Definition of "orofacial" [orofacial]

• Of or affecting both the mouth and face. (adjective)

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• "Breastfeeding also strengthens the orofacial muscles more than bottle feeding which helps improve jaw stability, tongue control, and speech development."
• "The study showed that women who ate healthy diets before they became pregnant gave birth to fewer infants with two of the most common birth defects: neural-tube defects, or malformations of the brain and spinal cord, and orofacial clefts, often marked by a deformed lip."
• "However, since patients that carry one nonfunctional FOXP2 allele show impairments in the timing and sequencing of orofacial movements, one possibility is that the amino acid substitutions in FOXP2 contributed to an increased fine-tuning of motor control necessary for articulation, i.e., the unique human capacity to learn and coordinate the muscle movements in lungs, larynx, tongue and lips that are necessary for speech."