71 I The New Sleep Apnea Pill: What Every Myofunctional Therapist Needs to Know

Is the new sleep apnea pill the end of myofunctional therapy — or the biggest marketing gift you've ever been handed?

Friend, the scuttlebutt is loud.

There's a new sleep apnea medication making headlines, and I've been watching myofunctional therapists panic about it in Facebook groups, in my DMs, and in my inbox. So today I'm breaking down three truths that flip this entire story upside down.

We're covering what the drug actually does — in plain English, why this is validation, not competition. How is it about to expand your market instead of shrinking it? And the exact three-step script you need when a prospect asks you, "Can't I just take a pill?" 

If you've been worried pharma is about to take your lunch — this episode is your reset button. 

If you've been wondering how to talk about this with clients, I'm handing you the positioning sentence you can anchor to for the next 12 months. 

Grab your ☕coffee and your courage — and let's dive in! 

Xo, 

Carmen

🌐 The Profitable Myofunctional Therapist™ 

https://theprofitablemyofunctionaltherapist.com

✅ Grab the Trained to Booked Checklist

https://offers.theprofitablemyofunctionaltherapist.com/trainedoptin

📅  Need help? Book a "Get Unstuck" call today 

https://theprofitablemyofunctionaltherapist.com/contact/

Transcript

The Pill Panic And The Promise

SPEAKER_00 1:04

There's a new sleep apnea pill making headlines, and I'm watching myofunctional therapists panic about it on social media, in my DMs, and in my inbox. Stop, my friend. Pharmaceutical companies just validated everything that we have been saying about airway for years. This pill isn't your competition, it's your billboard. And in this episode, I'm gonna show you why. If you're a burned out, bored dental hygienist who knows that you can't do this forever, or you've already taken myofunctional therapy training but feel stuck on how to actually start, grow, or simplify your business, welcome, my friend. You're in the right place. I'm Carmen, a dental hygienist who once sat exactly where you are: overworked, physically tired, mentally done, knowing that there had to be more, and wanting the fastest, simplest, most organized path forward with someone holding my hand along the way. This podcast is for women who don't want more information. They want transformation. They want clarity, consistent clients, predictable income. Without building a business that takes over their life, they also want support while they do it. So if you're ready to stop spinning, start moving, and finally make sense of what comes next, grab your coffee and your courage, my friend. Let's build a business that works for your life, not one that runs it, so that you can build a life that you're genuinely bonkers about, because that's my superpower. Well, hello, friend, and welcome back to the episode. Today is going to be a little bit of a, shall I say, detour kind of, because I don't typically talk clinical stuff. And I'm not so much going to get into clinical as I am going to be just talking about, you know, how this is going to impact your business. Um, but I've been hearing the scuttle butt, I've been getting the comments from my students, and so we are going to talk about that today. So there was a research project. Let me see what it was called here. So it was called the Lancet Flow Trial. So it was published in 2025, and then um it hit the news in March of 2026. So I have no idea why there was a delay. Um, so they're talking about this new sleep apnea medicine. Okay. So that's why I thought we would talk about it because it kind of, you know, when this stuff comes up, it can just make us feel more reactive in thinking, ah, here's another thing that's gonna affect my business. You know, AI continues to um affect a lot of industries out there. And so this is one of those areas where for us as myofunctional therapists, that it could just be a stressor. Okay. So I know that it's not a matter of if you see it in your practice. I'm I know that it's a matter of when. So we're gonna just kind of be diving into. I haven't broken down into what I call three truths to kind of flip that story. So the first thing, let's talk about um this medicine. So let me first give you a little bit more. I have it written down here. So this medicine is a repurposed um epilepsy drug. And it is in this study, it's reducing breathing interruptions by up to 47% in people with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea. Okay. Um, and so the other interesting thing that I found is that um when I was doing my research on this, I did not know this, but in December of 2024, the FDA approved the use of trazepatide, which is a GLP one. So that's the Zeb bound for obstructive sleep apnea. So stay tuned on that. We're gonna be having that conversation too. Um, but anyhow, so that's the thing with the medicine. So let's talk about more uh about that. So what it actually is. So um it the drug is what is called a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor. So don't panic at the name. You don't have to memorize that. Um, what that means to you in plain English is that some people with sleep apnea have a breathing control system that's too sensitive. And their brain overreacts to small shifts in carbon dioxide at night. And you know that our body is really happy when it has a good oxygen carbon dioxide balance. And so when that happens, when when their brain overreacts to that shift, their breathing gets jumpy, the air may airway muscles relax, the airway collapses. So researchers call this the high loop gain, okay? Think of it like a thermostat that keeps cranking the heat up and down, up and down, up and down. It just can't settle where it wants to be. And that's the breathing pattern for these people. So this drug dampens that thermostat, okay? So then the breathing smooths out. And here's the