The Adams Dental team of Dr. Allison Adams, Andrei Kovacs, Jackie Moy, Georgeanne Limbach, and Kelly Baker.
Team members from Adams Dental’s Integrated Wellness Center attended the annual Myobrace Global Summit in California, August 21-23, 2018. Dr. Allison Adams and myofunctional therapists, Georgeanne Limbach and Jackie Moy, attend the Summit regularly to find out about the latest developments in appliances and myofunctional orthodontic techniques and learn about recent advances in patient education and compliance programs.
The concept of the Myobrace system remains the same as when it was introduced 25 years ago: the way we swallow and breathe is the primary cause of crooked teeth. The only addition is that now with all the research on sleep disordered breathing and increases in airway issues in children and adults, the Myobrace system is the ideal tool to optimize swallowing and breathing patterns. Dr. Adams reports that crooked teeth, deficient growth of the face and TMJ disorders are all signs of an airway problem, and feels that properly trained dentists like herself who are aware of growth and development are the ideal providers to identify and treat the airway problem.
Georgeanne Limbach and Jackie Moy were most impressed with the new MyOSA system to address sleep disordered breathing in the children they treat. The candidates for the system are any child who exhibits mouth breathing, chronic open lips, snoring, nasal congestion, and enlarged adenoids and tonsils.
Dr. Allison Adams, Jackie Moy, and Georgeanne Limbach from Adams Dental.
Lectures at the Summit included Dr. Chris Farrell, CEO of Myofunctional Research Company, who spoke about the advances to address snoring, sleep disordered breathing and sleep apnea in children and adults. Jackie Moy stated “the new MyoTALEA appliance and exercise regime that was introduced has the ability to simplify and enhance our therapy for our patients.”
Other presenters included Dr. Barry Raphael who spoke about the risk factors for sleep disordered breathing: insufficient development of the face and jaws (seen as small chins and crowded teeth) and anything that interferes with breathing through the nose (allergies, enlarged tonsils or adenoids, and chronic inflammation). He was clear with his message that is supported by research: mouth breathing alone is a significant risk factor in the size of the airway.
Dr. Soroush Zaghi, an ENT trained at Harvard Medical School, UCLA and Stanford, spoke about impact of tongue and lip ties on sleep-disordered breathing and deficient facial growth as a risk factor for upper airway resistance, snoring and sleep apnea. Dr. Adams felt his message was crystal clear “any mouth breathing is not normal and has to be treated and this is what our therapy focuses on”.
The Integrated Wellness Center supports Dr. Farrell’s view that dentists need to “get out of the mouth” and think about the whole patient and the whole body. The Myobrace system consists of a series of appliances coupled with an exercise program and has been used by Dr. Adams for over a decade.