A Practical Method for Assessing Lip Compression Strengthening in Healthy Adults

Special Issue “Exercise-Induced Facial Rejuvenation and Orofacial Strength and Function”

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To Play or Not to Play: Can an Instrument Really Impact Lip and Tongue Performance?

(1) Background: Increasing tongue and lip strength may help improve various speech and swallowing disorders, but it is unclear if instrumentalists who use these muscle groups for long periods of time have greater strength and endurance compared to controls. It is also unclear if instrumentalists can more accurately estimate various exercise intensities. The purpose of this study was to determine differences in lip and tongue strength and endurance between instrumentalists and non-instrumentalists (controls). A secondary purpose was to assess differences in ability to estimate various exercise intensities between the two groups. (2) Methods: Instrumentalists and controls’ maximum strength and endurance were measured using the IOPI Pro medical device. In addition, 40%, 60% and 80% of maximum strength were estimated in a randomized order. (3) Results: No significant differences were found between instrumentalists and controls in strength or endurance or the ability to estimate various intensities. Overall, participants were better at estimating tongue strength at moderate intensities and lip strength at higher intensities. (4) Conclusion: Tongue and lip strength and endurance and the ability to estimate exercise intensities are not impacted by years of instrumentalist training compared to healthy controls.

Effects of Age, Sex, Disease, and Exercise Training on Lip Muscle Strength

Lip muscle strength has been shown to influence daily functional activities such as facial expression, speech production, and eating. In this review, recent literature regarding lip strength and exercise training responses are summarized, highlighting the influence of sex, age, and disease (e.g., stroke). A search using five electronic databases was conducted. Twelve studies were identified from the search, which included five studies using healthy adults and seven studies using patients with diseases or chronic ailments. Regardless of the population, lip strength training multiple times a day for a relatively short term (<24 weeks) has resulted in improvements of lip muscle strength. This change in lip strength has been observed in both young and old participants. Although changes in strength have been observed in both men and women, we are unaware of any studies that have tested whether there are sex differences in this response. The same directional change can be expected for patients with stroke and patients with lip incompetence, but the magnitude of the training effect seems to be higher in healthy people.