# Episode 4 — You Don't Have to Leave Hygiene. You Can Expand It. **Length target:** 13–15 minutes (~2,200 words) **Publish:** Week 2, Tuesday 6:00am ET **Season 1 · Episode 4 · Full** --- ## Show notes A lot of clinicians reach a point where they start wondering what else is possible in their career. Episode 4 is for anyone standing at that fork — hygienist, assistant, or doctor. Kirsten makes the case that airway and myofunctional (MY-oh-funk-shun-ul) work gives you a way to grow your career sideways and forward: more clinical variety, more autonomy, and for some, a path toward education, industry, or sales roles — without giving up the license, the seniority, or the years you've already invested. **In this episode:** - (00:00) The messages I keep getting - (02:00) What people are actually looking for - (04:15) Honoring what you've already built - (06:00) Lateral vs. vertical: there's a third option - (08:00) Four ways this looks in real life (stay, hybrid, one-day, own it — plus education and industry) - (11:00) What it costs to try (spoiler: an hour) - (13:00) The permission slip **Resources:** - 1-Hour CE Course → optimizedairway.com/ce-course (code PODCAST20) - Full OAE Certification → optimizedairway.com/oae-certification --- ## Script Welcome back to Optimized Airway. Whoever's listening — hygienist (hy-JEE-nist), doctor, assistant, therapist, or someone building the tools we all use — I'm glad you're here. I'm Kirsten Trevisonn, registered dental hygienist and certified myo (MY-oh) therapist. I want to start today with something that's been sitting in my inbox. Over the last few months, one of the most common messages I get is some version of this: "I love patient care, but I'm curious what else is out there for me. I'm looking into other paths — maybe education, maybe industry, maybe something I haven't named yet." Every time I read one of those, I feel real excitement for that person. I've been exactly there myself — I'm someone who has moved toward education and industry work, and it's one of the best things I've done. [BREATH] I also want to make sure anyone asking that question has the full picture first. Because a license, a scope, a patient base, and years of clinical judgment are real assets. The goal today isn't to talk anyone out of exploring — it's to make sure that whatever direction you go, you're choosing it with your eyes open to everything already available to you inside this field. That's what today is about. [PAUSE] ## What people are actually looking for When I ask clinicians what they're hoping to find next, almost nobody says "I don't like the clinical work." What they usually say is: "I want more variety in my day." "I want more say in how I practice." "I want to know what's next for me." "I want work that uses everything I know." Notice that these are about *scope*, *autonomy*, and *growth* — not about disliking the work itself. Those are solvable inside the profession you're already in, and they're also legitimate reasons to look toward adjacent paths like education, sales, or industry, where those same skills are in high demand. [BREATH] Every profession — clinical or otherwise — has moments where people ask "what's next for me." That's a healthy question, and dentistry, hygiene, and the wider industry all have more rooms in the house than most of us were shown at the start. ## Honoring what you've already built Before exploring anything new, it's worth pausing on what you've already built. Years of chairside experience, patient trust, clinical judgment — none of that goes to waste, whether you deepen your current role or move toward something adjacent to it. Most of us were trained in one part of a much bigger field. The prophy, the perio chart, the fluoride, the recall — that's real, foundational work, and it matters enormously. It's also one room in a larger house. Airway is another room. Myofunctional therapy is another room. Screening a five-year-old for a restricted tongue and helping change the trajectory of their facial growth — that's another room. So is teaching other clinicians, writing curriculum, or working alongside a manufacturer or lab to bring good tools to more practices. You don't have to choose between loving your profession and being curious about a bigger version of it. [PAUSE] ## Lateral, vertical, and a third option Clinicians tend to think about career growth in two directions. Lateral: same role, different office. Vertical: go back to school for a new credential. Lateral sometimes doesn't change much, because the scope travels with you. Vertical can feel like a big lift — years, tuition, timing that doesn't always fit. There's a third direction that's less talked about, and it's the one I took: go *deeper* and *wider* where you already are, inside your existing license or role. Add a specialty. Build toward education or an industry partnership. It often costs weeks, not years. In most provinces and states, airway screening and myofunctional therapy sit comfortably inside what an RDH can already do — and the relationships you build there can open doors to teaching, speaking, and industry roles down the line. ## Several ways this can look Let me get concrete, because "expand your scope" is a nice phrase and a useless instruction on its own. Here are a few shapes I see this take in real life. **One — you stay exactly where you are and change what happens in your appointments.** No new job, no restructuring conversation. You add a ninety-second airway screen to your recall. You start noticing, you start referring, and your appointments feel more engaging because you're actively problem-solving. This is the lowest-cost version, and it's often the one that reignites interest in the work first. **Two — the hybrid.** You keep your clinical days and add myo as a service inside the practice. The office bills for it, you deliver it, and you become someone the whole team relies on for something distinct. **Three — the one-day-a-week.** Four clinical days, one myo day — sometimes at a different rate, sometimes at a different location. A common path for people balancing a family or other commitments. **Four — you build a specialty practice.** Independent myofunctional practice. A bigger step, and a real business with real margins for people who want to run their own thing. **Five — education and industry.** For some of us, the natural next step is teaching other clinicians, developing courses, or partnering with a manufacturer or lab on training and product education. This is close to my own path, and it's a wonderful way to use clinical experience at a larger scale. [BREATH] Every one of these can build on the license, the seniority, and the years already invested — none of them require starting from zero. [PAUSE] ## What it costs to try Here's the part I want to be really clear about, because I think this is where people freeze. You don't have to decide today whether you're becoming a myofunctional therapist, an educator, or an industry consultant. What you *can* decide today is whether you want to spend one hour finding out whether this work lights you up. That's genuinely how it started for me. Not a five-year plan — one course, one weekend, one "huh, I've been missing this in every patient I've seen for years." That feeling, of being curious again, is the real signal. Not the income projection, not the business model. Just: does this make me want to look closer at my next patient, or at this field as a whole? If the answer is yes, there's a well-lit path from here. If the answer is no, you've spent an hour and learned something true, which is worth a lot. ## The permission slip So here's what I want to leave you with. Wanting something different — more depth, more variety, or a completely different seat in this field, like education or industry — isn't a mark against your profession. It's usually a sign you've got more to give than your current role is using yet, and the good news is this field has room for that in a lot of directions. You don't have to choose between "the exact same role forever" and "start over completely." There's a wide middle ground where you keep everything you've built and add to it. If you want to see what that first hour looks like, the one-hour CE course is at optimizedairway.com/ce-course, and the code PODCAST20 takes twenty percent off. If you're already past "is this interesting" and into "how do I actually do this," the full certification is at optimizedairway.com/oae-certification. Whatever you decide, make it from curiosity and good information, not from a rush to escape anything. I'll see you next Tuesday. [OUTRO]