We work with individuals of all ages— infants, children, and adults!

Simply put, improving your swallow can help your speech, sleep, breathing, and eating. It helps low, forward tongue resting posture, open mouth posture, mouth breathing, messy eating, and a variety of speech-language disorders. Myo targets the root cause of a patient’s difficulties and is backed by science to treat a variety of disorders. It honors your airway as a critical variable to your quality of sleep, which is critical for how you feel, handle your emotions, focus, and recall information.

Yes. Many insurances will require an evaluation for reimbursement to be considered, but it's also necessary for quality therapy specific to the muscles we're working with.

We require evaluations to be in-person but are very supportive of virtual therapy sessions going forward! An occasional in-person session may be required every 1-2 months, but we will do our best to work with you!

We offer in-person services in our Rochester clinic and virtually throughout Michigan and Ohio.

It is ideal to monitor, and possibly guide, a child’s growth to optimize and shape the head, airway, and oral structures to optimize healthy function for life. Dysfunctional behaviors continue and become quite ingrained patterns. In puberty, the skull bones become "cemented" in place. Early intervention promotes healthy bodies, time in the classroom, limits therapy, and establishes restful sleep. Benefits can start immediately and last a lifetime to improve oral and medical health.

Research shows there’s a cost associated to the health complications for both oral and whole-body health: prescriptions, medical supplies, cavities, pain, oral dysfunction, periodontal disease, malocclusion, sleep disordered breathing, speech-language disorders, ADHD, learning difficulties, and psycho-social wellbeing.

Following an evaluation, a personalized therapy plan is created. Some patients need support to stop an oral habit like finger or thumb sucking. Nasal breathing is taught and supported in all patients. Exercises are then provided to improve your oral rest posture (where your mouth goes at rest), swallow, and speaking. Consider it physical therapy for your tongue and face! These exercises strengthen your tongue, jaw, and lips. Next, correct oral rest posture, chewing/swallowing, and articulation skills are taught.

It depends on what best fits your schedule and individualized needs. Some households prefer a fast, intense burst of therapy, whereas others need a slightly slower rate (such as every 2 weeks).

Our team has found nearly all ages are most successful with a 45 or 60 minute session. It promotes a highly focused session and the best results for our patients. Individualized needs are always considered.

It's unethical and unprofessional for us to provide anyone a specific number. There are many factors, such as your attendance and homework, which can significantly reduce the number of sessions necessary. In general, many patients attend therapy for 6-12 months. The frequency of sessions may change as your therapy levels increase or may pause for orthodontic treatment. Your therapist can discuss this more specifically with you following your evaluation.

To best address our patients’ needs and provide our very best clinical work, we are an out-of-network service provider. Our services are often covered by out-of-network benefits, but this varies with each plan. We will provide you with step-by-step written guidance to make this process as easy as possible to seek reimbursement with your insurance company. We do not participate with Medicaid or Medicare.

We do all of the work except submit the paperwork to your insurance company. Once you submit the paperwork, your insurance company may reimburse your services directly to you.

It is very unlikely. School-based services are provided to allow students to access the curriculum; there needs to be a social, behavioral, or academic reason to receive services. Even if Speech services are provided, a clinician needs to obtain significant training in orofacial myofunctional disorders; it is a specialty with an extensive knowledge base and is quickly evolving. Additionally, a medical team is often critical for team collaboration, and this is very challenging to support in the school setting. Further, many clinicians don’t understand that the exercises are training specific muscles to facilitate a strong, healthy swallow.

Many times, they’re looking to see if the frenulum (“string”) goes to the tongue tip; very few tongue ties do. Very few individuals, in any field, have had more than a brief lecture on a tongue tie; of those who did, the tongue’s function is rarely discussed. Even if the frenulum looks very small or thin, it can have a huge impact on how the tongue functions for eating, sleeping, speaking, and breathing! We pride ourselves on being pretty darn nerdy to provide you the very best, current, and research-based care!

We would love to collaborate with your team! We acknowledge we can't do everything, and we would love to work together to help you become your best!

Not all tongue restrictions need to be released; when there is an impact on how the person is functioning, a referral is typically made. There are many phases in life where a tongue tie may be identified:

Birth: Poor latch/suck; difficulty breastfeeding and/or bottle feeding; gastrointestinal issues such as reflux, constipation

Nutrition: difficulty transitioning to solid foods or to different textures; picky eating

Dental exam: a dentist may notice an impact on your teeth

Speech deficits: speech sound difficulty, slow progress in therapy, mumbling

Orthodontia: teeth shift after orthodontia

Learning or sleep difficulties: waking unrested can have a substantial impact on one’s ability to pay attention/focus, remember, and can also affect moods

While it initially seems logical, the body and its systems are far too complex. Giving a tongue additional range of motion is great, but we have to teach the brain and tongue how to work together (neuromuscular facilitation). Without myo, your tongue remains with the old, poor functioning habits. Myo gives your tongue strength and coordination, then teaches it what to do.

Your treatment team has an ethical obligation to determine when you are ready for your release, and if necessary, to refuse the procedure if you do not demonstrate readiness. Myo exercises allow your provider to know how much tongue to release, while also protecting your tongue from injury.

Many times, a release at the hospital or clinic may be enough to allow successful breastfeeding, but other signs and symptoms of a tongue tie reappear when the child is older. All practitioners want to be careful in their procedure to only release what they have to. If signs and symptoms of a tongue tie appear, a revision may be necessary, but we'll always do our best work with therapy first!

No. A tongue or airway that is not working optimally will not fix itself. Instead, the body finds another muscle (or group of muscles!) to help out as a compensation. These compensations can be seen in infants as young as 1 week old! The older a person gets, the more muscle compensations are developed and the deeper ingrained these behaviors and symptoms become.

Orthodontic relapse: the “undoing” of your orthodontic treatment

Sleep disordered breathing: snoring, restless sleep, waking unrefreshed, difficulty focusing/attending, sleep apnea; Many parents are criticized for not putting their child to bed early enough, but it’s about the quality of sleep, not the quantity that’s the issue.

Difficulty learning due to the sleep issues: poor memory and attention

Parents often feel pressured to pursue ADHD diagnosis and medicate

Speech difficulty: therapy time out of the classroom, stuttering, mumbling, short phrases, articulation difficulty, lisping

Therapists, patients, and parents often feel frustration for slow progress

Patients lose faith in the therapy process; many hear or feel “they didn’t try, they were lazy”

Posture difficulty: pain or tension is often experienced in TMJ, neck, and back

Mouth breathing, open-mouth posture: again, this leads to sleep disordered breathing, but also more respiratory illnesses and anxiety

Eating issues: picky eating, limited diets, messy eating, open mouth chewing, digestive issues (reflux and constipation are most commonly reported)

Psycho-social issues: countless patients tell us how they are yelled at for how they stand, walk, eat, talk, or how they’re not following directions, listening, or paying attention— but they’re trying their best! They want to please others but are identified as being difficult at home or school. We see these “difficult” behaviors disappear once the airway issue is addressed!