Hello my wonderful TMJoiners! I’m Priya Mistry the TMJ doc and todays video is about tongue posture.
I’ve made many videos about tongue ties, tongue posture, etc
and recently, I’ve been receiving a lot of questions and comments
from people who are trying to attain proper tongue posture by practicing on their own.
So please watch this video until the end, because I explain why it's not a good idea
to try to do this all by yourself! That being said, if you’re looking for more information on
TMJ Disorders, then this is the YouTube channel for you. Be sure to hit that Subscribe button
as I post a new informational video every Friday for people who are suffering from TMJ Disorders!
For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a general dentist with a practice in Vancouver,
Washington - that's not Vancouver BC by the way - where we are dedicated to taking care
of patients with TMJ problems. Please check out the links below if you want to hang out with
me on my other social media platforms. I like to post lots of tips, trivia, lots of general
information about TMJD in general. I post a lot on Instagram, so I would say Instagram and
YouTube are sort of my main "go-tos", so you can find me on those and you can chat with me there.
So let’s get right into it! What is proper tongue posture and why is it important
anyway? Proper tongue posture is having the tip, the middle, and the back of the tongue up
against the roof of the mouth with a light suction. The tongue should be
in this position when we are at rest - when we are not speaking and when we are not chewing.
So take a moment right now to evaluate your tongue posture. Hopefully you're not speaking, while
I'm kind of talking at you. Your lips should be together, your teeth should be slightly apart, and
your tongue - the tip, the middle, and the back - should be up against the roof of the mouth with a
light suction. That is proper tongue posture and what proper tongue does is it actually exerts
forces onto the roof of the mouth. And that's really important when we're young, especially,
because those forces that are exerted onto the roof of the mouth allow the palate to grow to its
full potential. And when the palate - the roof of the mouth - grows to its full potential, then it
can accommodate all of our teeth without crowding thereby eliminating the need for braces. There are
other benefits as well for having proper tongue posture - that's just one. So if you want more
information on that, please watch my video “What is a Tongue Tie?”, which I’ve linked this above.
The vast majority of my TMJD patients have low or improper tongue posture and
they've had this their entire lives. Without going into too much detail in this video,
that low or improper tongue posture may have ultimately led
to TMJ disorders and I cover this in a lot of detail in my video “Tongue Tie & TMJ Disorders”,
which I’ve linked above! Again, the reason I’m talking about tongue posture so much is because
I see a link between low tongue posture and TMJ Disorders very regularly in my practice!
If your tongue is not at the roof of the mouth, this is not ideal. And you are likely
also breathing through your mouth instead of your nose, which is also not ideal. So please
check out my video called “Nasal Breathing vs. Mouth Breathing”, which I've linked above to
understand the difference between nasal breathing and mouth breathing and why that's even important.
Let's get back to the gist of this video. If you want to obtain proper tongue posture, please DO
NOT attempt this on your own. You can over strain and over stretch the muscles of your head, neck,
and jaw and the muscles that surround and support the tongue - of which there are actually many.
You can especially strain those muscles if you have a restricted range of motion in your tongue
because of a tongue tie. So really, you could hurt yourself, do more damage, and cause
pain if you attempt to attain proper tongue posture on your own. So please don't do this.
Instead, PLEASE find a practitioner who provides Myofunctional Therapy! These practitioners
include Speech Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, and even some Dental Hygienists.
So again - please do not try to attain proper tongue posture on your own.
Work with somebody who's skilled at knowing how to do that and who's skilled at recognizing
a potential tongue tie as well. Myofunctional Therapy, to be clear, is physical therapy for
the muscles that surround and support the tongue and is a safe and effective way to obtain proper
tongue posture without hurting yourself! So for more information on myofunctional therapy, please
check out my video called “What is Myofunctional Therapy?” which is also linked above.
So again - friendly reminder - please do NOT try to obtain proper tongue posture on your own!
You could hurt yourself and you could cause pain. So that’s really it my friends. If
you like what you heard, if you learned something new, click “Like” below, Subscribe to my channel,
do all the things! Questions and comments are always welcome. And remember, my friends,
you can never have TMI about TMJ! Thank you!