part that you're gonna love. The researchers also found that it improved upper airway muscle tone. Their words, not mine. So even the drug study says that muscle tone in the airway is part of the fix. So that should sound familiar to you because that is our whole job. That's that's what we do. Okay, so let's dive into the first truth. So, based on kind of what I'm feeling from my clients, this pill is validation of you and the work that you do. It is not competition, okay? So for years, me, you, all of the other myofunctional therapists out there, we've been the weirdos at the airway table, right? We're the ones that are preaching the correct tongue posture. You know, the full tongue has to live tip to tail in the roof of the mouth. We're the ones preaching nasal breathing, we're the ones preaching muscle function. Now, a major medical journal has published a drug trial. And what's it doing? That drug is stabilizing upper airway function. The same thing that we have been doing for years without a prescription. So let that sit for a minute. Let that just hit. Big pharma did not invent this idea. They're just catching up to us. And here's the thing that should really put a little pep back in your step is that myfunctional therapy reduces AHI by about 50% in adults and 62% in kids. Okay, this is peer reviewed. We know this. This new drug, 47% at the highest dose. So we have been outperforming this for years. So when I see you guys kind of worrying about it, you know, like clutching your pearls over it, I want you to understand this isn't your ending. This is not, this is your billboard. The only question you have to ask yourself is whether you're gonna stay quiet or if you're gonna use it. Okay. Truth number two, the pill expands your market. Okay, it doesn't shrink it. So where most therapists are getting it backwards, they hear about this sleep apnea drug and they think that it is competition, and that's wrong. It's dead wrong. When a story like this drops, it has nothing to do with the drug. Okay. When a story drops like this, so many people, millions of people, are going to be thinking about whether they have sleep apnea or not. They're gonna Google it, they're gonna ask their dentist, they're gonna mention it to your spouse. And you know what that is for you, my friend? Yeah, that's called free awareness. That's called free marketing, and it's paid for by big pharma's marketing budget, dropped right into your lap. So, some of those people, they're gonna try the pill. Okay, that's okay. Some of them aren't gonna qualify, some are gonna try it and they're they're gonna realize that it doesn't fit, fix their root cause problem because their root problem is more than that. Okay, it's that tongue living in the floor of their mouth, it's their mouth just gaping open. It's all of these things that we do bundled together. Okay. And if your audience is anything like mine, a lot of these people are gonna want a non-drug option from day one. My clients come to me, they wait on a waiting list because they want to work with me. And and many of these people, I would say they're very forward-thinking, they're very cutting-edge, wellness-minded. Okay, so they don't want a pill. I know a lot of society just wants a pill and a potion, but these people are not them. So for every one of these people, um, this the door is cracking open for you. Okay. The people who don't want that drug remedy. But the catch is that the door only matters if you're standing in it. The therapist who panics and doesn't do anything with this information, they're gonna miss the whole wave. The ones like you who show up, post about it, send it to your email list. Friend, if you don't have an email list, then you definitely need to be in the profitable myofunctional therapist because that is real estate. That's marketing real estate that you own. Okay. Has a conversation for a whole nother day. But shameless plug, if you don't have an email list, you need to be in the program. Um, so therapists who are posting about it, they're emailing their list about it, they're mentioning it to their boss, they're talking about their dental call, talking about it with their dental colleagues. These are the ones who are gonna get clients from it. Okay. You want to get visible. It's not about being smarter, it's about being seen. Visibility is the whole game, and the market just handed you the biggest content week, month of the year. You want to ride that wave, my friend. Truth number three, you're the root cause option. I love that. I love that. You are the root cause option. I own it. So here's what I want you to never forget pills treat symptoms. CPAP treats symptoms. Oral appliances treat symptoms. Okay. All legitimate tools. I'm not here to stomp all over any of them. CPAP saves save lives, period. I get it. But let's also remember, my friend, that compliance with a CPAP is actually less than 40%. Okay. Um, none of these items address the root cause. None of these address why the airway is collapsing in the first place. This is your lane. You are not in the instead of business, you're in the fix what nothing else can business. And I love that. I don't know if you have experienced that with your clients, but in my clinical world, I love the fact that I just tip over that domino and it transforms these people's lives. It is so rewarding. Okay. The pill is not going to teach where the tongue lives. Okay. The pill is not going to teach tongue on the spot and the full tongue resting tip to tail across the roof of the mouth. It's not going to do that. Um, a mask from the CPAP, not going to retrain the swallow. Okay. Not going to work on that behavior modification of getting the mouth closed, the lip sealed, the tongue up, all of that stuff. And an appliance isn't going to do that either. It's not going to fix what else is going on. Only you can do that. Okay. So if you're multitasking, pay attention to me