Somebody offers you a shortcut. Bring myofunctional therapy into the dental practice you already work in, and you skip the hardest part of starting a business: finding patients. It sounds smart. It sounds safe. My guest this week built a myofunctional therapy business inside a dental practice at the same time she was building her own, and the math taught her something nobody had warned her about.

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This article is based on The Profitable Myofunctional Therapist™ podcast, Episode 82: The Real Cost of Building Your Myofunctional Therapy Business Inside a Dental Practice. You can listen to the podcast here.

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Why “Build It Inside the Practice” Sounds Like the Safe Choice

My guest, Michelle, spent over 30 years as a dental hygienist before she trained in myofunctional therapy. She was already trained when she came to my program. What she did not have was a plan for turning that training into an actual business. That gap has a name. Trained but stuck.

She closed it the right way first. She invested in her own training, then built her own private practice. Her employer had never shown real interest in bringing myofunctional therapy in-house, so she stopped waiting for permission and went and built it herself.

Then a practice consultant sat down with her, realized she was a specialist with untapped value, and the office did an about-face. Suddenly they wanted in.

What Actually Happened When She Said Yes to Both

Here is the part that sounds like a win on paper. Michelle kept her own practice growing, and she also said yes to building a myofunctional therapy program inside her employer’s dental practice. Two businesses, at the same time, only one of them actually hers on paper.

She spent months educating the entire staff, building marketing, setting up coding and treatment plans inside a dental software system that had never seen myofunctional therapy before. She built the infrastructure a practice needs to offer this service well. And she loved the work. Watching patients finally get answers nobody had given them before is the part that keeps any of us in this field.

But she was also splitting her attention and her time between a business she owned outright and a program she was building for somebody else.

The Real Numbers Behind the Real Cost

Here is where the lesson landed hardest. Michelle signed her first two clients on the in-office side, a full comprehensive package priced at $4,000 each. Her agreement with the practice paid her 40 percent of what she earned, so she did the math and got excited. $1,600 a case.

Then payroll ran. Both clients had chosen the practice’s interest-free financing option, a fully normal thing for a patient to pick when it costs them nothing. But the practice passes the financing company’s 10 percent service fee on to the provider, not the patient. That is $400 pulled off the top of a $4,000 package before Michelle ever saw a session.

Her first paycheck from the in-office side was zero. Not low. Zero. It took several sessions of actually doing the work before she climbed back to even.

Compare that to how a package works in Michelle’s own private practice, where she is paid up front and controls the terms herself. Same clinical skill. Completely different financial outcome, because of who owns the business structure underneath it.

What to Get in Writing Before You Build Inside Someone Else’s Practice

Michelle’s advice, hard won: make the investment in your own training and pay for it yourself, because whoever pays for your training tends to feel ownership over what you do with it. If you are going to build inside a practice at all, get specific before you start. Ask exactly how you get paid, session by session or up front. Ask who absorbs the cost if a patient finances instead of paying in full. Ask what happens if a patient starts and does not finish. None of these are unreasonable questions. They are the questions a business owner asks before she signs anything, and building inside a practice does not exempt you from asking them.

Ready to invest in your own training? Learn how to work with us here.

If You’re Trained and Still Deciding Where to Build

Michelle’s own conclusion, after living both sides of it: she would not structure her main business inside a dental practice again. A practice can be a wonderful referral source. It can be a place where you go build, deliver comprehensive care, and hand cases back out. What it should not be, without very clear terms, is the foundation you are building your income on. Rules and permissions inside somebody else’s practice will always move slower than the pace you would set for yourself.

If you are trained and stuck in that same gap between knowing and going, deciding whether to build inside a practice or build something that is actually yours, that is exactly the conversation we have on a Get Unstuck Call.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I build my myofunctional therapy business inside a dental practice or on my own?

It depends on the terms, not the opportunity. A practice can be a strong referral source, but building your primary income inside somebody else’s business means somebody else’s rules govern your pace, your pay structure, and your ability to leave. Get the terms in writing before you decide.

How do myofunctional therapists get paid when working inside a dental office?

Pay structures vary by practice, commonly a percentage of production or collections. Ask specifically how financing fees, cancellations, and unfinished therapy plans affect what you actually take home, since those details often do not surface until the first payroll cycle.

What should I ask before bringing myofunctional therapy into a dental practice?

Ask how and when you get paid, who absorbs any financing or processing fees, what happens if a patient does not finish therapy, and whether the practice would ever refer patients out to your own business instead of keeping the program in house.

Can I run my own myofunctional therapy practice and also build one inside a dental office?

Yes, some therapists do both, but it splits your time and attention across two businesses at once, only one of which you fully control. Go in with clear terms and a clear sense of which business is actually building your future.

What does “building your business on rented land” mean?

It means building value, systems, and income inside something you do not own, whether that is a practice, a platform, or an employer’s structure. It can work well with the right terms, but if those terms change or the relationship ends, everything you built stays behind.

Keep Listening: Related Episodes

• EP75: She Had the Credential But Not the Business — Another therapist who built inside a practice, and what happened to that business when her boss died.
• EP78: She Was Trained, Stuck, and Full of Self-Doubt — Then This Happened — Another trained therapist’s path out of the exact gap Michelle had to close.
• EP66: What to Do After Myofunctional Therapy Training — For anyone standing exactly where Michelle stood before she had a plan.

Ready to Build Something That’s Actually Yours?

If this episode hit close to home, book a Get Unstuck Call and let’s map out what building your own actually looks like: terms you set, pay you control, and a business that is yours on paper and in practice. Book your Get Unstuck Call here.

Xo,

💙 Carmen

About Carmen Ball

Carmen Ball (formerly Carmen Woodland) is a renowned, global myofunctional therapist, business coach, and host of The Profitable Myofunctional Therapist™ podcast. Over the past decade, she has helped thousands of people in her private myofunctional therapy practice (Impact Myofunctional Therapy – formerly Integrative Myofunctional Therapy) and coached hundreds of trained therapists to build profitable online businesses of their own. She is the creator of The Profitable Myofunctional Therapist™ program and Learn Myofunctional Therapy in 60 Days or Less (LMT60), a clinical training program for dental and health professionals. Carmen’s approach is simple: you already have the skills and the license. Now let’s build the business around them. She works with therapists around the world who are ready to stop spinning their wheels and start building a business they are genuinely bonkers about.