Vital Function Therapies

Hello! My name is Stacey Fletcher, and I live and work in Northwest Arkansas. I have always been fascinated with teeth and oral health, and I became a Registered Dental Hygienist in the Spring of 2009. When I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree in Dental Hygiene, I wanted to do nothing more than help people achieve optimal oral health. I practiced dental hygiene in private practice for 3 years before taking on a position with the National Health Service Corps and working in an underserved area for 5 years. During that time, my son was born. I planned extensively for the perfect birth, but I never read anything about breastfeeding. I knew I wanted to breastfeed, but I just thought you did it or you didn’t. It would come naturally, right? You don’t need to LEARN how to breastfeed, do you? Boy, was I wrong. I struggled immensely with breastfeeding. I had to be induced due to medical complications, which affected my milk coming in. I had insulin resistance, and no one told me that it would impact my milk supply. My son had a lip tie and posterior tongue tie, but no one looked in his mouth when I complained of pain. He struggled to gain weight and cried non-stop. No one told me how hard it would be to do something I thought was supposed to come so naturally. Thankfully, I attended a La Leche League meeting when my son was 6 weeks old. A fellow mother mentioned that she thought my son might be struggling due to these “ties.” I thought she was crazy. I was a dental professional, for goodness sake. I would know if his mouth were the culprit—wouldn’t I? However, she was correct and I was misinformed. I delved into the websites available at that time (Dr. Bobby Ghaheri and Dr. Larry Kotlow). These were fellow medical professionals telling me that these frena (that I thought all along served no purpose but caused no issues) could be the source of our problems. We had my son’s lip tie corrected at 2 months of age, and it saved our nursing relationship. Unfortunately, I still struggled because I did not receive complete care via adequate bodywork and lactation support. However, we went on to have a nursing relationship that spanned 3.5 years. It wasn’t easy. We used donor milk to supplement (thanks to some awesome friends and strangers). I cried. But we well exceeded my original goal of 6 months. After the initial hurdles were overcome, I started to wonder what I could do as a dental professional to solve these problems. Why did I not know that these tissues that I worked around every day could impede adequate infant feeding? I came across the term “orofacial myofunctional therapy” on a Facebook page in 2014. I’d never heard the term, and didn’t realize it was something a dental hygienist could learn. I took my initial training in 2015 when my son was 2 years old, and it was life changing. I could have such a greater impact with my patients: I could help them breathe better, sleep better, have less orthodontic relapse issues. However, with all of that knowledge that came with multiple subsequent courses, I still couldn’t prevent problems. Therefore, I started my lactation training to help infants get the best start possible. I still work with children and adults to correct their myofunctional impairment, but now I also work with infants to assess and address early feeding problems. With the appropriate intervention we can have a much better chance at preventing myofunctional disorders, or at least lessening their severity. I have been fortunate enough to work with many amazing mentors in my career and am so thankful for all of the wisdom I have encountered over the years. My current goal is to serve families, from infancy through the golden years. I hope to help them achieve optimal oral health and optimal oral function at every stage of life. I try to focus on the whole picture. Everyone has a puzzle they need to complete to find ideal healing, and I am grateful to be part of your journey. I’ve been there. I am still there. Healing never ends. Thank you for allowing me to join you. To learn more about the services I offer: - Holistic Integrative Lactation Support. Masterclass IBCLC. I have extensive training in oral functional assessment, reflex expression, oral habilitation, tongue-tie (assessment, prep for release, oral rehabilitation), gut support, newborn to older babies, weaning, bottle feeding, etc. Every initial session is 90 minutes. Home programs demonstrated. - Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy includes exercises and neuroplastic activities for optimizing nasal breathing, lip seal, lingual-palatal seal and oral phase swallowing to help children with underlying oral impairments, tongue-tie, mouth breathing, and physiological factors affecting sleep disordered breathing. This therapy can assist with optimizing sleep quality which can impact attention & focus for a better learning experience. You can learn more about OMT here: https://aomtinfo.org/myofunctional-therapy/ - Brain gym is a program of physical exercises designed to enhance learning and cognitive function by integrating movement and perception to improve focus, memory, coordination, and overall brain function. You can learn more about Brain Gym here: https://breakthroughsinternational.org/about/brain-gym/ - Rhythmic movements that stimulate neural pathways and promote learning, emotional balance and ease of movement. RMTi is an effective way to help with symptoms of ADD/ADHD, learning challenges, autism and behavioral/emotional imbalances without the use of drugs. You can learn more about RMT here: https://rhythmicmovement.org/rmti-explained/ - Craniosacral Fascial Therapy: CFT techniques are designed to gently unwind and release accumulated fascial strain. This allows optimal mobility and better brain function. I currently only offer this service for infants. You can learn more here: https://www.craniosacralfascialtherapy.com/what-is-cft