• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.279-287
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• 2019

Background: Increasing age and loss of teeth weaken oral muscle strength. This study aimed to investigate the positive effects of orofacial myofunctional training on elderly people. Methods: Thirty six elderly individuals in a welfare center and a senior citizen center were included in this study. A survey regarding lip and tongue strength suvsequent to orofacial myofunctional training and oral health-related quality of life was conducted from April to June, 2019. Data were analyzed using PASW statistics ver. 18.0. Results: The experimental group, showed an increase in lip strength (from 9.79 to 10.31) and tongue strength (from 41.26 to 43.97) after orofacial myofunctional training. The perception of oral health-relatedquality of life was enhanced (from 2.26 to 2.07). In particular, the frequency of dry cough for food removal while swallowing decresed due to an incresed in the secretion of saliva (p<0.05). Correlation analysis showed that the number of functional teeth was positively related to oral health-related quality of life. Conclusion: Orofacial myofunctional training for improving lip and tongue strength is effective in the elderly. In older societies, oral strength should be maintained to improve oral health-related quality of life. It also suggests the interest of oral health workers and applying orofacial myofunctional training programs.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.119-126
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• 2019

Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) induces dysfunction of the orofacial muscles, leading to morphologic alteration of the face and dental malalignment. Early diagnosis and treatment of SDB is required in pediatric patients to ensure normal facial growth. Myofunctional therapy (MFT) is a modality for the treatment of SDB and prefabricated appliances can be used. Herein 2 cases of malocclusion with SDB, in which MFT with a prefabricated appliance was used for orthodontic treatment, have been described. SDB was diagnosed based on clinical symptoms taken by interview and home respiratory polygraphy. In both cases, SDB was improved using prefabricated appliance for MFT. However, resolution of crowding depended on the degree of crowding.

• The Journal of Korea Assosiation for Disability and Oral Health
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.19-22
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• 2017

Moyamoya disease is characterized by progressive bilateral narrowing of the internal carotid arteries(ICA) and their main branches, and formation of a fine vascular network (moyamoya vessels) at the base of brain. Mild intellectual or motor impairment, or both can be seen in moyamoya disease patient. Patients having intellectual disability usually have malocclusions associated with oral habits such as tongue thrusting, bruxism, or clenching. A patient with moyamoya disease and cerebral palsy visited Chonbuk National University hospital for dental examination. She showed mild openbite on anterior teeth, and had oral habits such as mouth breathing, tongue thrusting, and drooling. She was treated with myofunctional therapy(MFT) whose purpose was to strengthen orofacial muscles. Lip closing force and bite force were recorded to evaluate the muscle tone. Tongue crib was delivered to restrict tongue thrusting habit, since her compliance to the MFT was decreased after 6 months of treatment. With the MFT and tongue crib, the openbite was fairly improved. When myofunctional therapy has difficulty in obtaining good compliances, the treatment should not be effective enough. Although intellectually disabled patients are not compliant enough, thus a habit breaking device should be needed to treat the openbite caused by oral habits, dentist should make an effort to do MFT, since it could reduce a treatment period, and enhance the stability.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.229-235
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• 2005

A problem that affects children's dentitions is the harmful habit which is difficult to treat. Harmful habits for children are such as abnormal swallowing patterns, low/forward tongue rest posture problem, habitual open-lips resting posture, habitual mouth-breathing, excessive digital sucking habit and tongue thrusting. Tongue thrusting habits cause a bit of cranio-facial skeletal changes and a great deal of dental malocclusion such as anterior open bite. Anterior open bite causes masticatory, speech, and esthetic problems in the growing children and difficulties in diagnosis, treatment, and the prediction of its prognosis. The treatments of such abnormal behaviors involve orofacial myofunctional therapy and using of habit breaking appliance. The prognosis is not determined by the presence of severity of oral habit but the skeletal tendency of the patient. Usage of tongue crib resulted in not only the discontinuance of the habit but also improvement in overbite and overbite. This study showed that relatively successful results could be generated by using removable tongue crib and myofunctional therapy in the case of openbite related to tongue thrusting habit.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.343-352
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• 2019

Abnormal orofacial functions such as lip incompetency in the period of growth and development can cause morphological anomalies of the craniofacial complex. Therefore, it is crucial to make an early diagnosis based on the evaluation of the myofunctional conditions, and to make appropriate treatment plans. The objectives of this study were to quantitatively evaluate the standard lip closing force (LCF) of each age in the elementary school children, and to evaluate the relationships between LCF and affecting factors. The sample consisted of 765 children who were 7 - 12 years old in Jeonju city. Clinical examination about occlusal conditions and lip competency, and LCF measurement were performed by a single examiner. LCF was measured three times for each children with the LCF measuring device. The LCF was correlated positively with age in both sexes. The distribution of LCF groups was correlated significantly with Angle's classes and lip competency (p = 0.016, 0.004). The proportion of children with high LCFs was greater in the "competent lip" group, whereas the proportion of those with low LCFs was greater in the "incompetent lip" group.