Learn More about Optimal Jaw Growth and Airway Health!
Our Mission
MyoWay Centers for Kids is a facility dedicated to training oral muscles and breathing habits for children. This training program will have a positive effect on their orofacial growth and development. Proper growth and development can positively affect a child’s health and wellness now and throughout their life. Improper growth and development of the oral and airway muscles can cause poor breathing habits, leading to improper growth, function, and poor health. Science has proven that weak oral muscles, small jaws and breathing issues are not genetic but a postural muscle adaption that human beings are making to the current environment of soft processed foods, air pollutants and more. This adaption starts at birth but can be easily corrected early in age using myofunctional appliances and exercises. Children who participate in the programs at MyoWay Centers for Kids will have a better opportunity to grow right, breathe right and live better with improved facial symmetry, straighter teeth, improved overall mental, physical and behavioral health for a lifetime.
MyoWay Centers for Kids is a myofunctional center dedicated to helping children ages 0 and older reach their full growing and breathing potential God intended, offering them a better overall quality of life
Programs
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Toddler Program
ButtonAges 24mo+
The Trainer System™ is the original myofunctional appliance range developed by MRC in the early 1990s. This system is still a leader in its field and trusted by countless practitioners from around the world. The appliance designs and their ease of use make this acclaimed appliance range widely popular today for the prevention and treatment of breathing and myofunctional disorders. Children naturally want to chew objects. This is an important impulse that ensures the jaw receives the exercise it requires to develop correctly. The Infant Trainer™ is an active exerciser that encourages your child to chew correctly while using and developing the jaw muscles. Most importantly, the Infant Trainer™ encourages your child to breathe through their nose while simultaneously training them to swallow and position the tongue correctly. Research clearly illustrates that correct facial, jaw and dental growth depends strongly on all of these factors. The estimated average active treatment time is 6-12 months depending on the child's age and may be followed by the MyoWay Breathing Right and/or Growing Right Program. Maintenance Program. This program also provides access to the MyoWay Centers for Kids community events.
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Preschool Program
ButtonAges 3yrs+
This program is the most convenient way to prevent or treat the causes of breathing disorders. Signs and symptoms of Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders (SRBD) can be bedwetting, restlessness when sleeping (messy covers), snoring, waking up frequently, daytime drowsiness, tired eyes, poor posture, low energy, dry lips, cavities in the front teeth, irritability, behavior issues, signs of ADD, learning issues, nutritional issues and food avoidances. This program consists of a combination of sessions with a MyoWay therapist and any needed referral coordination with tongue tie release practitioners, chiropractic care, nutritional counseling, breathing specialists, ENT or allergists as well as functional, comfortable appliance therapy and exercise. The Myosa® appliances by MRC are a prefabricated appliance range designed to prevent or correct the underlying breathing and myofunctional habits which contribute to a variety of issues associated with Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders (SRBD).
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School Age Program
ButtonAges 5yrs+
This program consists of a combination of sessions with a MyoWay therapist and any needed referral coordination with tongue tie release practitioners, chiropractic care, nutritional counseling, breathing specialists, ENT or allergists as well as functional, comfortable appliance therapy and exercise. Trainer for Kids (T4K®) is a single-size, prefabricated appliance that incorporates both myofunctional and tooth positioning characteristics. The T4K® is designed for treatment in the mixed dentition, while the permanent teeth are erupting and the child is still growing. Phase 1 is soft and flexible, which gives the best compliance, adapts to any arch form and malocclusion, as well as optimizes staying in place at night. Your child will progress to the Phase 2 appliance only when the Phase 1 is staying in overnight and nasal breathing has been established. Phase 2 focuses on jaw development and continuing habit correction. Made from a harder material, it assists in developing the upper and lower jaws, allowing more room to establish the correct tongue resting position and correct swallowing patterns. The Trainer appliance is to be used for one to two hours each day, plus overnight while sleeping. The end goal is a symmetrical, proper facial structure that supports the child's oral structures and airway. While this therapy is not used for or intended to be a pre-orthodontic treatment, this appliance does produce a well developed jaw structure which may lead to potentially straighter teeth.
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Founders of MyoWay Center for Kids
Leslie Pasco, DMD
As a general dentist for 25 years, Dr. Leslie has experienced the dental profession in almost every way. In treating hundreds of thousands of patients over her career and observing a serious pandemic afflicting the developed world increasingly over the last few centuries, Dr. Leslie is now dedicating the remaining years of her career to preventative myofunctional therapy to help children grow right, breathe right and live better.
