Our tongues are vital to our dental health because they allow us to connect with others and fuel our bodies. If the tongue is not in the right position, it can affect how we talk, eat, and even breathe, resulting in significant orofacial structural damage.
What exactly is a Tongue Thrust?
When you swallow, the tip of our tongue should softly touch against the top roof of our mouth (i.e., the alveolar ridge), just below the upper front teeth. When swallowing, tongue thrust causes the tongue to push past the upper and lower front teeth, forcing the lips to expand.
What Causes Adult Tongue Thrust?
Tongue thrust can happen for a variety of reasons. In reality, several probable reasons, such as extended sucking behaviors, allergies that produce persistent swelling, tongue tie, and backward swallowing patterns, begin in infancy. Tongue thrust in adulthood is frequently caused by untreated childhood tongue push. It can, however, develop in adults due to a variety of causes, including the following:
? Stress
? Extensive Facial Structure Formation
? Broader Tongue
? Allergies that are chronic
? Bigger Tonsils
It is critical to detect tongue thrust behaviors and begin treatment(s) as soon as feasible to reduce the risk of further health and dental issues. Are you unsure how to determine if you have tongue thrust? The following behaviors are frequently linked to tongue thrust:
? Mouth Breathing
? Lips are still open
? Impediments to Speech (e.g., lisp, etc.)
By completing some easy, noninvasive diagnostic procedures in our clinic, our dental staff can help you identify if tongue thrust is hurting you.
What Kinds of Issues Can Tongue Thrust Cause?
If tongue thrust is not addressed, it can lead to a variety of other dental and health issues, including the following:
? Open Bite Malocclusion (when your mouth is closed, your top teeth do not touch your bottom teeth, resulting in a gap).
? Dental Deformities
? Difficulties Breathing
? Impediments to Speech
Tongue Thrust Treatment for Adults
The better news is that tongue thrust is easily treated. Ask your doctor or a speech pathologist to begin effective treatments and therapies. They can assist assess the severity of your issue and offer the best treatment strategy to repair your tongue thrust.
The following are some successful treatment methods that your dentist may include in your individualized care plan:
? Tongue Thrust Correction Exercises: You may retrain your tongue and orofacial muscles to support appropriate alignment by practicing this easy therapeutic exercise twice a day.
? Speech Therapy: Working with a speech-language pathologist allows you to retrain your mouth and tongue with therapeutic exercises meant to foster good habits for swallowing, speaking, eating, and other activities.
Suppose tongue thrust therapy exercises are not enough to address your tongue thrust. It may be time to consider an another treatment option, particularly a team that in a variety of holistic treatments for common dental health concerns, such as myofunctional therapy to treat tongue thrust, sleep apnea, and other orofacial concerns, in addition to a wide range of oral health ailment.
? Myofunctional Therapy: This potent therapy combines behavior modification training and orofacial exercises to enhance the tongue’s natural resting posture while strengthening essential facial muscles such as the tongue, cheeks, lips, mouth, and jaw. This technique has a success rate in treating tongue thrust and other orofacial myofunctional problems.