SLENDER TONGUE

Myofunktional Exercise  Collection

Application:

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This exercise will be required with hypofunctioning of the transversal intrinsic fibre tracks [019]as well as the corresponding extrinsic tongue muscles gaining a slim tongue body.

Symptoms: “”Big Tongue”, (laterally) broad tongue, lateral tongue pressing resp. biting.

Contents:

Consciously, hand-mirror controlled straining and ‘Hold-Exercise’ mainly for the transversal internal tongue musculature.

Materials:

Hand-mirror for self-control.

Procedure:

- Previous exercises: Recommendable the ,L-M’-POSITION.

-Starting position: See previous line.

- Step-by-step-description:

-1 The tongue is shifted slightly up- and forwards out of the mouth. Every step should be performed slowly and consciously. Contact with lips and teeth will be avoided.

-2 The oral fissure stays widely opened (keeping the jaws apart) while narrowing from the mouth corners. As contact is to be prevented the tongue gets under ‘dire straits’ and has to become slender, too; for a start thumb and forefinger may grab it from the sides to squeeze it slim (see also 092 TONGUESHAPING).

-3 Consequently the tongue is pulled back seeking the point concurrently not loosing its slim figure.

-4 The molars are put together while the POINT and tongue shape is kept; count to ten.

-5 The mouth is opened and the correct slim shape of the tongue controlled with the hand mirror before going over back to step 1 keeping the tongue slender.

Next should come a break possibly with the loosening exercise  BAGGY TONGUE before the next repetition.

-Timing: Action plus counting out make one sequence.  With the proposed relax pause a series may be put up containing up to five sequences.

Characteristics:

Combination of  static and kinetic, focussed tone increase, orientation.

Remarks:

The “too big tongue”, at the beginning, will have to struggle strongly. The mentioned helping manipulation might be as essential as the warning about the sensitivity of the tongue margins not being allowed to get any contact to the surrounding. For tongue margin sensitation see also  TONGUE STROKING. The training posture in step 1 must be seen as unphysiologic as we, generally, should mediate our patients not to cross the ‘ magical borderlind’ of the incisal edges rostrally ( outwards). The exercise may be carried out with the tongue tip staying at the POINT from the beginning what, at the other hand, complicates the performing and sight control.

Discussion:

The exercises  DRAW-BACK as well as  FAT TONGUE- SLIM TONGUE through their training structure rather address the motor quality of the musculature. The present exercise, though, as the  TONGUE STROKING or  TONGUE CONTACTS are rather to school the surface sensitivity and with it the ability of orienting. For this purpose the mentioned exercises may effectively be combined. In cases of pro- or ectoversion of the tongue the here discussed exercise should be applied only with reservation. With the same  objections a similar exercise is offered: An elastic band with a ring diameter of about 2 centimetres is wound around the tongue as retrally as possible to squeeze it together. It is a manipulated exercise or rather an application and should anyway be replaced in the course of the training with more functional methods. The worth of it rather may lie in the inner orientation of the tongue body: a necessary strengthening for the narrowing by the transversal and, to a certain degree, vertical tongue muscles is not given by it.

Instructions:

SLENDER TONGUE should be exercised when the tongue generally is to flat and broad.

The mouth opens wide and the tongue comes out up and forward. Here she may, once, look over the fence ( the borderline of the incisal edges). All movements are carried out slowly and deliberately and in the beginning under hand-mirror control.

The tongue makes itself as pointed and slim as possible. And it avoids any contact with the surrounding lips and teeth! It may not bump into anything! When being quite slender and pointed it moves slowly back and up to sit on the POINT. Behind it the teeth are clo