Any adult who has poor postural alignment or crooked teeth/narrow palates would benefit from this program.  This 90 day regime was created for children ages 4-18 who mouth breathe and have been recommended to undergo orthodontic palatal expansion.

The purpose of the program is to improve oral/mouth and spinal posture to close the mouth in order to have a successful orthodontic treatment.  The dental appliance orthodontic therapy treatment is not as successful for a child or adult to start if they have a poor tongue posture, where the tongue is low in the mouth, reinforcing the narrowed jaw and palate.  Mouth breathing has many bad consequences, and it is critical to restore proper tongue to posture position, allowing a proper functioning swallow.

The GOPex Program is 90 days of posture, pauses and breathing exercises provided via videos through a mobile app. The Hobson Institute offers two options of the GOPex program:

• Members of the 3-Month Youth Program and 6-Month Youth Program receive the daily regime as part of their membership.
• For non-Youth Program members, the GOPex Program includes the option to submit videos of the child completing the exercises, then receive feedback for improvement from Dr. Hobson, a certified GOPex physical therapist, on the exercises.

The GOPex Program tutorial videos include how to sit properly while counting and focusing on the tongue to palate placement; reading out loud (articulating and pausing with the mouth closed at commas and breathing through the nose at periods); chewing and swallowing properly with organic, harder foods.

The goals of the GOPex program are to transform the resting position of the mouth – closed, with the tongue upon the palate where it should be, with the lips sealed.  It will also teach you proper spinal posture while having a head and neck physical therapist review your videos daily providing feedback for improvement.  By checking in daily, you avoid reinforcing improper techniques of each exercise and help make lasting behavior changes.

The program is typically 1-3 months long and you can be done from home.  Many children and adults do well with 3 months of the program. There are some adults and children that would prefer to continue to maintain their improvement. We charge an additional $100 per month to continue reviewing the videos daily.

Chicagoland clients who have extremely bad posture are recommended to come into one of our 3 in-person clinics to get hands on manual treatment to their head, neck and spine to allow faster restoration of their posture.

Dr. Hobson, who is very experienced in myofunctional therapy, likes the program because it really helps with the consistency of doing the exercises.  It allows you to work with your child from your own home and send a 30-sec video for Dr. Hobson to review daily instead of having to come into an office for training.  This allows improved compliance to the program.

This is ideal prior to any orthodontic treatment or expansion of the palate and makes that dental expansion even more successful and effective.  It is also ok to perform during the palatal expansion treatment phase if the child has already started it.

For adults that mouth breathe, have a low tongue posture and are narrowed in the upper and lower jaw, this program will help optimize the spinal and mouth posture to the best of your body’s ability.

It starts with just one exercise which is counting.  With counting you will practice proper sitting posture and counting to 60 with the focus of returning to, and pausing at, the proper resting posture of the mouth and tongue in between each count.  The focus of the GOPex program is to transform the proper mouth posture with the tongue on the palate and the teeth in a slight contact to reinforce the proper function of the mouth. This limits and avoids the development of a collapsed arch, crowded teeth, low tongue posture, mouth-breathing and further progresses the orthodontic treatment you are receiving here at our office.  This would help your child be able to sustain the skills they will learn for posture of the head, neck and spine and also the posture of your mouth and function of your tongue. The goal eventually is to have their mouth stay closed at night and during the day so that your child can nasal breathe.

The cost of the GOPex as its own program is $500 including the daily critique from certified GOPex physical therapist Dr. Hobson.   The GOPex video tutorials are included in the 3- and 6-Month Youth Programs but do not include the daily critique. If your child needs more training after the third month, we charge an additional $100 per month to continue reviewing the videos daily.