Tongue thrust is a swallowing habit that affects your teeth and speech, but it can be relearned. The good news? Exercises fix the problem in about 75-90% of people who practice consistently. Here's how to retrain your swallowing in simple steps that actually work.

How Normal Swallowing Works

Key Takeaway: Tongue thrust is a swallowing habit that affects your teeth and speech, but it can be relearned. The good news? Exercises fix the problem in about 75-90% of people who practice consistently. Here's how to retrain your swallowing in simple steps that...

1. Your tongue moves backward (not forward) and pushes food against the roof of your mouth 2. Your cheek muscles keep food in the middle while your tongue works 3. Your throat muscles squeeze in waves to push food down 4. The whole thing happens in about 1 second

In tongue thrust, step 1 goes wrong. Learn more about Cost of Teeth Movement for additional guidance. Instead of moving backward, the tongue pushes forward against the teeth. This breaks the normal chain and makes swallowing inefficient.

Why Retraining Works

Your swallowing pattern is a learned habit, which means it can be unlearned. Scientists call this process "neuromuscular retraining." Your brain learns the wrong pattern, but with focused practice, it can learn the right one.

The good news: studies show 75-90% of people who practice consistently succeed. Learn more about Why Orthodontic Compliance Matters for additional guidance. Success means your tongue moves the right way automatically, without thinking about it.

Before You Start: Assessment

Your therapist will evaluate several things before designing your program:

  • Where your tongue rests when your mouth is closed
  • How high you can lift your tongue
  • How far forward your tongue can stick out
  • What your swallowing actually looks like
  • Whether you mouth-breathe or nose-breathe
  • Whether you lisp when you talk
This assessment takes 10-15 minutes and gives your therapist important information about what needs the most work.

The Exercise Program: Four Phases

Most successful tongue thrust therapy follows a 6-month program split into four phases. Start Phase 1, then move to the next phase only when your therapist says you're ready.

Phase 1: Learning What's Wrong (Weeks 1-2)

Goal: Make your brain aware of what's happening now

You'll start by noticing your own patterns. Where does your tongue rest when you're not doing anything? What does swallowing feel like? This awareness is the first step to change.

Exercise: Tongue Awareness

Place your fingernail under your tongue on the hard palate (roof of mouth) about half an inch behind your upper front teeth. This is where your tongue should rest. Hold it there for 5-10 minutes while doing normal activities.

Exercise: Swallowing Observation

Swallow a sip of water while your therapist puts a finger under your chin. You should feel upward pressure (floor of mouth lifting). If you don't feel much, your swallowing pattern needs work.

Phase 2: Building Strength (Weeks 3-8)

Goal: Make your tongue muscles stronger and able to hold the correct position Exercise: Tongue Tip Resistance

1. Place your tongue tip on the hard palate behind your upper front teeth 2. Push gently against a tongue depressor (or your own finger) pushing down 3. Hold for 3-5 seconds 4. Do 10-15 repetitions, twice daily

This is like a weight-lifting exercise for your tongue—it builds strength and endurance.

Exercise: Palatal Clicking

Click your tongue against the roof of your mouth, making audible clicking sounds. This sounds funny but works great for building palatal contact and tongue mobility.

Do 10-20 rapid clicks, twice daily.

Exercise: Dry Swallowing Practice

Swallow saliva (no food or liquid) while your tongue is positioned on the hard palate. Your therapist can feel the movement with a finger under your chin.

Do this 10 times, twice daily.

Phase 3: Using It With Food (Weeks 9-16)

Goal: Take your new swallowing pattern and use it with actual eating and drinking Exercise: Water Swallowing

Start with small amounts (5 mL or about one teaspoon). Hold your tongue on the palate, then swallow the water while keeping your tongue position. As this becomes easier, gradually increase the amount.

Progress over several weeks from tiny sips to normal sips and then to regular drinking.

Exercise: Soft Foods

Once water goes well, try semi-soft foods like yogurt, pudding, or applesauce. The principle is the same—keep the tongue positioned correctly while swallowing.

After soft foods work well, progress to regular foods.

Exercise: Eliminate Cheating

Watch yourself in a mirror while swallowing. Your lips shouldn't tighten, your chin shouldn't pull down, and your cheeks shouldn't squeeze. Any of these movements means your mouth is "cheating" by using extra muscles instead of relying on your tongue.

Your therapist gives you feedback to eliminate these compensation patterns.

Phase 4: Making It Automatic (Weeks 17-26)

Goal: Use your new swallowing pattern without thinking about it

By this point, the new pattern should be starting to feel natural. You stop consciously thinking about where your tongue is and just swallow normally—with the correct tongue position.

Maintenance Exercise

Once your swallowing is automatic, you still need to practice. Most therapists recommend continuing exercises 2-3 times weekly for several months after main therapy ends, then daily exercises long-term.

This is like brushing teeth—you keep doing it forever to maintain the habit.

Addressing Mouth Breathing

If you mouth-breathe, your tongue wants to position forward to help open the airway. Retraining swallowing alone won't stick unless you also learn to nose-breathe.

Nose Breathing Practice: When your mouth is closed, your tongue naturally positions on the roof of your mouth. Practice keeping your lips closed for increasing periods (start with 5-10 minutes, work up to all day).

If you have allergies or a deviated septum, treating those problems makes nose breathing easier and more automatic.

Why Some People Struggle

Not everyone succeeds at the same pace. Success depends on:

  • Age: Younger kids (7-12) learn faster than teenagers or adults
  • How long you've had the habit: Newer habits are easier to break
  • How much you practice: Consistent daily practice beats sporadic practice
  • Parental support: For kids, parent encouragement makes a huge difference
  • Motivation: People who understand why it matters do better

Success Looks Like This

When your retraining is successful:

  • Your resting tongue position moves from forward to the hard palate
  • You can feel your floor of mouth (under the tongue) lift when you swallow
  • You don't see your teeth move forward when you swallow
  • Swallowing feels normal and easy
  • Any lisp from tongue thrust disappears
  • Your orthodontist sees teeth staying in their corrected positions

Common Questions

How long does therapy take? Most people see results within 3-4 months of consistent practice. Therapy typically lasts 6-12 months total before exercises become fully automatic. Do I need braces while doing this? Ideally, tongue thrust therapy happens before major orthodontic tooth movement. But many people do both simultaneously with good results. Will my tongue go back to the old way? If you stop exercising, old habits can slowly creep back. That's why long-term maintenance exercises are important. What if I'm an adult? Adults absolutely can retrain their swallowing. It might take longer (8-12 months instead of 6), but success rates are still 60-75% with good compliance.

Conclusion

Myofunctional therapy represents an evidence-based behavioral approach achieving 75-90% success in normalizing abnormal swallowing patterns and tongue thrust. Therapy involves progressive exercises targeting tongue positioning, muscle strength, and coordinated deglutition over 6-12 months. Success depends on patient cooperation, adequate exercise adherence, and systematic progression through awareness, strengthening, functional retraining, and stabilization phases. When coordinated with orthodontic treatment addressing anterior open bite, myofunctional therapy dramatically improves long-term treatment stability (70-85% compared to 40-60% without therapy).

> Key Takeaway: Retraining your swallowing isn't quick or magic, but it works. The exercises are simple and can be done anywhere. Success requires consistency—think of it like physical therapy for your mouth. Stick with the program, practice daily, and you'll develop a new habit that will last your whole life.