Myofunctional Therapy Certification: Do You Need It to Practice?

Do You Need a Certification to Practice Myofunctional Therapy? An Honest Look at the Pathways Available Today

 "Do I need to be certified to practice myofunctional therapy?"

This is one of the first questions we hear from providers who are considering this work, and it’s a fair one.

The honest answer is more nuanced than most people expect, and the landscape is still evolving.

So rather than give you a tidy marketing answer, we want to give you the real one.

Here is what certification actually means in our field right now, when it makes sense to pursue it, and how we guide our own graduates through the decision.

First, the part nobody says out loud: there is no single central certification in myofunctional therapy.

There is no state licensing board, no national board, and no government body that regulates myofunctional therapy as its own profession.

That means there is currently no official board-level credential in the way there is for dental hygiene, speech-language pathology, dentistry, or medicine.

What exists instead is a range of organizations and training programs offering their own certifications.

They differ in structure, requirements, depth, timeline, and cost, and each was built with its own philosophy in mind. Many are led by people we know and respect, and there is real value in that variety.

But it does mean something worth understanding: these are certifications granted by individual organizations, not board qualifications issued by a licensing authority. And because there is no central body setting a shared standard, the word "certified" can mean different things from one program to the next.

Knowing that is not a reason for cynicism. It’s a reason to ask good questions.

What does this credential actually require of me? Who evaluates my work? What will it do for my practice?

Those are great questions to bring to any organization, including ours.

Certification is not required to do this work

This surprises people, so we want to state it plainly.

You do not need a certification to work as a myofunctional therapist or to bring myofunctional therapy protocols into an existing practice.*

What you need is education, clinical competence, and the judgment to work within your professional scope of practice.

Thousands of providers around the world are already screening for orofacial myofunctional disorders, treating patients, building referral relationships, and changing outcomes without a certification credential after their name.

Their patients are not asking about credentials. Their patients are asking why they still cannot breathe through their nose, why their child grinds their teeth, and why they wake up exhausted after eight hours of sleep.

What those patients need is a provider who knows how to connect the dots. That comes from training, mentorship, and repetition. Not from a certificate.

*One exception we know of: Alberta, Canada. The Alberta College of Dental Hygienists has issued a position statement on orofacial myofunctional therapy that includes education and training requirements for registered dental hygienists practicing OMT. It is the only jurisdiction we are aware of with a formal requirement of this kind, and it applies specifically to dental hygienists. If you practice in Alberta, review the ACDH position statement directly at acdh.ca. And wherever you practice, it is always worth confirming the scope with your own licensing body.

So why do people pursue certification?

Because it can still be genuinely valuable. Certification tends to matter most when it supports a specific professional goal, such as:

• Credibility with referral partners. Some dentists, orthodontists, and ENTs feel more comfortable referring to a credentialed therapist, particularly early in a relationship.
• Directory visibility. Certifying organizations often maintain public provider directories that patients and referring providers search.
• Professional community. Certification usually comes with membership in an organization, access to journals, conventions, and a network of colleagues.
• Personal accountability. For some providers, working toward a rigorous external standard is simply the structure they want.

Those are all good reasons. Notice what is not on the list: certification is not a prerequisite for competence, and it is not a shortcut to a full caseload.

Where certification fits in your timeline

Here is the piece that trips people up most often.

Certification comes after your foundational training, not instead of it. Every legitimate certification pathway requires you to first complete a substantive introductory course, and then to build real clinical experience with real patients before you can even apply.

In other words, the sequence looks like this:

1. Complete a comprehensive introductory myofunctional therapy course
2. Begin implementing with patients and building a caseload
3. Pursue certification if and when it serves your goals

If you are at the very beginning of this journey, certification is not your next decision. Your foundation is.

Choose your education first, get your hands into the work, and let the certification question answer itself once you know how you want to practice.

Why has MyoMentor not created its own certification?

We could. We have been asked to, more than once.

We have the curriculum, the clinical depth, the graduate base, and the reputation to launch a MyoMentor certification. It would be good for business. It would give our students a credential with our name on it, and it would give us another product to sell.

We also have the faculty for it. Sarah does not teach this course alone. Our students are supported by a team of experienced clinicians and mentors who guide them through implementation, answer the hard case questions, and bring perspectives from across the disciplines this work touches. That team includes a Certified Orofacial Myologist (COM®), which means the certification pathway we recommend is not something we know about from the outside. It is something our own faculty has lived.

So, this is not a case of an organization that could not create a credential.

We have chosen not to, and we want to be clear about why, because it is not a judgment about anyone else's decision to do so.

The first reason is simple: we do not think adding another credential to this field would make things clearer for the people we teach.

