CV of Bridget O’Connor

Bridget O' Connor is Ireland’s first Myofunctional Therapist. She has been teaching this therapy for the last 3 years at her husband’s dental practice in Cork (O Connor Dental Health), where she was practice manageress for over 14 years. She qualified in 1977 with a general Science degree, and completed her diploma in education in 1978. She taught Biology and Chemistry to honours senior level / 3rd level entry for 20 years.

While working at O Connor Dental Health, Bridget gained not only great experience in general dental care, but particularly in orthopaedic and orthodontic care. Her passion grew for this aspect of dentistry.

She decided to train in an emerging modalitycalledmyofunctional therapyknowing thatthis would be the perfect adjunct therapy to augment the quality of treatment and care offered at the practice.

She initially took Myofunctional and Breathing courses in Europe with Dr. John Flutter (2011 and 2012), followed by introductory and advanced myofunctional courses and internship with Ms. Joy Moeller, Ms. Barbara Green, and Ms. Sandra Coulsen.

Since then shehas attended many in depth symposia in the US, Canada, Europe, and the UK with keynote speakers such as Professor John Mew, Dr. William Hang, Dr. Kevin Boyd, Dr. Stephan Sheldon, Dr. Bertrand De Silva, Dr. Derek Mahony, Patrick McKeown (Buteyko Breathing), to name a few, all of whom have greatly deepened her appreciation of the important correlation between “Nasal Breathing, Airway, normal Orofacial Muscle Function”, and health and wellbeing; but particularly children’s’ health.

Part of her work now involves the screening of patients for sleep disordered breathing (SDB) and obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). She also diagnoses and refers babies, children, and adults with restricted frenums or tethered oral tissues (TOTs) for frenectomies.

She is a member of:

  • AAMS (Academy of Applied Myofunctional Sciences)
  • AOMT (Academy ofOrofacialMyofunctional Therapists)
  • IATP (International Affiliation of Tongue-tie Professionals)
  • AAPMD (American Academy Physiological Medicine and Dentistry)

She recently completed a “Functional Fascial” dissection course at Imperial College in London in June 2015. She commences a mini-residency ALF course with Dr. James Bronsonin August 2015 and will attend a 3 day symposium in London with Dr. Brendan Stack and others in September 2015, as she continues to broaden her education in this exciting and emerging field.