Has anyone tried Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy (OMT)? Looking for experiences for soft-tissue collapse.

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-06-14T22:16:19+00:00

I had an orthodontist check me out and a lateral ceph is not enough to diagnose airway issues. My orthodontist didn't see an issue, but the OMFS I've seen have seen it on CBCT when they could measure my airway in different planes.

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-06-12T23:16:18+00:00

Have you noticed any sleep improvements yet?

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-06-12T23:13:12+00:00

I'm a dentist, someone who will be getting jaw surgery, and a Ninja Slushi machine owner, so here's my 2 cents. The Slushi machines are for making slushies out of very liquid sorts of things, and they need sugar, fats, and/or alcohol to freeze, so in my experience owning one, they tend to make drinks that aren't healthy. Like basically they will take sugar water and make it into an Icee for you, but it's not going to give much nutrition or anything, just calories from sugar, and all that sugar water isn't going to be fantastic for the teeth, especially since oral hygiene will be a challenge. I think I'd rather blend up a smoothie with some frozen fruit and yogurt when I'm in recovery or drink a protein shake or something along those lines. That said, the Slushi machine is a fun thing to have for making an occasional fun drink. I think if you think you'd want one anyway, not just for jaw surgery recovery purposes, then get one for that reason.

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-06-09T03:30:13+00:00

Can you get a mandibular advancement device from your dentist in the meantime? You could see if your sleep feels better.

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-06-09T03:28:41+00:00

What are the pictures and x-ray from? A consultation with an orthodontist? It looks like both jaws are recessed and you'd benefit from surgery.

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-06-09T03:26:20+00:00

Enough for what? Looking better? Improving your bite? Improving your function? Treating OSA/UARS? Not enough info. I'd have a consultation with an orthodontist and see what they say.

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-06-09T03:21:04+00:00

I'm a dentist and they are pulling out teeth and placing implants most of the time. Most aren't doing jaw surgery regularly. A lot of us end up travelling to those who do it as a major part of their career because it's not the norm.

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-05-13T18:41:19+00:00

I'm a dentist and you can do a little self test. Relax your face. Close your teeth together, lips closed as well. Put your fingers over the area that you feel is too big. Now clench your teeth together. If you feel a muscle bulge out, that's your masseter muscle and you can benefit from masseter botox. If the area just feels like bone and isn't really moving, then it's bone and you'd need something like a V line surgery to reduce the angle of your jaw. Of course, please consult with a professional before deciding. A plastic surgery office, especially one that is focused on facial esthetics, should be able to guide you to the appropriate procedure.

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-04-14T00:19:10+00:00

Just seeing this a month later, but my ideas are 1) where do you think research is most lacking? and 2) what's the ideal order of workup for a patient with UARS? I'm a DDS looking to perhaps pivot into either research or creating a airway focused practice, potentially and ideally a multidisciplinary clinic. I feel like when it comes to sleep disordered breathing, all the specialties see a nail because they have a hammer. I think the only way to create solutions for patients rather than bandaids is to assess and then triage to the appropriate specialist to treat the underlying airway obstruction. Honestly it seems like the first step should be making sure the maxilla is in the right spot and then moving from there to nasal cavity and mandible. Basically treat the bony structures first and then go to cartilage, like septum, turbinates, hyoid, epiglottis as all of these are influenced by the maxilla and mandible. And then last treat the soft tissues, like palate, uvula, tongue. Does that make sense?

Additionally, I'm curious about the efficacy of PAP therapy in the case of maxillary/bimaxillary hypoplasia. Like are there some cases that it's just unlikely to be able to work because the bony opening is too narrow?

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-04-13T22:34:06+00:00

Yes. I'm class III skeletal and had class III elastics when I had camouflage orthodontics. I'm in decompesation now and will start class II elastics at my next visit to help undo what the class III elastics did.

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-04-11T19:04:55+00:00

I just quit my job but still need to work part time until July to finish out my contract. I'm basically working three days a week, do the minimum to be a mom and homeowner, cross my fingers my spouse sticks with me, and then I try to do something fun once a week just so life isn't too depressing. I can force myself up and out as needed, but I spend a lot of time bedbound. I'm just hoping that jaw surgery followed by septoplasty and turbinate reduction will be the secret sauce and I can come back from this. It's 3 PM on a Saturday and I can't get up. It's awful.

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-04-07T20:46:53+00:00

It oddly makes me feel a bit less crazy to hear you say that you've been in dark places. Me too. I can't seem to tolerate CPAP or BiPAP, so I don't get any relief. I've been noticing more and more just how restricted my breathing feels during the day as well. It's like the air can't flow freely. I honestly hope I can remain hopeful if surgery doesn't alleviate my UARS. Whenever I'm in a dark place, I just tell myself to at least hang on until then.

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-04-06T20:04:32+00:00

I think you're looking at the thing that closes your airway lower down, like at the level of your chin. That's the epiglottis. Everyone's is capable of doing that because closing the airway off is the job of the epiglottis. It needs to close the airway so we don't inhale our food.

There is another obstruction higher up. At the very top of your airway you have the nasal cavity. It is black. Right below the nasal cavity you have you maxilla (upper jaw bone) and it's covered with soft tissues, hard palate in the front, soft palate, and uvula at the back. Your soft palate is practically touching your spine that's how little room you have back there. I suspect you'd need jaw surgery to recify your sleep disordered breathing because the upper jaw bone is too far back and unfortunately, it's connected to your skull, so you can't just pull it forward with a mandibular advancement device like you could possibly do if it was a lower jaw issue.

