Barbara J. Greene
Myofunctional Therapist

Therapist, Instructor, Speaker
In private practice since 1971

Selected Publications - Selected Lectures

My Evolution as a Myofunctional Therapist

Before beginning my private practice, I was fortunate to work for a dentist specializing in gnathology and temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) correction. Due to his affiliation with UCLA, we were sent a complicated case of a 16 year-old female. She had no enamel on any of her teeth, a serious open bite and a severely incorrect resting tongue posture and swallowing pattern (also known as a “tongue thrust”). No one in our office knew how to correct it, so I was sent for training from Daniel Garliner and Roy Langer, PhD, of the Institute of Myofunctional Therapy in Coral Gables, Florida.

Ultimately, the young woman’s treatment was very successful. And now that we had awareness of how well such therapy could work, we found that many of our existing patients could be helped by it, too. And so I began my career as an orofacial myologist, pursuing additional study with Richard Barrett, MA, in Tucson, Arizona and William Zickefoose, BA, COM, in Sacramento, CA, to broaden and enrich my practice.

Since then, I have helped hundreds of children and adults correct myofunctional disorders by guiding them through a simple program of 3 to 6 months of weekly therapy, twice daily home exercises and periodic follow-ups over an additional 6 to 8 months to make sure that proper function has been established and retained.

My approach is holistic, largely due to my dental background and the privilege of working with dentists who were on the cutting edge of new techniques and “New Age” thought; who used modalities that might have seemed far out to some, but worked and changed people’s lives.

Of course, my personal experience informs my approach, as well.

In 1968, after 24 hours labor and c-section birthing my daughter, my jaw went into spasm and locked open – the start of my saga with severe TMD. With the specialist I worked for, I began the process of full mouth reconstruction. He crowned all my teeth, corrected my bite and constructed my mouth on the Stuart Instrument using the cusp-fosse technique of Peter K. Thomas, DDS. Meantime, I treated my own orofacial dysfunction with what we were then calling “myofunctional therapy.”

The reconstruction was very hard on me, but I was hopeful that my new bite would relieve the TMD pain. Sadly, that wasn’t the case. In fact, after the crowns were placed, it got worse. Now I was experiencing pain in my face, head, neck and all extremities. I had numbness in my arms, hands and legs. I had no choice but to keep working all through this time – my husband had left when my daughter was just 3 months old – but I truly did not know how I would survive. For two and a half years, I searched for answers, all the while fearful of becoming addicted to all the drugs I was taking just to handle the pain. I considered suicide.

Fortunately, the mother of two of my patients introduced me to the concept of cranial osteopathy, a science that deals with the natural forces of the body. Her children, colicky from birth, had had a miserable infant life, negative/angry personalities, allergies and learning and coordination difficulties. She sadly admitted that, if she could have, she would have sold both of them, they were so difficult. Then a friend of hers at church told her about Viola Frymann, DO, of the Osteopathic Center for Children in San Diego. Once the children had treatment with Dr. Frymann, everything changed. Her children became the happy and delightful kids I met as patients in my practice. (You can learn more about Dr. Frymann and the Center here.)

I needed to meet this woman who seemed to have magic in her hands.

Dr. Frymann was then preparing a seminar for the USC School of Dentistry about the cranial relationship to the TMJ apparatus. She decided to set aside her normal policy of only treating children to treat me, suggesting that if treatment was successful, she could use my case in her seminar presentation.

If Dr. Frymann could have seen me from my birth, I believe the whole course of my life would have been quite different. Due to a bout of childhood polio that affected her pelvic bones, my mother was not supposed to have delivered me normally. Rather, a c-section had been scheduled. World War II interfered, though, and her doctor was called to serve, leaving her in the care of the old town family physician. This doctor dismissed her concerns. He let my mother be in labor for five days and finally delivered me with forceps.

The cranial bone stress patterns with this sort of delivery are very intense, and correction by a cranial osteopath is the treatment of choice for removing them. I didn’t have this option, though, and grew up quite differently from my siblings, both of whom were delivered by c-section. I was the one with the allergies, dyslexia and coordination difficulties. I was the one with the more intense personality. I was very prone to accidents and took many blows to both body and head over the years. The stress that I placed on my cranial mechanism by clenching my teeth through the 24 hours of labor was just the proverbial final straw.

