MYOFUNCTIONAL APPLIANCES

Myounctional appliances are considered to be primarily orthopedic tools to influence the facial skeleton of the growing child in the condylar and sutural areas. All myofunctional appliances take advantage of interaction between mechanical function and morphologic pattern and use common mechanisms of bone turnover, rhythm, activation, resorption and formation for their actions. These effects are produced because of their ability to alter the stomatognathic muscle balance. For growth modification, myofunctional appliances transmit forces (from muscles or viscoelastic stretch of soft tissue) to the condylar region and thereby, inducing new bone formation or glenoid fossa remodeling.