THE OROFACIAL MYOFUNCTIONAL THERAPY IN CHILDREN WITH DOWN SYNDROME

Abstract

Background: Orofacial myology or orofacial myofunctional therapy is promising therapy for management of all orofacial muscles problems. It was found that long period of application of orofacial myology improval orofacial muscles strength. Objectives: To improve specific health problems related to orofacial muscles hypotonia and weakness in children with Down syndrome by utilization of orofacial myology to strengthen orofacial muscles, improve facial expression, mastication, swallowing, speech and articulation disorders and to decrease drooling. Methods: This descriptive analytic and followup study of children with down syndrome enrolled 80 subjects and all children were subjected to orofacial myofucntional therapy by using lip trainer Patakara device to strengthen orofacial muscles, to improve facial expression, swallowing and eating, speech and articulation and to decrease drooling. Results: long period of application of lip trainer patakara device leads to improvement of orofacial muscles strength, facial expression disability, speech and articulation disability, eating and swallowing disabilities and drooling. There was a significant relationship between the age of DS children and improvement of facial expression disability and eating and swallowing disability and no significant relationship between the age of DS children and the other variables (orofacial muscles strength, speech and articulation disability and drooling). There was a direct relationship between the age of DS children and facial expression disability improvement and an inverse relationship between the age of DS children and the other variables (orofacial muscles strength, speech and articulation, eating and swallowing and drooling). There was an inverse relationship between orofacial muscles improvement and the other variables (facial expression disability, speech and articulation disability, eating and swallowing disability and drooling). There was a significant relationship between orofacial muscles strength improvement and the other variables (speech and articulation, eating and swallowing disability and drooling), but there was no significant relationship between orofacial muscles strength improvement and facial expression disability improvement.