Effectiveness of Myofunctional Therapy in Ankyloglossia: A Systematic Review

María del Puerto González Garrido, Cristina Garcia-Munoz, Manuel Rodríguez-Huguet, Francisco Javier Martin-Vega, Gloria Gonzalez-Medina and Maria Jesus Vinolo-Gil ()
Additional contact information
María del Puerto González Garrido: Department of Nursing and Physiotherapy, University of Cadiz, 11003 Cadiz, Spain
Cristina Garcia-Munoz: Department of Nursing and Physiotherapy, University of Cadiz, 11003 Cadiz, Spain
Manuel Rodríguez-Huguet: Department of Nursing and Physiotherapy, University of Cadiz, 11003 Cadiz, Spain
Francisco Javier Martin-Vega: Department of Nursing and Physiotherapy, University of Cadiz, 11003 Cadiz, Spain
Gloria Gonzalez-Medina: Department of Nursing and Physiotherapy, University of Cadiz, 11003 Cadiz, Spain
Maria Jesus Vinolo-Gil: Department of Nursing and Physiotherapy, University of Cadiz, 11003 Cadiz, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 19, 1-18

Abstract: Ankyloglossia is a pathology of the tongue in which the frenulum appears anchored to the floor of the mouth. The treatment of choice for this pathology is frenectomy, but myofunctional therapy is emerging in recent years as a complement to surgical intervention. This systematic review aims to synthesize the scientific evidence and assess its quality regarding the use of myofunctional therapy in ankyloglossia. The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Physiotherapy Evidence Database, Pubmed, Web of Science and Scopus were searched. Study quality was determined using the PEDro scale, STROBE statement and single-case experimental design scale. Eleven studies were selected. Based on the studies included in this review, surgery is more effective than myofunctional therapy, although better results are achieved if both are combined. Improvements have been found in maternal pain, weight gain of babies, duration of breastfeeding, tongue mobility, strength and endurance, sleep apnea, mouth breathing and snoring, quality of life, clenching teeth, myofascial tension, pain after surgery and speech sound production. These findings must be taken with caution because of the small number of articles and their quality. Future clinical trials using larger sample sizes and with higher methodological quality are needed.

Keywords: ankyloglossia; tongue-tie; short lingual frenulum; myofunctional therapy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12347/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12347/ (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:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12347-:d:927970

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 ().