"I WISH I WOULD HAVE KNOWN ABOUT THERAPY YEARS AGO!"
“Thank you for correcting my daughter’s mouth breathing habit. She is shy and quiet and with her mouth hanging open I was concerned that people would think she wasn’t very intelligent. She’s going into 9th grade and now she looks great and feels better about herself.”
“I had anxiety for more than 30 years and the medical treatments didn’t do the trick. Once I started therapy and corrected my mouth breathing and learned diaphragmatic breathing the anxiety stopped. I wish I would have known about therapy years ago because it was so simple. Also I stopped clenching my teeth.”
“Since Katha corrected our daughter’s mouth breathing habit she doesn’t snore anymore. We can all sleep in the same tent when we go camping.”
“I am 16 and I know it looks bad to sit with my mouth open. I tried so hard to keep it closed that my lip and chin muscles always hurt, so I felt frustrated, either I closed my mouth and my face hurt or I opened it and looked bad. After 2 months of therapy for the mouth breathing my chin and lips don’t hurt and it is so easy to close my mouth. Also I look so much better, the therapy is great!”
“My 4 year old daughter snored and was so restless that she pitched herself out of bed and fell on her face. I thought she had broken her nose, so I took her to the Ear, Nose and Throat specialist. Her nose was fine but they noticed mouth breathing and referred her to Katha. Katha corrected her thumb sucking habit first and then started working to correct her mouth breathing. She totally stopped snoring, stays in her bed and is sleeping peacefully. We are so grateful for the positive changes.”
“I took my son to an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist because at age 4 he was still drooling on everything all day and all night. For the last year he was on a drug to dry up his saliva but it wasn’t working. The doctor sent us to Katha and after 8 weeks of therapy he stopped drooling. The therapy corrected the underlying problem which was the mouth breathing. She made the exercises fun and he loved going to see her!”
"DON'T EVER RETIRE!"
“I never realized before until this in-service what myofunctional therapy could do for the patients. I don’t think I will ever look at my pediatric patients who are mouth breathers in the same way after what you have demonstrated in your lecture.”
“We love you Katha. The patients love you. Our office couldn’t get these great orthodontic results without your help. We have used other therapists in San Diego but you get the results! Don’t ever retire!!”
“After 4 years in braces my daughter still had an open bite. We consulted with 6 other orthodontists and they had different treatment options but each one recommended myofunctional therapy with Katha Seacord. In 16 weeks of working with Katha the bite was closed! She has had her braces off now for 8 months and the bite is still closed! I can’t tell you how grateful we are for Katha’s help in resolving this open bite problem!!”
“When the orthodontist referred us to Katha I gulped because her office is not near our home. He explained that you can’t expect a specialist with her qualification and experience to be in your neighborhood. To be honest, we tried someone closer for one year without results. So we went to Katha and everything about the experience was different. The evaluation was thorough, the recommended treatment was more extensive and Katha’s manner with my daughter was just what she needed. I’m glad we made the drive and so is the orthodontist, it was worth it her mouth is gorgeous!"
“Patients love Katha. She is a great clinician but she is also patient and understanding which makes it easy for the patients to work with her. She really cares about them and wants to help them.”
"KATHA IS A GREAT ASSET TO THE SPEECH COMMUNITY"
“Prior to coming to Katha my two boys had never made a normal /s/ sound before even with speech therapy. After the exercises and working with the proper tongue placement they both made a normal /s/ for the first time!”
“As a speech pathologist I am thankful to have Katha as a resource when I cannot figure out why my case is not progressing. It is her ability to look at the case from a different perspective; to diagnose what is limiting the patient’s ability to progress and then refer out to the right specialist or treat the case with myofunctional therapy. Katha is a great asset to the speech community.”
“I am a San Diego TV news anchor. At age 40, my life was going great until one day when my station manager called me into his office. The manager laid it on the line, “You stumbled over your words on camera again last night. You said ‘Injunaplis’ instead of ‘Indianapolis’; you stumbled over ‘metropolis’ and ‘several Russians solders’ came out all garbled. You are sitting there with your mouth open and your appearance next to your co-anchor is not what it should be.” My station manager went on to say that he would not promote me or work to further my career due to these problems.
