The LINGUA™

Myofunctional Research Co. has been demonstrating the importance of tongue position and function for close to 2 decades. All appliances carry the philosophy of the necessity to actively retrain the tongue when treating any malocclusion. This function of the TRAINER System™ is of course just one of it's myofunctional training actions, but is one of the primary goals. We know this brings the possibility of non extraction treatment with better faces and more stable orthodontics for all patients, and is now accepted by many Orthodontists and Dentists around the world.

Increased awareness, on the importance of tongue position to obtain and maintain a natural arch form, has been a welcome wave in the Orthodontic community. It emphasized that stable arch expansion is possible with the assistance of the tongue.

Who is the major player here? The tongue or the bracket? Sure we need to make room for the tongue with the mechanical arch development, but we do hope that the tongue finally gets to it's correct position all by itself. Sometimes it does, but most of the time it does not.

The active role of the tongue tag in the TRAINER System™ has been shown to deliver arch expansion. It therefore seems obvious if we could just convince all professionals the benefit of simultaneous myofunctional tongue training with fixed appliances, there would be less necessity to resort to extractions and arch development would be more stable.

This concept has brought about an addition to the TRAINER System™. Used with upper fixed brackets, the new TRAINER is called The LINGUA™. It carries a tongue tag in a single arch appliance, goes over the upper brackets and can be worn all day and night. Yes, one single myofunctional training activity focused on retraining the tongue.

A single focus on retraining the tongue 24/7 as this upper arch appliance has a bracket channel to fit over any bracket.

So you can boost the arch development of your fixed appliances using the LINGUA™, named after the tongue to reinforce the value of "lingual orthodontics". Having the tongue working with you in treatment rather than against you as is all too often the case. We hope the current trend for permanent lingual retainers, with their potential for long term periodontal problems, will be lessened by the LINGUA™.

Since the LINGUA™ does not have the other characteristics of the T4B™ and T4CII™, it is best to use these at night while sleeping and the LINGUA™ the whole day. The added advantage is that from the moment the patient has the brackets on, the LINGUA™ will provide soft tissue protection, just like the T4B™ but since speech is not impaired by the appliance, constant 24/7 soft tissue protection and tongue retraining is now possible. Compliance will be easy.