Tongue Lab Pursues International Expansion by Naming Sandra Coulson Strategic Business Development Advisor.
Jean-Michel Mauclaire, President of Tongue Lab (right), with Sandra Coulson, Founder of Denver-based Coulson Institute of Orofacial Myology and Tongue Lab’s new strategic business development advisor.
Jean-Michel Mauclaire, founder and president of Tongue Lab, met Ms. Coulson at a conference on orthodontics held in Parisin 2013. Their shared vision that dysfunctions of the tongue are at the root of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), as well as other facial and dental anomalies, struck a chord.
He said, “Sandra understands fully what other healthcare practitioners are only beginning to realize: The tongue is an expression of our health. When it functions improperly, is poorly positioned or loses muscle tone, the risks can be life-threatening. Sandra sees the groundbreaking potential training and conditioning the tongue have for preventing and even curing disorders such as chronic snoring and OSA that affect millions of people worldwide.”
The Tongue Lab-patented TRP, a connected oral medical device that patients wear over their upper teeth while they sleep educates and reconditions the tongue to permanently restore its physiological functions and positions. The potential implications for doing this include a possible cure for sleep breathing disorders and sleep bruxism, as well as treatment for atypical swallowing, tongue thrust, mouth breathing, malocclusion, relapses after orthodontic treatment, and similar health-related issues. The TRP is non-invasive, easy to use, and designed for optimal patient compliance.
Ms. Coulson expressed her enthusiasm for working with Tongue Lab: “Together, we want to educate as many healthcare professionals as possible and provide patients with simple, effective solutions designed to correct dysfunctional tongue patterns that impact their health, self-confidence and well-being.”
In addition to the Coulson Institute, where she has taught hundreds of professionals from the United States and abroad since its creation in 2003, Ms. Coulson maintains her own Denver-based MFT practice. Recently appointed Clinical Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Sciences of the Graduate School of Behavioral Health Sciences, where she leads a new certification program for orofacial myologists, she is a past president of the International Association of Orofacial Myology. Ms. Coulson holds a master’s degree in Health Sciences and a bachelor’s degree in speech therapy and education from the University of North Colorado.
*Myo-Functional Therapy — neuromuscular reeducation or re-patterning of the oral and facial muscles — includes facial and tongue exercises and behavior modification techniques to promote proper tongue position and improved breathing, chewing, swallowing, and head and neck postures.