here. Say this with me. I don't compete with the pill. I address what the pill can't. I love that. I don't compete with the pill. I address what the pill can't. Okay. That is your anger. That is your positioning sentence. That is what you say when somebody, one of your potential clients, asks you. That's what you say when the skeptical spouse pushes back. You are the root cause option. I own it. Okay. I don't compete with the pill. I address what the pill can't. So now I have a three-part framework. Um what you should do when somebody asks about this. Okay. Can't I just take a pill? Remember, I said society just wants pills and potions, right? So I'm going to just hand you what I would call the script, okay? Because this conversation is coming. Whether you've already had it or not, it's coming. Okay. Three steps. Number one, validate the question. So don't get defensive. Okay. Don't side, don't lie, don't act like they're insulting you. Um, you just want to say something like, oh, that's a great, that's a great question. Um, the research on these new drugs is exciting. It's, you know, it's nice that we see a pharmaceutical option for sleep apnea. Um, that's it. Okay. One sentence, done. You just position yourself as an informed, current, and unbothered person. And if you're not, go get informed about it. Go read up all on it. When I did my research, I got, you know, this many, this many links. And if you're listening to this and not watching it on YouTube, you can just imagine there had to be a dozen links there that I got in using in doing this research. So go get yourself informed, okay? Step number two, reframe the conversation. So a lot of therapists, especially if you're new or nervous, you you fumble and you shrink, okay? I don't want you to shrink, okay? I want you to be able to say that what those uh drugs do is stabilize breathing during sleep. But what I do is retrain how you do things 24 hours a day, okay? Awake, asleep, eating, talking. The pill works for I don't know, eight hours. My work shows up every hour of your life. Okay. Notice what you just did. You didn't attack the pill, you made the conversation bigger. Two different tools, two different jobs. Step number three, offer the next step. Okay. No overselling, no underselling. You just want to take this in my programs, I call it dangling the carrot. Like you just want to lead them towards that free assessment. Their next best step, if you're having this conversation with somebody, is to just say, hey, if you're interested to see if you're a good fit for myofunctional therapy, the next step is a free assessment. And during that time, I'm going to figure out if this is the right tool for you or if you should start with a medication and add therapy later. Okay. I would be hard pressed to offer to tell anybody to start any pharmaceutical, but that's just me, little granola Gretchen over here, right? Um, if you don't do free assessments and if a comprehensive exam is your first step, then go with that too. Just offer them the next step. So many of you guys, you freeze because you don't want to sell, you feel selsy, you don't want to be pushy, you're not confident in your skills. Again, if you're not confident in your skills, you need to get inside, learn myofunctional therapy in 60 days. I'm going to teach you all of that. Um, but you have to be confident in your skills, and every everything needs to be pushing somebody into your funnel, if you will, whether that's a free assessment, whether that's an exam. Myofunctional therapy is a numbers game. If you're not getting people in front of you to talk to to give them an offer to work with you, then all day long you're going to be struggling. So just know that when somebody is, when they have already self-selected and raised their hand saying, hey, I have this problem, and you know specifically that you can help them with that problem, then it it would be who it is wrong of you to have those skills and not offer to help. Okay. You're not selling anything. You're just saying, hey, I can help you. And in my professional opinion, those are the most important words you can say is, hey, I can help you. Okay, so so in the step three of the framework, move them to the next step. Let them know, okay, that that you're gonna figure out if they're a good fit for malfunctional therapy, and then you're gonna move on. Okay. So position yourself as the pro who picks the right tool for the right person, okay? You remove the pressure. A lot of people, especially people who are having sleep issues, you guys, they are desperate. They are desperate and they want an answer and they're probably willing to consider taking that medicine. But maybe, maybe you can educate them and bring them on board as a new client, okay? So, um, so that is how I think you're gonna convert clients in this whole scenario. Okay. So go do your research, get um, get brought up to speed on it. Wherever you're watching this, I will make sure that you have um these research sources about this, the Lancet flow trial. I'm also going to put the research here for the FDA approval of the trusepatide for um obstructive sleep apnea. I might completely be behind the ball on that, but you can bet your girl is gonna be going to research that. So, my friend, that's all I have for you today. Until I am back next time, go build a life that you are bonkers about. And I'm gonna be back soon to talk about more ways to start, grow, and simplify your myofunctional therapy business. I hope you loved today's episode, friend. I pray that it lifted you up, motivated you, and taught you something. If so, would you stop right now and go to Apple Podcasts and leave us a review? And lastly, make sure you've joined the profitable myofunctional therapist Facebook community. Links to all the goodies can be found wherever you're listening to this podcast. That's it for now. Cheering you on, my friend, and we'll chat soon.