It is with deep sadness that Buteyko Clinic International received news that Dr. Michael Gorbonos passed away on April 5, 2021 .
Dr. Gorbonos was a dentist, and Founder and President of the International Functional Association (IFUNA). He studied the Buteyko Method with Patrick McKeown and was listed among our instructors.
Based in Israel, Dr. Gorbonos combined the use of Functional Appliance, Myofunctional Therapy, and the Buteyko Method to improve breathing capacity in his clients. He worked with children and adults suffering from conditions including sleep disorders, snoring, apnea, developmental problems of the jaws, enuresis, ADHD, migraines, and asthma.
Patrick says, “On a personal note, Dr. Michael Gorbonos was an amazing person, willing to give his time and energy to highlighting the importance of nasal breathing and development of the jaws and face in dentistry. IFUNA exists solely because of Michael, and I had the privilege of traveling to Israel on a number of occasions to give talks that he had organized .”
Patrick McKeown and Dr. Michael Gorbonos with a group of IFUNA members, Haifa, Israel, 2014.
In an obituary in IFUNA Magazine, Editor in Chief, Dr. Barbara Bimler, describes Dr. Gorbonos as, “The founder, the brain, the heart and the soul of this group of international supporters of functional orthodontics.”
Dr. Bimler recalls, “At our first meeting in the summer of 2007, we immediately became friends. Together with my husband, Michael Gorbonos planned to conquer the world of ‘crooked teeth,’ as they called it. He quite succeeded — on a functional level. As he wrote to us once in an email: ‘It is a tricky business with crooked teeth, but without teeth it is even worse.’ We miss him very much.”
Patrick concludes: “Life can be strange when one so full of zest is taken at an early age. But he gave his life to the full, and none of us can do anything more than just that.”