A new approach to the treatment of oromyofunctional disorders with the use of tactile cuing handheld exercisers.

Persons with oral myofunctional disorders suffer from multiple risk factors for impairments. A craniofacial malformation may be responsible for both behavioral as well as structural modifications. This includes the effect of appearance on self concept and behavior (Case, 1988). Structural modifications as well as negative oral habits include: an open mouth resting posture; mouth breathing; low forward tongue carriage; forward articulatory tongue placement (linguadental/lingua alveolar); abnormal lip, tongue and facial muscle movements during swallowing; reduced upper lip length and mobility; overcontraction of the mentalis muscle; negative habits such as nailbiting, thumb or finger-sucking, lip biting, and lip licking (Hale and Kellum, 1988). Clinical observations also include hypotonicity of the posterior oral musculature during swallowing activity. The purpose of this article is to explore the etiology of oral myofunctional disorders and present a new approach to treatment using functional prosthetic therapy.