Most dentists straighten teeth. Dr. Jeannie Lee-Mirzayan asks why they moved in the first place. She treats both: crowded or shifted teeth with Invisalign, and the breath and tongue habits behind them. She’s an Invisalign provider and a certified myofunctional therapist, a dentist who combines both.
Straighter teeth and a corrected swallow are part of the goal, but not the whole of it. Dr. Lee-Mirzayan wants patients to leave with real tools, breath work, tongue posture, ways to notice and calm the body’s stress response, that carry over into daily life. Even someone who still doesn’t love coming to the dentist can walk out with something that helps them regulate anxiety wherever they are, not just in the chair. She created the practice’s Zen Room around that idea, a space set apart from the rest of the office, built specifically for the kind of session where the nervous system actually gets a chance to settle.
Training
Dr. Lee-Mirzayan graduated from Northwestern University Dental School in 1998. Her training in myofunctional therapy, airway and tongue-tie care includes:
- MyoMentor, myofunctional therapy training
- The Breathe Institute in Los Angeles
- Tongue Tie Academy
- LightScalpel CO2 laser training
- Live observation with Dr. Soroush Zaghi, the ENT and sleep surgeon at The Breathe Institute
Invisalign and Clear Aligner Therapy
As an Invisalign provider, she treats mild to moderate bite and spacing issues with custom-made clear aligners, using 3D imaging and regular check-ins to gradually shift teeth into place without wires or brackets. Most patients see results within 6 to 24 months. More on Invisalign →
Myofunctional Therapy
Myofunctional therapy retrains the tongue, lips and facial muscles, addressing habits like tongue thrust, mouth breathing or a swallow pattern that keep pushing on teeth long after orthodontic treatment ends. Dr. Lee-Mirzayan is certified in this therapy and checks for it on exam rather than recommending it to everyone. More on myofunctional therapy →
Tongue-Tie Release
Dr. Lee-Mirzayan does the practice’s tongue-tie releases herself, for kids and adults, with our LightScalpel CO2 laser, and she oversees the myofunctional therapy that goes with them. That pairing is the point. A tongue that’s only released can reattach, or fall back where it was, so it gets trained before and after: usually about 6 to 8 weeks of therapy before the release, which gets the tongue strong enough to lift up and out of the way during the procedure, and about 8 weeks after, so it learns where it’s supposed to rest. Not every tongue tie needs to be released, and she checks for that on exam first. More on tongue-tie release →
Buccal Massage
She also performs buccal massage, hands-on work on the jaw and facial muscles for patients dealing with muscle tension or TMJ symptoms, in the Zen Room she created. It is usually used alongside myofunctional therapy rather than on its own, which is what the research on it supports.
Services
Invisalign clear aligners, short-term braces, myofunctional therapy, laser tongue-tie release, buccal massage, and treatment for functional habits affecting oral health.