FaceFormer therapy trainingSeminars and online courses

Overview

The training at a glance

The key facts of the last in-person seminar in Frankfurt am Main, 25 and 26 September 2026. We will announce upcoming dates separately with location and date.

The seminar fee included a FaceFormer training set, the manual on the methodology and catering at the conference hotel. You do not need any prior knowledge. The seminar is aimed at newcomers as well as professionals who already work with the FaceFormer and want to structure their approach.

Background

Why symptoms often return

Craniomandibular dysfunction (TMD), tooth migration, neck complaints, snoring, mouth breathing in children: different specialities, different diagnoses and, in our view, usually a common pattern behind them.

FaceFormer therapy does not treat an individual symptom. It trains the basic functions of breathing, swallowing and head balance. If their interplay deviates from the reference order, the body compensates, and the nervous system stores the compensation as a preferred pattern. In our view, an improvement in the complaint is a frequent consequence of the corrected function, not its actual subject.

1. The pattern deviates

   Mouth breathing, a low-lying tongue or disturbed head balance, often developed early, for example through dummies, bottles or habits.

2. The body compensates

   The nervous system automates the compensation. The basic programme is overlaid, not erased, and can be relearnt.

3. Structural consequences

   Palate shape, tooth position and posture adapt. Muscles that are not integrated into their function lose tone.

4. Only then symptoms

   When and how severely depends on the extent of the disturbance, the duration of the compensation and age.

Each of the three functions supports the others and is supported by them.Dr. Klaus-Jürgen Berndsen, “Trust the Triad” (in preparation)

Such complaints are often treated individually in different practices, while the common starting point is left unconsidered. What this looks like for individual topics is shown in our articles on TMD, the tongue reference position, swallowing and snoring and sleep apnoea. The fundamentals of the method can be found under How does FaceFormer therapy work?.

Day one

Understanding and diagnosing

The first day is about the model behind the method and an assessment you can use as soon as your next day in practice.

The foundation is the Cranio-Cervical Functional Model (CCFM) developed at ISST Unna. It describes the oral cavity, pharynx, cervical spine and trunk not as the sum of individual findings from different disciplines, but as one shared control system. We treat it as a working model: it organises findings, and where its connections have not yet been independently tested, we say so.

From this follows a structured diagnostic scheme. You learn to assess breathing, swallowing and head balance in their interplay, to record orofacial findings such as tongue reference position, lip closure and masticatory function, and to establish links to posture and statics.

The working basis is the assessment form, which you can also download without attending the seminar as a diagnosis form. In the seminar, you practise the tests on each other, because a functional assessment only becomes reliable through practice on real people. The most important rule: first observe unnoticed, then ask and test.

Safety and evidence

Knowing the limits, assessing honestly

Part of applying the method is knowing when the training is not suitable or should only run alongside other treatment, and what the evidence supports.

Typical feedback at the start includes muscle fatigue, pressure on the teeth, irritation of the mucous membranes in long-standing mouth breathers, or a device that falls out at night. In that case, take a short break and continue at a lower intensity, with fewer repetitions or with the FaceFormer ZERO. Children under 4 years only train with expert supervision.

We are also clear about the state of the research. The only randomised study is the Hamburg study with 45 children and adolescents; its endpoints are the basic functions¹. In addition, there is a peer-reviewed study from Jena with a control group involving 187 people with muscle-related jaw pain². The rest are pilot observations and posters. An overview with assessment can be found under Studies and science.

The absence of a study does not mean that the connection does not exist. It means that it has not been tested.

Speakers

From the developers of the method

The seminar is led personally by Dr. Klaus-Jürgen Berndsen and Sabine Berndsen. They developed FaceFormer therapy together in 1999.

Dr. Klaus-Jürgen Berndsen teaches the theoretical foundations: CCFM, functional analysis and diagnostics. He is a physicist, patholinguist and neuroscientist, was a lecturer at the University of Dortmund for many years and works in neurological rehabilitation. In 1984, together with Sabine Berndsen, he founded the ISST in Unna, which he has headed ever since.

Sabine Berndsen works as a therapist at the ISST herself and contributes the application from everyday practice, from working with children to complex cases. She designs the webinars on training with children and with adults together with Lena Koopmann.

Dr. Klaus Berndsen also teaches in curricula of other organisers, in 2026 for example in the KFO-Funktionswoche and in the orthodontic continuing education curriculum “Somnologie” in Frankfurt.

The foundational work “Trust the Triad”, in which he sets out the model in detail, is in preparation. Until then, the Manual on the methodology by Klaus and Sabine Berndsen is the workbook for the method.

More on this topic

More articles from the knowledge section

All topics at a glance

Where to go next

Dr. Klaus-Jürgen BerndsenDeveloper of FaceFormer therapy. Content basis: the book “Trust the Triad”. As of: September 2026.

Sources

1. Korbmacher HM, Schwan M, Berndsen S, Bull J, Kahl-Nieke B (2004). Evaluation of a new concept of myofunctional therapy in children. International Journal of Orofacial Myology 30:39-52. PMID 15832861. Source
2. Kopp S, Berndsen K, Berndsen S, Ifert F, Langbein U (2004). Initiale Therapie myogener Befunde im kraniomandibulären System mit einem konfektionierten intra-/extraoralen Trainingsgerät. Manuelle Medizin 42(1):55-62. Source