Myofunctional therapy for tongue thrust in adults is an important non-surgical option for adults addressing oral-facial weakness and appearance.
Tongue thrust, often associated with childhood development, is a condition that can persist into adulthood. This can lead to dental misalignment, speech difficulties, jaw tension, and even TMJ disorders.
Moreover, many adults struggle with improper tongue posture without realizing its impact on their overall oral health and function. Fortunately, myofunctional therapy offers a structured, non-invasive approach to correcting tongue thrust and retraining the orofacial muscles for optimal function.
Understanding Adult Tongue Thrust
Tongue thrust in adults occurs when the tongue pushes forward against or between the teeth during swallowing, speech, or rest.
This habit can develop early in life but often continues into adulthood due to uncorrected muscle patterns, airway concerns, or structural issues such as tongue-tie (ankyloglossia).
Unlike in children, where the focus is often on prevention and early intervention, adults require more intensive muscle retraining to reverse the effects of long-standing compensatory habits.
What is Myofunctional Therapy for Tongue Thrust?
To fully understand myofunctional therapy and its related exercises, it’s essential to break down some of these related key terms:
Orofacial
The term “orofacial” refers to the structures of the mouth (oral) and face (facial). This includes the lips, cheeks, tongue, jaw, and all related muscles, bones, and connective tissues.
When looking at Orofacial function it encompasses activities such as speaking, chewing, swallowing, and breathing. This relies on proper coordination of the orofacial structures.
Oral Motor
The phrase “Oral motor” pertains to the movement and coordination of the muscles in the mouth, including the lips, tongue, cheek, and jaw.
Oral motor skills are critical for tasks such as eating, speaking, and maintaining proper oral hygiene. Our Orofacial myofunctional therapy exercises often aim to strengthen oral motor skills and correct dysfunctional patterns.
Myofascial Release
Next, we look at “Myofascial release”, a therapeutic technique used to alleviate tension in the fascia, the connective tissue surrounding muscles.
In the context of OMT, myofascial release involves gentle, manual manipulation of the oral and facial tissues,
This is done to improve mobility and reduce restrictions caused by tethered oral tissues (TOTs) or muscular tightness.
This technique is particularly beneficial for individuals with TOTs as it helps restore functional range of motion.
By defining these words and terms, we can better understand how orofacial myofunctional therapy exercises (OMT) work to improve oral and facial function.
There is an overlap in the terminology with underlying principles of improving the oral muscles to better perform functional tasks.
Plus, we love to abbreviate and use initials such as OMT, TOTs, OM (oral motor), and Myo (because “myofunctional therapy” is a mouthful), so it’s nice to know they are all basically saying the same thing!
Contributing Factors to Myofunctional Therapy for Tongue Thrust in Adults
Several factors contribute to tongue thrust in adulthood, including:
- Chronic Mouth Breathing – Often caused by allergies, nasal obstructions, or airway issues, mouth breathing forces the tongue into a low resting position, reinforcing a forward thrusting habit.
- Untreated or Relapsed Orthodontic Work – If tongue thrust wasn’t addressed alongside orthodontic treatment, teeth may shift back to their original positions. Open bites leave space for the tongue to poke through.
- Myofascial Imbalances – Tightness in the jaw, neck, or tongue muscles can impact proper tongue posture and movement.
- Tongue-Tie (Ankyloglossia) – A restricted lingual frenulum can limit tongue mobility, leading to compensatory forward tongue thrusting. A consistent misconception is that the tongue is not tied if it can protrude past the teeth. But in fact, the opposite is true. A posterior tongue tie will allow the tip to move outward as it compensates for poor posterior tongue movements.
- Neuromuscular Adaptations – Some individuals develop tongue thrust as a result of prolonged bottle, thumb sucking, or pacifier use in early childhood that was never corrected. Prolonged use indicates that the habit lasted past age three and the muscles developed around the object (bottle, thumb, pacifier). Typically, the tongue will be low resting and not able to rest in the palate when an object obstructs that range for a prolonged period.
Consequences of Tongue Thrust in Adults
Many adults are unaware that tongue thrust can be the hidden culprit behind ongoing oral health issues. If left unaddressed, tongue thrust can lead to:
- Orthodontic Relapse – Even after years of braces or Invisalign, a persistent tongue thrust can push teeth back into misalignment. The tongue is a strong muscle and will cause the palatal arches and the teeth to move out of alignment.
