By: Clara Mackinnon, Downtown Chiropractic Intern
What is the Myo Munchee?
The Myo Munchee is a small chewing device made of soft, medical grade silicone. This is like a mouthguard, but used to prevent the potential use of palate spreaders, braces, mouth guards, and other oral procedures. This device is also used to exercise the muscles of the jaw and face. Just like any other muscle in your body, your facial and jaw muscles need the right kind of exercise and movement to stay healthy. Research has demonstrated that the western industrialized lifestyle has led us to eat softer foods, which means we chew less and there is less development of proper oral function and oral health.
The Myo Munchee can be used as early as 6 months old. The smallest size fits ages 6-18 months. This can help with overall oral tone, preventing mouth breathing, exercising the oral musculature and as a teething tool. The benefits of this device don’t stop there! The Myo Munchee has 4 additional sizes to accompany the child throughout all stages of development, all the way through adulthood.
How to use a Myo Munchee on your 6-18 month old?
- When you put the device in their mouth, hold their hands and do a few claps to avoid the baby from pulling it out right away.
- They won’t be able to hold it for long as the beginning stages, however, they are able to hold it in!
- Start with your baby playing with the device in their mouth for a few seconds, to a few minutes. It is recommended to work up to using the Myo Munchee for 5 minutes, twice a day. As your child gets older, this will become easier to do.
- It is important to shift the baby from a suck to a chew during this age development. Therefore, it is equally as important to make the switch from a soother to the Myo Munchee at this age because a soother will promote sucking when we want more chewing to happen.
- Other benefits of this device include helping position the jaw more forward, massaging the gums which helps teeth growing and pain associated with teething, forces the tongue to elevate and promotes nose breathing. Equally as important as these functional changes is the stimulation of the vagus nerve which helps calm the nervous system.
How to use a Myo Munchee from 18 months to 3 years old?
- At this stage, this is a great tool to keep promoting good oral and tongue function, nose breathing, the ability to close the lips and seal them and palate width.
- Since these are ages where myofunctional therapy can help (for example: doing exercises at home), this will stimulate and work the muscles needed for proper oral function and the prevention of oral procedures.
Check out the myomunchee website for more info! We have a few available at the clinics if you’d like to see or purchase :)