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

Marina Carrasco-Llatas,Carlos O’Connor-Reina,Christian Calvo-Henríquez

doi:10.3390/ijerph18147291

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.

Highlights

Available evidence demonstrates a positive effect of Myofunctional therapy (MFT) in reducing sleep apnoea as measured by PSG variables
Available evidence demonstrates a positive effect of MFT in reducing self-reported sleepiness and increasing QoL
The available evidence demonstrates a positive effect of MFT in reducing sleep apnoea, as shown by the measurements of PSG and the clinical variables in adults

Summary

Introduction

Received: 19 June 2021Accepted: 5 July 2021Published: 8 July 2021Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is a common disease whose prevalence varies between countries and studies, but has been reported to be as high as 49.7% of men and23.4% of women. SDB is related to poor health outcomes, increasing health costs and poor quality of life [1]. According to Eckert et al [2], the physiopathology of SDB involves a weak muscular response in many patients; therefore, therapies to address this factor may have a role in the treatment of SDB.

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