Program Evaluation in Orofacial Myology: Implications for Monitoring Patient Improvement, Profitability of Service and Marketing Your Practice

Summary: The development of a management report format and the ongoing collection and analysis of patient outcome data validates basic theories in orofacial myology. Research in our field has advanced beyond the decriptive stage, but needs to be collected with an eye toward consistency of definitions, nomenclature and standards of measurement. With the epidemiological statistics from the World Health Organization (reporting that 70% of the pediatric population needs orthopedic or orthodontic care), objective documentation of information related to orofacial myofunctional disorders is important. The format presented in this paper suggests a starting point for clinicians and researchers. By performing a retrospective survey on 100 patients and comparing that data with previous research, we were able to determine areas where additional data collection would further substantiate the efficacy of oral myofunctional treatment. Although many of the variables surveyed showed comparable results to those documented in past research, the number of patients surveyed was frequently inadequate, complicating factors were not considered, and the results outside of the therapy session were not available.