A comprehensive assessment of feeding performance of infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) includes not only the traditional approaches of evaluating oral motor control and sensory responses but also evaluation of other factors. Infant feeding is a highly complex and integrated process involving numerous body systems. A global assessment would determine the infant's feeding functio...

Forty-seven children with non-organic failure to thrive (NOFT) were identified from a whole-population survey of children's growth and development. A significant proportion (N=17) of these 47 children were found to have oral-motor dysfunction (OMD) identified using a previously validated assessment tool. NOFT children with OMD and those with normal oral-motor function (N=30) were compared in or...

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a disorder caused by number of factors like an obstruction the upper airway during because insufficient motor tone tongue and/or dilator muscles or inadequate growth maxillary jaw bone etc. Oral appliances (OAs) are commonly used as non-invasive treatment for obstructive syndrome. The primary oral appliance (OA) in mandibular advancement device (MAD). Tongue-ret...

Brain N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptors have been implicated as important mediators of both learning and neuronal development. The current study investigated how ketamine (a well-known NMDA-receptor blocking drug) influences taste-mediated conditioned motor responses (CMRs) in perinatal rats. Dams pregnant with either embryonic day 18 (E18) or E19 rat fetuses were injected with 0 ...

BACKGROUND The main factor related to gingival/periodontal problems in disabled individuals is the inadequacy of the plaque removal from the teeth. Motor coordination problems and muscular limitation in neuromuscularly disabled individuals along with the difficulty in understanding the importance of oral hygiene in mentally disabled individuals have resulted in the progression of inflammatory d...

Pharyngeal delay is a significant swallowing disorder often resulting in aspiration. It is suspected that pharyngeal delay originates from sensory impairment, but a direct demonstration of a link between oral sensation and pharyngeal delay is lacking. In this study involving six patients with complaints of dysphagia, taste sensation of the oral tongue was measured and subsequently related to sw...

OBJECTIVE To assess the role of amitriptyline in the effectiveness of an outpatient protocol for weaning medically complicated children from tube to oral feeding. STUDY DESIGN Twenty-one children seen in multidisciplinary outpatient feeding teams across 4 sites were recruited to a randomized placebo-controlled trial of a 6-month outpatient treatment protocol with behavioral, oral-motor, nutri...

Forkhead box protein P2 (FOXP2) is a well-studied gene known to play an essential role in normal speech development. Deletions in the gene have been shown to result in developmental speech disorders and regulatory disruption of downstream gene targets associated with common forms of language impairments. Despite similarities in motor planning and execution between speech development and oral fe...

Introduction Oral health is an important aspect of overall health, for all children, and, is particularly more important for children with special health needs. The oral health of children who are visually impaired tends to be compromised as they are at a disadvantage and are often unable to adequately apply the techniques necessary to control plaque. Dental caries is the most prevalent disease...

OBJECTIVES Compared with white children, the oral health of Latino children in the United States is much worse. One factor contributing to oral health is tooth brushing. Few studies have addressed the formation of the tooth brushing habit in children, and only one of them studied a Latino population. The purpose of this study is to explore the development of the tooth brushing habit in children...