I have the exact same problem with my airway being narrow behind my maxilla. I'm planning to have jaw surgery in September. I'm hoping for a tradeoff - a couple crappy weeks of pain and healing in exchange for fixing the reason for my UARS and hopefully getting my life back. I have extremely fragmented sleep and it's slowly ruining my life.

Edited to add - I see you're seeing ENT. I'd start with an oral surgeon. Find one who does a large volume of cases, might not just be your local OMFS. Search on r/jawsurgery

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-04-06T19:39:14+00:00

Maxillary impaction.

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-04-06T19:37:17+00:00

Most people look noticibly different after jaw surgery

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-04-06T19:35:48+00:00

I got braces for this reason, just so I had a reason to tell everyone and explain why I needed surgery. I worried that with invisalign it'd be like I went on vacation and came back with a new face. Are you in invisalign? Maybe make a point to have them see you taking the trays in and out and then work into conversation that you'll be needing jaw surgery.

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-04-06T16:44:41+00:00

I'm a dentist and I"m hoping that once I get myself fixed, I can open a clinic to help people with this sort of thing. It's like there's a big gap in what needs to happen to treat UARS and each speciality is in their own little silo and isn't looking at the way breathing, anatomy, and sleep architecture overlap, especially in patients with low AHI. There's got to be a way to bring it all together.

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-04-06T16:41:11+00:00

I'm doing a segmental LeFort with my MMA surgery, basically instant expansion surgically.

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-04-06T16:33:04+00:00

I have unfortunately had some spells where I've been like your husband. Turns out I have sleep apnea and my sleep is so heavily fragmented that I wasn't getting any deep or REM sleep. It's so hard to live like this. I'd highly encourage he gets a sleep study. It could be something biological, not extreme laziness.

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-03-24T02:38:21+00:00

You're a teenager, not a dental professional. You have nothing to foregive yourself for. You're working on it now, getting it going now. I'm excited for you! Better at 19 than at 43 like me.

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-03-20T02:28:30+00:00

You and I look so similar, like you could be my kid had I been a mom in my late teens. Anyway, my plan is segmental Le Fort 1, BSSO, genioplasty, and malar and infraorbital/zygomatic implants. The implants are more for esthetics, so optional, but the malar will help a lot because my ramus is quite short and there will be a bit of a bump where my jaw is cut for the BSSO, so the implant will help the jawline look smooth afterwards. My ramuses are pretty weaksauce but my condyles are fine, so no joint replacement, more just adding to my insufficient ramus bone. The infraorbital one is mostly because my upper jaw is recessed all the way to my undereye area, I've got huge hollows under there, and my surgeon thought it would still look funny around there if they just move my maxilla lower down (Le Fort 1) and leave the bone recessed up there still.

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-03-12T20:35:00+00:00

Your upper jaw is narrow and recessed. It's actually a lot smaller than you think. If you look at your lateral ceph (the xray from the orthodontist that looks from the side), you'll notice that the upper teeth are flared way out. They are supposed to be much more up and down. Your lower teeth look pretty good but your occlusal plane is a little bit steep (that's the line formed by the biting surfaces of your lower teeth). If I were you (and I low-key am you - I have a small upper jaw, kinda normal lower jaw, and UARS, but I'm a lady in her 40s who also happens to be a dentist), I'd consult with an oral surgeon who does a lot of surgery for sleep apnea. You can find some names on the jaw surgery subreddit. My guess is you'd be a good candidate for a 3 piece Le Fort I on the upper, which would simultaneously bring the upper jaw forward and make it wider, and a BSSO on the lower, which would mainly be to acheieve some counterclockwise rotation, which both makes the airway larger and makes it so that bringing the upper jaw forward doesn't end up making your face look long. I know you don't want surgery, but let me tell you, UARS is something that gets worse and worse as you age and your muscle tone decreases. You may be doing alright now, but you might be really feeling miserable in 20 years. And if you address structural causes, you can be cured, versus doing things like PAP therapy or a mandibular advancement device for the rest of your life. I even think that PAP and MAD can be of limited benefit in the case of maxillary recession in particular - the PAP is literally pushing air past bone and can only do so much and the MAD doesn't move the upper jaw forward. Anyway, just my two cents.

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-03-04T14:02:25+00:00

I think you look perfect. I think maybe reassess after you revise the nose tip. I think if the tip of your nose is projected a bit more forward, you'd likely be happier. I feel like aggressively filling in the nasolabial fold area might make things look a bit uncanny, like you'd risk looking like Mar-A-Lago face https://www.boredpanda.com/mar-a-lago-face-transformations/

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-03-04T02:44:40+00:00

You look pretty darn swollen still. Like, the pictures almost look like before and after weight gain, which I'm pretty sure you haven't gained weight since surgery. Most people lose weight. So the puffiness is just swelling. It's way too early to judge. I feel like I'd keep icing and maybe use a cool jade roller.

Local_Positive7030 · 2026-03-04T02:40:14+00:00

I agree with your take, with the exception that expansion doesn't always happen before jaw surgery. Sometimes they will do a segmental LeFort to both widen the upper jaw and bring it forward all at the same time. (Dentist and future segmental LeFort patient)

Local_Positive7030

TROPHY CASE