It has been eight years since my hands held my favorite tool, a 204-SD, and eight years since I called out a single probe reading to an assistant. If you know, you know.

And every week, in my DMs and on my Get Unstuck Calls, a dental hygienist tells me some version of the same thing. She wants her life back. She wants the hygiene days gone. And it terrifies her to walk away from a guaranteed paycheck, even though that paycheck is costing her her body, her patience, and the mom and wife she wants to be.

She wants to know one thing before she jumps. Does the leap hold up? This is my answer, the whole arc and not the highlight reel, what changed for me financially, physically, and mentally in the eight years since I turned in my scrubs, and the two non-negotiables I hold on to today.

My results are my own, not a guarantee.

Prefer to Listen Instead?

This article is based on The Profitable Myofunctional Therapist™ podcast, Episode 95: Eight Years Without a 204-SD, and What I Got Instead. You can listen to the podcast here.

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The Raise That Became My Quota

The moment I knew I couldn’t keep building somebody else’s dream didn’t come from one bad day. It came from two changes landing in my office at the same time. My boss hired a new consulting firm, and she hired a new office manager who was sure hygienists were overpaid and underworked.

First, my boss got a cost-of-living raise. That raise didn’t come out of thin air, it came out of our production goals. Every hygienist in the office now had to produce more so the doctor could cover her own raise. To say that lit a fire under me is an understatement.

Then came the new bonus plan. Before, the whole office shared one bonus pool, and my share every month was my fun travel money. I was single, I was on a plane most weekends, and I was making memories. Under the new plan, every hygienist was put on an island of one with a target that was close to impossible to hit, while everyone else in the office kept the shared pool.

I’m thankful for it now. It forced me to make the best decision of my life.

Why My MBA Wasn’t the Way Out

While I was miserable in hygiene, I went back to school for my MBA. I was proud of that degree, and I had no idea what to do with it. I did some dental consulting on the side and learned quickly that it wasn’t my way out either.

Using the MBA for a traditional career meant taking a big financial step back, and I couldn’t make myself do it. So I was stuck with two degrees and no exit, which is a special kind of stuck.

Your Strength Was Never Scaling Teeth

Around that time I found Jenny Blake and her book, Pivot. I read it and did every exercise. Her idea works like basketball. You keep one foot planted and rotate on it, looking for where to pass the ball next, and the exercises walk you through your strengths, what an ideal day looks like, and where your life feels out of balance.

What came out of it surprised me. My strength was helping people. It was not scaling teeth, and it was not probing gums.

I had a lot of shame about leaving hygiene, because of the time, the years, and the thousands of dollars I’d spent on that degree. I also grew up in a family where my dad worked for UPS for 40 years, and the message was clear. You don’t follow your dreams, you put your head down and your nose to the grindstone.

But here’s what the exercises showed me. Did I love teaching flossing? No, but I loved it when somebody took my advice and changed their life. That was the part of hygiene that was mine, and it came with me into myofunctional therapy.

If you have ever felt guilty about walking away from the degree, that guilt is a sign of how much you’ve invested, not a sign that you’re supposed to stay.

How I Left Hygiene Without Burning It All Down

I trained in myofunctional therapy while I was still in the op, and I set myself a five-year goal to leave hygiene. I got my first paying client, cut back to part-time, and I retired from dental hygiene in August 2018, well ahead of that five-year goal.

Even that ending wasn’t tidy. We were moving that August, and I told my boyfriend, now my husband, that I might need to go get a W-2 job so we could get the loan approved. Scott ended up buying on his own income, and I never went back to hygiene.

If you want the step-by-step of what that transition looks like from the inside, start with From Hygienist to Myofunctional Therapist: What the Transition Really Looks Like.

Does the Leap Hold Up?

For me, yes. I can’t speak for everybody else.

This isn’t Field of Dreams. You don’t hang an open-for-business shingle and wait for people to come. You have to do the work. You have to do the unsexy, boring business basics.

That means finding your person, raising your hand, and telling her you can help. It means marketing when it feels like nothing is happening. It means skipping the shiny squirrel, like the cheap little digital products I once built that cost me more time to create than anybody ever bought. It means knowing exactly who you serve and building an offer strictly for her, and then learning the CEO skills that get you seen, like SEO and GEO.

What Changed Financially

My income is lumpy, with high months and low months, and a lot of that is on purpose. I always take a big chunk of July off. I take time in November, and I take the end of December. My husband is self-employed too, so for 2027 we’re setting up January and February mostly for rest.

