What Is Tongue Thrust?
The average person swallows 2000-4000 times each day, with each swallow exerting up to six pounds of pressure. As you swallow, your tongue should rest on the roof of your mouth, right behind your upper teeth. If when you swallow, your tongue pushes against the back of your teeth or protrudes between your teeth, then you have a tongue thrust.
As your tongue repeatedly pushes on your teeth, it can affect and contribute to a number of issues. From mouth breathing to poor sleep and fatigue, here are a few of the potential effects of tongue thrust.
How Tongue Thrust Affects Your Life
While tongue thrust may not cause all of these issues directly, here are some of the domino effects to which it can contribute:
- Tongue thrust can contribute to mouth breathing, which can, in turn, lead to a number of subsequent issues.
- Mouth breathing can contribute to snoring at night when you and your family are trying to sleep, which may lead to sleep apnea.
- People who snore or suffer from sleep apnea are likely to be fatigued.
- Tongue thrust’s potential contribution to mouth breathing that leads to poor sleep means it may indirectly lead you to be fatigued.
- Fatigue can impact your ability to focus, desire to exercise, diet choices, and irritability.
- Mouth breathing can lead to the development of chronic bad breath.
- Tongue thrust could contribute to dental issues such as an overbite.
- The combination of overbite and tongue thrust can contribute to speech issues such as the development of a lisp.
- Tongue thrust can also lead to a person grinding their teeth.
Is tongue thrust the domino that has led to some issues with which you’re dealing? It is time to begin the process of beating tongue thrust in your life.
How Long Does It Take to Beat Tongue Thrust?
It took your whole life to develop tongue thrust and its effects; will it take your whole life to beat it? Fortunately, with the right program, it can take less than two months to retrain your tongue to rest properly in your mouth.
IJustWantTo® Correct My Tongue Thrust is a seven-week program that guides you through tongue exercises that are described in written words and videos. The author, Janet Bennett, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, has a Master’s degree in Speech Pathology and has been a licensed Speech Pathologist for over 35 years.
The idea is to use these exercises to retrain the way your tongue positions itself in your mouth. The exercises differ from week to week, but they only take five to ten minutes each day. The majority of these may be done while traveling to work, reading, watching television, or cleaning the house.
If you follow directions and do all seven lessons, it will take you seven weeks to see success. You will see the author treating someone for all seven lessons over video.
Sticking with the program will result in gradual improvements. Your tongue will get stronger and feel more comfortable in your mouth, and if you snore, it should gradually get quieter and quieter. As your tongue muscles get stronger as a result of you doing the exercises, more changes should occur.
IJustWantTo® Correct My Tongue Thrust is here to help if tongue thrust is a part of your life or the life of someone you care about. IJustWantTo® Correct My Tongue Thrust is a tongue muscle workout program that has been shown to reduce snoring and tongue thrusting caused by mouth breathing and poor tongue position.
Without the use of medicine, surgery, or invasive procedures, our seven-week tongue exercise program can help correct tongue thrust. If you'd like to learn more about our program, please contact us or place an order today. In a relatively short time, you can beat tongue thrust and its effects.