- Speech Difficulties – Adults with tongue thrust often experience subtle speech distortions, particularly with /s/ and /z/ sounds. A tendency toward slurring or slushy speech if talking quickly is noted and fatigue when talking for longer periods.
- TMJ Disorders & Jaw Pain – Improper tongue posture contributes to imbalances in the jaw, often exacerbating TMJ pain, headaches, and muscle tension. The tongue is the control center of the mouth and jaw. When it is out of place, the jaw will follow it. This displacement places undo stress on the jaw and can lead to pain over time. Headaches often accompany jaw pain.
- Gum Recession & Tooth Wear – Constant pressure from the tongue against the teeth can lead to excessive force, contributing to gum recession and enamel wear. Poor range of motion with the tongue equals food debris left behind on the teeth. If lip or cheek ties are present, the gums are pulled upward, and recession is exaggerated.
Myofunctional Therapy for Tongue Thrust in Adults
Unlike in children, where habits can be modified more easily, adults require a more structured approach to breaking years or even decades of incorrect muscle patterns. Myofunctional therapy provides a series of exercises to retrain the tongue and orofacial muscles for proper function, ultimately resolving tongue thrust at its root cause.
Key Goals of Myofunctional Therapy for Adults
- Achieve Proper Tongue Resting Posture – The tongue should rest against the roof of the mouth, not the teeth. It should not be low resting near the bottom teeth. It should not push out against the bottom teeth. When resting in the palate it supports the oral structures and is not working against them.
- Reprogram Swallowing Patterns – Adults must learn to swallow with a correct, controlled tongue movement without pushing forward against the teeth. Also known as a reverse swallow, the tongue thrust swallow places too much pressure against the front teeth. It does not elevate to the palate or use adequate force to propel food down the throat. This can lead to digestive upset.
- Correct Oral Posture – Strengthening the lips, cheeks, and tongue to support proper oral function and breathing. Likely, if the tongue is out of place, other muscle groups in the lips, cheeks, and jaw have slid out of alignment to compensate and help. When addressing a tongue thrust exercises may also be needed to address other oral muscles.
- Address Myofascial Tension – Releasing muscle tightness in the face, jaw, and neck to improve mobility and function. The underlying fascia system is often in need of releasing tension. The fascia is woven through the skin and muscles and may develop hiccups through compensation and recruitment.
Myofunctional Therapy Exercises for Adults with Tongue Thrust
Here are some examples of exercises that may be useful when addressing tongue thrust correction. However, keep in mind that root causes need to be uncovered to best develop an exercise plan to restore proper function.
Tongue Tip Hold
Place the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge (the area just behind the upper front teeth). Hold this position for 10 seconds and repeat 10x with mouth closed. Then open your mouth wide and repeat the exercise 10x for 10 seconds hold each time. Be careful to steady the jaw and not allow any sliding or jutting forward to stabilize the elevated tongue.
Tongue clicks
Suck the entire tongue up into the palate and then snap it downward to create a loud click. Perform 10x ensuring that the 10th click is as strong as the first click.
Tongue Side–Spread
Focusing on the posterior area flex the tongue edges out to the molars and gently bite molars to hold the tongue edges for one second. Then relax the tongue back to skinny and repeat side-spread hold 10x. Do not tense the jaw.
Tongue Lateralization
Alternate the tongue tip to touch the right then left molar on the bottom. Repeat 10x and do not tense the jaw or glide the jaw side to side with the tongue movements.
Tongue Bowl
With the mouth slightly open curl the tongue edges up to create a bowl shape. You may need to facilitate this first. Facilitate this shaping by placing your finger in the center of your tongue and gently pressing it down. Then let the lateral edges curl up around the finger. Repeat 10x.
Proper Swallow Training
Typically, you will need a trained therapist to examine exactly what is happening on your swallow. Then corrections to proper tongue alignment would be made. This can take some time to fully correct. Below we will go into more detail on this.
Cheek Resistance Exercise
Using a balloon blow it up. Don’t pre-stretch it. Use the cheek muscles to squeeze the air into the balloon. Repeat 10x.
Button Pull Exercise
Place a button tied to a string between the lips, then gently pull the string while keeping the lips closed. This builds lip strength and helps eliminate an open-mouth posture. Repeat 10x.
Retraining Proper Swallow as Myofunctional Therapy for Tongue Thrust in Adults
Tongue resting posture is the first and most important goal of tongue thrust therapy. Followed by a close second is correcting the swallow patterns. Tongue thrust therapy must focus on correcting the reverse swallow to be fully successful.