Providers already tell us they feel overwhelmed trying to compare options. A MyoMentor certification would be one more decision to weigh, one more acronym to explain to a referral partner. We would rather spend our energy helping you navigate the landscape than expanding it.

The second reason is about the role we want to play.

We are your teachers. We design your curriculum, we mentor you through it, and we want you to succeed in it. That relationship is exactly what makes our education work, and it is also why we do not think we are the right people to independently assess your competence afterward.

Certification carries more weight when the person validating your skills has no stake in whether you pass. We would rather that assessment come from somewhere we do not control.

So we made a decision early on, and we have held to it:

We will focus on being the best foundational education in myofunctional therapy. We will not be the certifying body. Our job is to make you an excellent clinician. If you want a credential, it should be earned somewhere with a standard of its own.

That decision is exactly why we point our graduates where we do.

The pathway we recommend: the IAOM

When our graduates ask us where to pursue certification, we point them to the International Association of Orofacial Myology (IAOM) and their Certified Orofacial Myologist (COM®) track.

Other paths exist, and we encourage you to look at them. This is simply the one we know best, trust most, and recommend.

The IAOM is the founding organization behind a formal certification process in this field, and the COM® is widely regarded as the highest level of achievement in myofunctional therapy. Their process is thorough, and deliberately so.

It also reflects the same principle that guided our own decision. The IAOM is independent of any single training program, which means your competence is evaluated by people who did not teach you.

Candidates are assessed by a Board of Examiners made up of experienced COM® holders, through a written proficiency exam and a live, on-site evaluation with real patients. The clinical experience requirement is real, and so is the exam. That independence and that rigor are what give the credential its weight.

Their pathway includes:

• Active IAOM membership, currently $250 for a one year cycle
• Completion of a 28-hour orofacial myofunctional therapy course. This must come from a single course meeting the 28-hour minimum, not several shorter courses added together.
• Clinical implementation. You must have completed the full program with a minimum of two patients aged four or older before beginning certification.
• A certification application and enrollment fee, currently $250, separate from membership dues
• A written proficiency exam of 140 multiple choice questions, requiring a score of 80% or higher
• An onsite evaluation in front of two IAOM appointed examiners, currently $850
• Ongoing maintenance, including current membership dues and 20 CEUs every two years

One important note on eligibility: IAOM active membership is available to healthcare professionals with a background as a dentist, physician, registered dental hygienist, dental therapist, speech-language pathologist, physical therapist, or occupational therapist. If you fall outside those categories, it is worth confirming your eligibility with the IAOM directly before you build your plan around this pathway.

You can review their full requirements on the IAOM certification page.

And here is the part that matters for our students: the IAOM accepts the MyoMentor 12-Week Course for membership and for entry into their certification process. So if certification is on your horizon, our course is not a detour. It is a direct on-ramp.

Our position, plainly stated

We support every one of our graduates who chooses to pursue certification, and we will help you get there.

We simply will not be the ones issuing it, because we believe that validation belongs with an organization independent of your training.

We also believe, with real confidence, that the MyoMentor course provides the strongest foundation in myofunctional therapy available today.

That is not a claim we make lightly. It is one we hear reflected back to us in an unexpected way: we regularly have already certified therapists enroll in our 12-week course, not because they need the hours, but because they want to learn MyoMentor’s approach to myo.

Sarah, alongside her incredible faculty of myo educators, has spent more than twelve years refining a way of teaching this work that makes it clear, practical, and genuinely implementable. Over 2,500 graduates in more than 40 countries have gone through it. The goal has never been to make you feel impressed. It has been to make you feel capable.

That is the whole philosophy behind MyoMentor: better provider education leads to better patient care.

What we would tell you if we were sitting across the table

Do not let the certification question stall you.

We have watched too many thoughtful, capable clinicians spend a year researching credentials, comparing organizations, and waiting for the field to settle into something tidier before they begin. Meanwhile, the patients in their chairs are still mouth breathing, still not sleeping, still being treated symptom by symptom by providers who were never taught to look further.

Get the education. Start doing the work. Build your caseload.

Then, if certification serves your practice, your referral relationships, or your own sense of professional completion, pursue it with our full support and a foundation that will hold up under it.

The field is still forming. Your competence does not have to wait for it.

Ready to build your foundation?

The MyoMentor 12-Week Course is our flagship introductory training in myofunctional therapy. It is beginner-friendly, clinically rigorous, mentor-supported, and accepted by the IAOM for entry into their certification track.

[Explore the 12-Week Course] | [Talk with our team about your pathway]

Still deciding whether this is the right next step in your career? Reach out. We would rather have an honest conversation about fit than sell you a seat you are not ready for.

Warmly,

Sarah K Hornsby and the MyoMentor Team