Modern industrialized societies are plagued by small jaws leading to restricted airways and crooked teeth. More than 95% of Americans have deviations in dental alignment, meaning that the jaws have developed poorly. This is a result of advanced agriculture producing softer processed foods and environmental pollutants leading to mouth breathing. The focus of almost all dentists and orthodontic practitioners today is on straightening crooked teeth. However, science and research has proven that at an early age, intervention and training of the oral muscles can prevent the “small jaw” syndrome thereby preventatively enhancing children’s ability to reach their full growth,breathing and living potential. Upon learning that the symptoms of the “small jaw” epidemic are revealed very frequently as serious diseases such as sleep related breathing disorders (SRBD), heart disease, eczema, lowered IQ, depression, ADHD, bed wetting, anxiety and even perhaps Alzheimer’s, Dr. Leslie could not ignore the situation and made it her mission to develop a plan to provide children with preventive myofunctional therapy that can help lessen or eliminate the possibility of a child experiencing these symptoms.
Dr. Leslie's dream is to see these MyoWay Centers for Kids sprouting up everywhere in the United States to help eliminate the “small jaw” pandemic and hopefully curb disease in our society by preventing it at an early age through the correction of the oral muscles that contribute to the growth and function of the human airway.
Glenn Bartifay, ESQ
Glenn Bartifay has been an attorney since 1993. Attorney Bartifay graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1993 in the top 25% of his class. He has helped thousands of clients over the years with personal financial reorganization and retaining their residences.
He has been entrepreneurial in businesses other than law firms. such as real estate and healthcare. In addition to his law degree, he graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a Master of Science Degree in Exercise Physiology in 1989 with a 3.7 GPA. He graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physical Education in 1986 from Boise State University, where he was an Academic All-American and scholarship recipient. He was a gymnastics competitor in college and coached that sport in Idaho and Canada before returning to his home state of Pennsylvania.
He lives in Wexford, Pennsylvania with his wife, is active in his church, and loves to travel. Trying the wonderful restaurants in the Pittsburgh area and writing science fiction novels is a pastime but he leaves plenty of time to get in his exercise at the gym several times a week.
The MyoWay Team
Ashlee Friedman, BS, RDH, MFT
Ashlee Friedman is the Centers Director for MyoWay Centers for Kids and serves as the certified Myofunctional Therapist (Myoway Therapist) on our team. She specializes in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of various orofacial myofunctional disorders, with a primary focus on addressing issues related to the face, mouth and throat.
Ashlee graduated from Penn State University in 2012 with a bachelor's degree in Medical Science. In 2015, she graduated Salutatorian from the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine with a GPA of 3.8 and was inducted into Sigma Phi Alpha, a National Honor Society for the top 10% of graduates. Ashlee has been working in the dental industry for over 15 years and also has a background in business and consulting. In 2023, she became a certified Myofunctional Therapist and discovered her true passion. She hopes to help as many children as possible achieve optimal oral and facial function, enhancing their quality of life and overall well-being through specialized myofunctional therapy interventions.
Ashlee resides in Cabot, PA, with her husband Adam, her sons Wren and Bronson and her dog, a German Shepherd named Tucker. She enjoys cooking/baking (especially all things sourdough), spending time with her family and reading as many books as possible in her spare time.
Jaime McFarland, Administration & Marketing
Jamie graduated from Slippery Rock University Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts and Metalsmithing. She started her career as a bench jeweler while also working as a support service provider for people with special needs. She spent the next ten years in the dental industry working as a dental assistant/phlebotomist and business assistant. Jamie is the Head Coach of the Butler County Special Olympics Gymnastics Team which she started in December of 2014 and volunteers for the Pittsburgh Polar Plunge annually. She strives to make a positive impact on the lives of children and individuals with special needs, and has committed to continue learning new ways to ensure they thrive.
Jamie lives in Clinton Township with her husband Daniel and purrrfect white cat, Qtip, loves quality time with her family and spending as much time outside as possible. She believes each day is an opportunity to have the best day of your life, so make today sparkle.
Our Goals
- For as many children possible to experience this proven, preventive myofunctional therapy at a young age in a quick and easy to reach their full growing and breathing potential offering them a better overall quality of life, even into adulthood.
- Expand into multi locations and make this proven, preventative myofunctional therapy program available across the United States.
- Make this proven, preventative myofunctional therapy and the MRC appliances a way of life. “Every child needs an MRC appliance”.
- Career and ownership opportunities to MFT and associates.
- Fulfill the developers dream of preventative myofunctional therapy availability for every child.
A Closing Message from Us
Every parent has the power to protect their young children from the serious and crippling epidemic of the small jaw syndrome. Human beings archaic genetics is forcing human adaptation to an advancing environment thus setting the human race on a course towards not only serious orthodontic issues and TMJ problems, but a lifetime of sleep apnea and related conditions such as cardiovascular problems, learning disorders, behavioral issues, social inadequacies and more. The MyoWay Centers for Kids program should be made known to every mother as early as the time of birth, even before leaving the hospital and made available to any willing parent and child. Every child should be given the opportunity to grow right, breathe right and live better according to their genetic design as God intended. No child should suffer unnecessarily from SIDS, misdiagnosed ADHD, bad posture, temper tantrums, poor behavior, bullying, TMJ issues, crippling headaches, confusion, drowsiness, bed wetting, sleep apnea and other SRBDs, malnutrition, restlessness or any other breathing related issue.
