Treatment of atypical swallowing: State of the art

Aim: atypical swallowing, or deviated swallowing, is a disorder that generally occurs in childhood and involves an alteration in the act of swallowing in which the tongue exerts a push on the teeth, sometimes interposing itself between the dental arches, causing malocclusions, dental misalignment, difficulty in chewing, oral breathing, difficulty in pronouncing some phonemes and aesthetic problems. The purpose of this work is to identify the best therapeutic options according to the literature to treat atypical swallowing. Methods: a search was conducted on PubMed using the key words “atypical swallowing” and “treatment of atypical swallowing”. Results: from the research conducted, it emerged that the main therapeutic approaches to treat atypical swallowing are 4: 1. myofunctional therapy: therapy that re-educate the oral muscles. 2. orthodontic therapy: aimed at correcting dental misalignment. 3. speech therapy: exercises aimed at restoring correct muscle function. 4. multidisciplinary approach: the combination of myofunctional therapy, orthodontics and the treatment of oral breathing leads to better and longer-lasting results. Conclusions: in conclusion, the combination of myofunctional and orthodontic therapy, with the collaboration between orthodontist and speech therapist, associated with the correction of oral breathing, is the most effective treatment to correct atypical swallowing and, consequently, prevent malocclusions.