On my third visit with Dr. Frymann, everything changed for me. Her hands were cradled at the back of my skull, but I began to feel movement up the sides and all the way to the top of my head. Suddenly, I experienced an explosion in my head – like the sound of a cork bursting out of a bottle of champagne. At that moment, all the pain was gone! I thought I had died – and I was perfectly happy with that, since I was finally pain-free. Then I moved my hands and realized I was, in fact, not dead!

After several more visits, I felt like a completely new person. I was free of pain and numbness, no longer needed drug therapy and knew I could face my future. It took me another 14 years to find clinicians to treat me homeopathically to be free of the reactions to dental materials my body was experiencing, to rebuild my mouth to the correct vertical dimension ( via Vertox System analysis and splint therapy with Elliot Green, DMD, and Myotronics analysis and full mouth reconstruction with Wallace Lipp, DDS) and to learn concepts of relaxation and spiritual attunement. But the thing was, I could do it – was able to do it as I’d not been able to before. Finding Dr. Frymann was a gift from God – one that saved my life. The results of my case resulted in changing the lives of many dentists, as well – their thinking, and their treatment of patients in the future. It was truly a milestone in the history of TMJ/TMD philosophy.

Unfortunately, no one diagnosed my need to have the maxilla and mandible more forward in the face. As a result, with over-using my muscles and jaw joints while working each day with patients, weight gain through menopause, and time, many changes have taken place. I have a coffee straw sized posterior airway that causes symptoms of sleep apnea. I have also destroyed the left disc and jaw joint, which finally was diagnosed correctly by orthodontist William Hang, DDS, MSD, and oral surgeon Larry Wolford, DMD, and now will have surgery to replace both jaw joints/discs and advance the maxilla and mandible.

Since 1971, I’ve had the honor of helping hundreds of children and adults stop their sucking behaviors and other poor oral and facial habits. My personal experiences have allowed me to be much more empathetic in the quest to help others find answers. My own search for answers led me into the lives of many remarkable clinicians whose wisdom I am able to share with my patients.

I believe I will make a difference in your life. I look forward to sharing my passion with you and honor your commitment to yourself for a higher degree of health and well being.

To arrange for therapy in Thousand Oaks, Oxnard, Santa Barbara or online, contact Barbara J. Greene.

Read what clients have to say about the therapy and my practice.

Find an osteopath in your area - US only (and be sure to look for someone who has “100%” after their name); in Canada, call the College of Osteopathy in Toronto: 416-597-0367

Selected Publications

• Expanding our awareness of the temporomandibular joint patient. California Dental Hygienists’ Association Journal, April 1997.
• Oral myology and the dental hygienist – Expanding horizons. California Dental Hygienists’ Association Journal, August 1996.
• Diseases of the Temporomandibular Joint Apparatus, Author of a chapter in the First Edition, co-author of a chapter in the Second Edition.

Selected Lectures

• Monthly Orofacial Myofunctional 4-day Courses in the US and Canada
• TMD Symposium, Vancouver, BC, Edmund Liem, DDS
• William Hang, DDS, MSD's Mini Residency Program, Westlake Village, CA
• IACA Annual Convention 2010, Boston, MA
• Townie Dental Meeting 2010, Las Vegas, NV
• SOTO Annual Convention 2009, Dallas, TX
• IAOM Annual Convention 2009, San Diego, CA
• Three day symposium including lecture and workshop, Johannes Gutenberg University Orthodontic Department, Mainz, Germany, at the invitation of Prof. Dr. Hans G. Sergl, every two years from 1988 to 1998
• Three day symposium including lecture and workshop, Albert Ludwig University Orthodontic Department, Freiburg, Germany, at the invitation of Prof. Dr. T. Rakosi
• Oral myology presentation, Symposium of Feeding and Dental Facial Development, Bergamo, Italy, 1992

In-Office Trainings

• Dan Kinkaela, DDS, Smithers, BC
• Meyer/Dana Orthodontics, Rapid City, SD
• Orthopros, Drs. Grob, Donovan & Kacer, Tucson, AZ