The Role of Myofunctional Therapy in Treating Sleep-Disordered Breathing: A State-of-the-Art Review

Marina Carrasco-Llatas, Carlos O’Connor-Reina and Christian Calvo-Henríquez
Additional contact information
Marina Carrasco-Llatas: Department of Otolaryngology, Hospital Universitario Dr. Peset, 46017 Valencia, Spain
Carlos O’Connor-Reina: Department of Otolaryngology, Hospital QuironSalud Marbella, 29603 Marbella, Spain
Christian Calvo-Henríquez: Rhinology Study Group of the Young-Otolaryngologists of the International Federations of Otorhinolaryngological Societies (YO-IFOS), 13005 Marseille, France

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 14, 1-12

Abstract: Myofunctional therapy (MFT) may have a role in improving muscle tone and alleviating upper airway collapse in sleep-disordered breathing. The purposes of this state-of-the-art review are to first review systematically the current literature on the effectiveness of MFT in treating sleep-disordered breathing and then to provide an overview of the current understanding of patient selection, side effects, type and duration of exercises, guidance of exercise performance, evaluation of results, and how best to promote adherence. PubMed (Medline), the Cochrane Library, and the EMBASE, Scopus and SciELO databases were checked for relevant studies by three authors, and a total of 23 studies were included. This review focuses only on adults with sleep-disordered breathing. The available evidence shows a positive effect of MFT in reducing sleep apnoea, as measured using polysomnography and clinical variables (including snoring). There is no evidence of the utility of MFT for treating upper airway resistance syndrome, the duration of the effects of MFT, or regarding which MFT protocol is best. Despite these knowledge gaps, the available evidence suggests that MFT is a safe treatment modality.

Keywords: sleep apnoea; obstructive; myofunctional therapy; snoring (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/14/7291/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/14/7291/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:14:p:7291-:d:590453

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().