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The efficacy of myofunctional therapy in patients with atypical swallowing

  • Laryngology
  • Published:
European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The myofunctional treatment (MFT) is a conventional therapy in the treatment of oral disease like atypical swallowing (AS). Functional (standardized surface electromyographic analysis—ssEMG) and clinical (“orofacial muscular evaluation with score” protocol—OMES) analyses were conducted to detect the effects of MFT (10 weeks session) in a group of patients with AS.

Methods

ssEMG was performed to analyze the activity of masseter (MM), temporalis (TA), and submental (SM) muscles before (T1) and after (T2) the MFT in a group of 15 patients. OMES was completed at the same timepoints. A Student-t test was carried out to detect differences between T1 and T2 for ssEMG data, and a signed RANK test was used for OMES ones. One-way ANOVA variance test was performed to detect any differences between the different couples of muscles at each timepoint.

Results

After MFT, patients showed a shorter duration of the whole act of swallowing (p < .0001), higher intensity of the SM activity (p < .01) than at T1. At T2 masticatory muscles showed lower values for the activation index (ANOVA, p < .0001) and for the spike position (ANOVA, p < .01) than SM. The OMES protocol showed a significant increase for the total evaluation score (p < .01), appearance-posture (p < .01) and functions (p < .001).

Conclusions

MFT permits a shortening of the muscular activation pattern and an increase in SM activity.

The improvement of oral functionalities is possible and identifiable thanks to the use of standardized protocols.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Giorgia Crimi and Monica Vanoncini for their valuable work in data collection.

Funding

The work was supported by the Department of Biomedical Surgical and Oral Sciences and the Department of Clinical and Biomedical Sciences “L. Sacco” of the University of Milan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical, Surgical and Dental Sciences, University of Milan, via Luigi Mangiagalli 31, 20136, Milan, Italy

    G. Begnoni, C. Dellavia & G. Pellegrini

  2. Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Luigi Sacco”, University of Milan, Via Gian Battista Grassi 57, Milan, Italy

    L. Scarponi, A. Schindler & N. Pizzorni

Authors
  1. G. Begnoni
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  2. C. Dellavia
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  3. G. Pellegrini
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  4. L. Scarponi
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  5. A. Schindler
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  6. N. Pizzorni
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to G. Begnoni.

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The Author declare they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

All patients enrolled to this study were invited to sign an informant consent and the study protocol was approved by the local ethic committee of University of Milan (Code: DG-EMG-2016).

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Begnoni, G., Dellavia, C., Pellegrini, G. et al. The efficacy of myofunctional therapy in patients with atypical swallowing. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 277, 2501–2511 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-020-05994-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-020-05994-w

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