That rest is part of the business design, not a reward I have to earn. Your business can be set up around the life you want, and then the work has to follow through on it. The pricing, the mindset, and doing things correctly all matter, and none of it happens by accident.

Not everybody is out after the money, and the money was never the whole story for me.

What Changed in My Body and My Days

Years ago I saw a few clients in person, at a local Starbucks. A 30-minute session meant blocking 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after to drive there and back, wear on my car and my tires, gas in the tank, and a latte so I wasn’t the lady taking up a table without buying anything. That one client was taking three times my time, and she wasn’t paying three times as much. That’s when I went all in on running my practice online, and I’ve been online ever since.

That choice is a big part of my freedom. On any given Tuesday I can decide I want to get on a plane next Tuesday and have dinner with my daughter, and I do. Business on top, party on the bottom. As I recorded this episode I was in sneakers and sweatshorts after a hike, my dog at my feet, headed for the pool as soon as I was done.

Physically, not doing hygiene was amazing for my body. When I polled my audience, you told me the first thing you’d do if you worked for yourself is take better care of yourself. I get to do that. I have time to work out and lift weights, and I control my calendar so I can do the things I want to do.

What Changed in My Head

For the first time in my life I’m satisfied, fulfilled, and content. I hated hygiene every year I was in it. I just didn’t know what else I was going to do.

When I say I’m living a life I’m bonkers about, I mean it in more ways than I can count. When I started, it was about getting out of hygiene. Now it’s the freedom to work from home, travel when I want, set my own schedule, and choose my own holidays. I don’t ask anyone for time off.

And here’s my confession. I rarely slow down long enough to celebrate. It’s accomplishment, check, move on. This episode is me practicing being present where my feet are.

The Two Lines I Will Never Cross Again

I’ve had non-negotiables off and on for years, like not working Saturdays or not working past six. But the two biggest ones that I have in my life now are that I will never ever clean teeth again and I will never be an employee again.

My whole life is built around those two lines. I’ve done the work to trust myself, including peeling back the onion on where my lack mindset came from, and I know now that whatever happens, those two lines hold.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a dental hygienist become a myofunctional therapist?

Yes. A dental hygiene background gives you a head start on the mouth, and myofunctional therapy training builds the clinical skill on top of it. The business side is a separate skill set you learn on its own. If you’re weighing it, here’s why dental hygienists should learn myofunctional therapy.

Do I have to quit dental hygiene before I start training?

No. I didn’t. I trained while I was still working in the op, cut back to part-time, and retired from hygiene in August 2018. My results are my own, not a guarantee. For more ways to think through the move, read Dental Hygienist Career Change.

How do I get past the guilt of leaving after paying for my hygiene degree?

Name it for what it is. I felt that shame too, because of the years and the money that went into the degree. What helped was seeing that the part of hygiene I loved, helping someone take my advice and change their life, came with me. The degree wasn’t wasted, it was the road into what came next.

What does LMT60 include?

LMT60 is self-paced online clinical training in myofunctional therapy. The entire course is open from day one, and you have four months of access, so you can build it around the hygiene schedule you already have.

What if I don’t have the whole plan figured out yet?

You don’t need it today. You need a first step. If you’re not sure which step is yours, book a Get Unstuck Call and we’ll figure out the right next move together.

Keep Listening: Related Episodes

• EP83: From Hygienist to Myofunctional Therapist: What the Transition Really Looks Like, the step-by-step version of the leap this episode looks back on.
• EP59: RDH Side Hustles: Turning Your Dental Hygiene Skills Into a Thriving Myofunctional Therapy Business, for when you want to start building without leaving the op yet.
• EP61: 15 Reasons Dental Hygienists Should Be Trained In Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy in 2026, for when you’re still deciding whether this path is yours.

If This Is on Your Heart, It’s There for a Reason

If any of this sounds like the argument running in your own head, the one that says you don’t love hygiene and you can’t do it forever, listen to it. If it keeps showing up week after week, or you just found me and thought, girlfriend, you’re talking to me, that’s worth paying attention to.

You don’t need the whole plan figured out today. You need training you can build on your own time. That’s LMT60, Learn Myofunctional Therapy in 60 Days, and the whole course is open from day one. I don’t want you living in it forever. Get in, get it done, and once you’re trained and open for business, that’s where The Profitable Myofunctional Therapist™ comes in.

Not sure where you fit yet? Book your Get Unstuck Call and we’ll sort it out together.

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.