As a chiropractor, one of my favourite topics is preventable health issues, and one thing that I've been learning a lot about lately is oral development. As a society, we've just accepted that crooked teeth and braces are a normal part of life. But what if I told you that our daily habits and diet are changing the structure of our skulls? What if I told you that we have an opportunity to enhance our children's overall health, postural and skeletal development, cognitive function and development by working on their airways and breathing habits?

You may or may not know that our facial structures have changed greatly over the past century. Historically our diet consisted of tougher, more fibrous foods that required lots of chewing, which stimulated and strengthened the jaw muscles to promote proper growth. Our modern diet of soft, processed foods often require little chewing, meaning the muscles aren't putting in much effort, which also means that our jaw and facial bones aren't growing enough. That lack of mechanical stimulus is leading to smaller and narrower jaws, which can result in misaligned/crooked teeth since the dental arch is underdeveloped. 

An underdeveloped face is more than just crooked teeth though - it's also important for things like proper breathing, eating/drinking/swallowing and communication. Form follows function, meaning that dysfunctional form creates improper form. One example of this is when the jaw is improperly formed, you can have things like tongue thrusts (where the tongue is pushing through the gap in the teeth) and the lips are often open (leading to mouth breathing).

I'm currently taking the Practitioner Protocols of the Myo Munchee, and one of the key things they talk about is the importance of chewing our food. We've outsourced chewing for our kids, meaning we constantly provide them with soft foods (purees, yogurt, oatmeal, and those handy suck pouches). They highlight the importance of chewing foods for a long time, with your lips closed, and breathing between bites. They also highlight all the different uses of the Myo Munchee tool, including helping with proper oral hygiene and gum disease, as a general oral exercise tool, and to aid in malocclusion and overall facial and oral posture.

If you're interested in learning more about the Myo Munchee, send me an email at drmariepier@oaktreehealth.ca and I'll forward you some information. Myo Munchees are also available at all of our locations (Stittsville, Downtown or Orleans - you may just want to check ahead for sizes!)

Happy chewing!

Dr. Marie-Pier, Stittsville Chiropractor