We all breathe, speak, eat, drink, chew, swallow and have facial expressions. These are basic human functions performed by the stomatognathic system. Stomatognathic originates from the Greek language where ‘stoma’ refers to the mouth and ‘gnathos’ refers to the jaw. In this workshop I will take you through the anatomy of this system in which I will also include the tongue, the fascia and specific cranial nerves.

We will look at possible tension patterns that arise from habits as well as problems that arise from injuries and physical trauma as well as early childhood development issues.

Some questions we will try to answer are:
– How do early childhood experiences with (breast) feeding, thumb sucking and pacifiers determine how our stomatognathic system functions when we are adults?
– What are the possible devastating effects of dental treatments and orthodontic treatments on the stomatognathic system?
– Can we understand how neck injuries, surgery and head trauma affects this system?
– Why does excess tension in the muscles of mastication affect our ability to release tension elsewhere in the body?
– Are we aware of how our pupils use their tongue? How does use of the tongue affect speech and articulation?
– How do we release the jaw, the tongue and the hyoid to free up the voice?
– What is the relationship between the jaw, the tongue, the teeth and our overall balance and functioning?

This workshop will combine theory with hands on techniques.

You will come away with a deeper understanding of the complex anatomy of the stomatognathic system and will be able to distinguish between a habit, trauma and early childhood development issues.