About Michelle
Clinical insight. Airway-focused care. A deeper understanding of how breathing, sleep, and oral function connect.
About Michelle
Michelle Sands is a Myofunctional Therapist and Airway Health Specialist with more than three decades of experience in dentistry. Over the course of her career, she has worked across general dentistry, pediatric dentistry, and dental sleep medicine practices, developing a deep understanding of how breathing, oral function, and sleep health are connected.
Her work today focuses on helping patients uncover and address the root causes behind issues such as mouth breathing, snoring, poor sleep quality, and oral muscle dysfunction. Through myofunctional therapy, Michelle helps individuals restore proper breathing patterns, improve oral muscle function, and support long-term airway health.
My Professional Path
Michelle’s professional path includes extensive clinical experience in general dentistry, pediatric dentistry, and dental sleep medicine. During this time, she stepped into leadership roles focused on improving clinical standards, patient education, and interdisciplinary care.
Recognizing that many airway-related conditions were going undetected in traditional dental settings, Michelle developed and introduced airway screening protocols within the practices she worked in. She trained hygiene teams and dentists to recognize early warning signs related to breathing dysfunction, sleep-disordered breathing, and oral muscle imbalance.
Her work also included mentoring clinicians and helping dental teams better understand how airway health, oral function, and sleep quality intersect — areas that are often overlooked in traditional dental education.
A Personal Experience That Deepened My Perspective
While Michelle was already developing a strong professional interest in dental sleep medicine and airway health, a personal experience deepened her perspective even further.
Following a breast cancer diagnosis, Michelle began to look at health through a broader and more integrated lens. The experience reinforced the importance of understanding how the body functions as a whole — including the critical role that breathing, sleep quality, and overall physiological balance play in long-term wellness.
This shift ultimately led Michelle to transition away from traditional chairside dental hygiene and focus more fully on airway-centered care and patient education.
Why Myofunctional Therapy Became the Natural Next Step
As Michelle continued to work alongside a dentist specializing in dental sleep medicine, she saw firsthand how breathing dysfunction and oral muscle patterns could influence both sleep quality and long-term health outcomes.
This work naturally led her to pursue advanced training in myofunctional therapy, completing two extensive training programs focused on the evaluation and treatment of oral muscle dysfunction and airway-related disorders.
Today, Michelle integrates her background in dentistry, airway health, and myofunctional therapy to help patients understand and correct the underlying patterns contributing to breathing and sleep issues.
In addition to working with patients, she also educates dental professionals on airway health and myofunctional therapy integration, helping clinicians recognize patterns that are often overlooked in traditional training.
Why This Work Matters
Michelle’s goal is simple: to help people better understand how their breathing, oral function, and sleep health are connected — and to provide the guidance and structure needed to create meaningful, lasting change.
Through personalized therapy and education, she helps patients develop healthier breathing patterns, improve oral muscle function, and support better sleep and overall wellness.