I immediately contacted a speech therapist. The diagnosis was, “There is nothing wrong with your speech. The individual sound segments of speech are fine; you do not have a speech problem.” That didn’t help so I contacted another speech therapist. The recommendation was, “Just slow down.” I knew that wasn’t the answer so I called my high school speech and drama coach and she said, “I have just the person for you, Katha Seacord, an orofacial myologist.” I said’ “A who and a what?” “Think of it this way, she is a personal trainer for the tongue and mouth muscles.”
After doing the exercises for 6 weeks my manager said, “Whatever you have been doing, keep it up. On camera I have noticed changes in your appearance and the quality of your speech and voice is just what it needs to be!” I was totally high on all that praise but as I looked over my script, I saw the word ‘miraculous’ and I got nervous because that was a word I had had difficulty with in the past. As I watched the TelePrompTer I said to myself, “I have faith in my speech now” and as ‘miraculous’ flashed by I spoke it perfectly! Katha’s therapy helped save my career! Many thanks!”
"I HAVE A LOT OF GOOD YEARS AHEAD OF ME. NOW I CAN LIVE THEM WITHOUT PAIN."
“I had been in severe facial pain for 40 years since having all my teeth pulled and dentures placed. I saw every medical and dental specialist without relief. At age 72 I needed new dentures and I told my new dentist about my pain and he sent me to Katha. She found that I was clenching my teeth all day to hold my old dentures in place and it was stressing the muscles of my face and jaw. She taught me to rest my mouth correctly with my teeth apart and within a few months all the pain was gone! I have a lot of good years ahead of me and now I can live them without pain!”
“I started fracturing my teeth at age 16 and over the last 40 years I have had nearly every tooth in my mouth replaced. I also had terrible pain in my jaws all day every day. I wore a night guard because the dentist thought I was clenching my teeth while sleeping. Katha discovered I was chewing too forcefully and guided me on proper function. I am no longer cracking my teeth, my hygienist said my gums look better and I do not have any more jaw pain. It was all due to a bad habit I picked up as a hungry kid and never knew that it was wrong. Katha’s coaching and guidance solved my problems.”
“My 96 year old mother came to Katha Seacord with right jaw pain. Katha discovered that one year ago my mother had a dental procedure on the left and stopped chewing on the left and was only chewing on the right. Katha told her to chew on both sides and within 2 days the pain was gone and hasn’t returned. That was an easy fix!”
“My daughter’s jaw pain was so severe that she dropped out of school for three years. She never talked on the phone or went out of the house with friends. I am a physician and we pursued all the appropriate protocols both pharmacological as well as physical therapy to relieve her pain but nothing worked. The orthodontist heard Katha lecture and even though we live 150 miles away he referred her to us. Katha found that my daughter had many bad habits that were stressing her jaw including chewing ice, gum and biting her nails. Katha worked with her to eliminate all the bad habits and establish proper mouth function and in 12 weeks she was out of pain! She began to love life again. She went to Disneyland, saw friends, talked on the phone and returned to school. She had her life back thanks to the therapy!!”
"WE CAN EAT AROUND HIM WITHOUT BEING GROSSED OUT"
“We can eat around him without being grossed out. For years we were always on him about chewing with his lips closed and until we came here never realized it was a muscle problem. Meals times are much nicer now; can you train him to clean up his room?”
“My 13 year old daughter was a failure to thrive child. She hated eating because she choked often and therefore avoided many foods. Katha discovered she was tongue tied and couldn’t use the tip of her tongue to control or position food. Katha sent us for a minor laser procedure under the tongue and put her in therapy. She can eat anything now without the fear of choking and her doctor said her general health is improving.”
“My 3 year old son has had pneumonia for the past year and the medical treatment was not working. He was aspirating liquid into his lungs whenever he drank and choking on food. Katha felt that his tongue couldn’t lift and close the airway when he swallowed because his pacifier sucking habit had weakened his normal swallowing muscles. The myofunctional therapy strengthened the muscles to help him swallow better. He stopped aspirating, his lungs cleared up and he is healthy now.”
“I am 15 years old and people teased and embarrassed me for chewing like a cow. I didn’t want to look like a cow but I didn’t know what to do. Katha gave me exercises and taught me what to do. My jaw stopped hurting and now no one ever says I look like a cow. I am so happy!”