Myofunctional Research Co.

Myofunctional Research Co. was incorporated in 1989 to develop the appliance designs of Dr. Chris Farrell BDS Sydney.

Over the past 50 years there has been considerable research into the causes of TMJ disorder and malocclusions. This information is distributed across a number of professional disciplines, from medical to dental and to allied professions such as physiotherapy and similar manipulative disciplines. In addition to this, there would appear to be substantial sections of the community who are affected by these disorders who are not being adequately treated because of lack of knowledge and resources. Dr. Chris Farrell has attempted to address various areas of these problems and the appliances developed have been in direct response to this need.

Computer aided design (CAD) technology at this time (1989) was in its infancy, and no intra-oral dental appliances had yet used this facility. However, this has been a crucial part of the development of the Myofunctional Research Co. products.

Why Myofunctional?

In the process of research into the subject of temporomandibular joint disfunction and malocclusion there was an underlying commonality of cause of these two diseases reflected in the research. This area of research appeared to be most neglected in therapies currently being used. The treatment of the disorders was being hampered by practitioners lacking knowledge in this area. From research some of which is 60-80 years old, added to 1990's CAD facilities it was possible to produce universal size intra-oral appliances that had therapeutic characteristics to influence the oral musculature and subsequently this function of patients in this area. Therefore, the two keys to this new technology were accommodation of myofunctional research and computer aided design technology.

The CAD design facility from Qld Uni Technology and QLD Manufacturing Institute were paramount in this union with Myofunctional Research.

The Outcome

The first product produced was the TMJ Appliance. This allowed the medical as well as the dental profession for the first time to be able to treat this disorder of which there is more information in the following pages. Next the area of orthodontics was addressed with the Pre-orthodontic Trainer allowing removal of myofuctional habits and tooth guidance to correct malocclusions in the growing child. Most recently, the Trainer for Braces has been introduced to speed up treatment and improve stability during fixed appliance therapy. The further development of other appliances it is felt will be endless.

Marketing

Since 1990 the products have been introduced into firstly Australia/NZ via the dental and other professions. There had been some delay in getting government approvals to expand into other countries, however, by 1993 FDA approval had been received allowing these products to be exposed to the US and UK markets and at a similar time to various countries in Europe. Although the concepts were not particularly new, the acceptance by the professions has been a little slow, sometimes due to insufficient knowledge of the subject and other times from political resistance. At the present time, the products have overcome many of the barriers and are now being used in more than 30 countries throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia.

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Patent No. 5 259 762