As mentioned, this can take a few months to complete and may seem frustrating at the onset. It will feel foreign and odd to use a correct pattern after a lifetime of using an incorrect pattern.
Steps to Improving Your Swallow
There are several steps to follow. One, rule out tongue tie. If there is a tongue tie then this process will involve a surgical release of that tie to achieve a complete range of motion for effective swallow retraining.
Grab our free tongue tie self-assessment to check out your tongue structure and rule out or identify the presence of a tie.
Two, begin with a straw. In our above-listed exercises, we noted tongue bowl and tongue clicks. These exercises tie directly into the movements we require for proper swallowing.
Begin with gently closing your teeth, and pursing your lips. Place the straw tip into the pursed lips, being sure to prevent it from entering the teeth and remaining in front of the teeth. Suck the water up, visualize the tongue bowl shaping from your exercise practice. Hold the water, then squeeze the tongue up as in the tongue-click exercises to swallow the water bolus. Repeat this several times as practice.
Make this a daily practice for all liquid intake. Once this feels comfortable move on to the third step of open-cup drinking utilizing the same principles.
Next, we move on to the step of solid foods.
Solid foods add in the new dynamic of lateralization. The tongue now needs to move food from left to right while chewing. Then form a bolus of that chewed food and initiate elevation for the swallow.
Having a trained therapist on board to direct this and guide the process is optimal. We need guidance on success and tweaks to ensure that we are doing it correctly after a lifetime of reverse swallow patterns.
The Importance of Consistency Myofunctional Therapy for Tongue Thrust in Adults
For adults, myofunctional therapy requires a daily commitment to see lasting changes. Unlike children, whose muscle patterns are still developing, adults need consistent practice to break old habits and form new ones.
Typically, therapy lasts 6-8 months, but improvements are often noticeable within the first few weeks of dedicated practice.
Finding a consistent routine can be key. Pairing the exercises with something you already do can ensure that carryover happens. When brushing your teeth you’re already in front of the mirror. This can be a perfect time to get your myofunctional therapy exercises in and done.
Working with Professionals when Establishing Myofunctional Therapy for Tongue Thrust in Adults
Correcting tongue thrust as an adult often requires a multidisciplinary approach. Working with trained professionals can optimize results:
- Myofunctional Therapists – Specialists in orofacial muscle training, they guide adults through structured exercise programs tailored to their needs.
- Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) – SLPs help correct any speech-related issues stemming from tongue thrust. Maybe the best-positioned therapist to address speech and swallowing skills alongside myofunctional therapy exercises.
- Orthodontists & Dentists – If orthodontic relapse has occurred, collaboration with a dental professional ensures proper tooth alignment alongside therapy.
- Osteopaths or Myofascial Release Therapists – Addressing fascial restrictions can enhance tongue mobility and postural balance.
Working with a preferred provider is key to success. There is controversy within the Speech and dentistry fields over the efficacy of myofunctional interventions. Choosing a professional with expertise in this area saves you time and streamlines your journey.
We like this website Tongue Tie Life to identify local professionals in your area.
Adult Transformations Through Myofunctional Therapy
Many adults have successfully retrained their tongues and eliminated tongue thrust through dedicated myofunctional therapy.
Furthermore, studies have shown that structured therapy can improve swallowing patterns, reduce TMJ pain, and even enhance overall facial aesthetics. This is achieved by strengthening and balancing the orofacial muscles.
Taking the First Steps Myofunctional Therapy for Tongue Thrust in Adults
If you suspect that tongue thrust is affecting your oral health, speech, or overall comfort, it’s never too late to address it.
The first step is an evaluation with a myofunctional therapist. A trained speech-language pathologist who can assess your tongue posture, swallowing patterns, and muscle function.
From there, a personalized therapy plan can be developed to help you retrain your orofacial muscles and achieve long-term relief.
Final Thoughts Myofunctional Therapy for Tongue Thrust in Adults
Adult tongue thrust is more than just an oral habit. It can have lasting effects on your dental health, speech clarity, and overall well-being.
Myofunctional therapy offers an effective, non-invasive solution to correct this issue and restore proper function. With dedication and professional guidance, adults can successfully overcome tongue thrusts and enjoy the benefits of a healthier oral posture.
Are you ready to take control of your oral health? Contact a myofunctional therapist today and start your journey to correcting tongue thrust for good!
Check out Lynn’s Tied Together BLOG for more articles on tongue ties and myofunctional therapy.