Meet Liz Turner | Airway-focused Dentist & Tongue-Tie Expert

We had the good fortune of connecting with Liz Turner and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Liz, what is the most important factor behind your success?
The most important factor behind Untethered’s success is simple: we let patient outcomes lead everything we do.
From the very beginning, our mission has been to find and fix the root cause of breathing and sleep problems — not just manage symptoms. When a parent tells us their baby is finally feeding without pain, or an adult says they slept through the night for the first time in years without a CPAP, that’s what drives every decision we make as a practice. Those transformations are our north star.
We believe that when you genuinely change someone’s quality of life — when a child’s dark circles disappear, when a teenager stops mouth breathing, when a family finally gets restful sleep — word travels. Our growth has been built on real results, not marketing. Families refer other families because they’ve lived the difference firsthand.
That commitment to outcomes also pushes us to keep learning, investing in the best technology, and collaborating with other providers so our patients get the most complete care possible. Success, for us, has always meant healthier patients — everything else follows from that.

What should our readers know about your business?
Untethered Airway Health Center exists because we refused to accept that breathing problems, sleepless nights, and feeding struggles were just “normal.”
What sets us apart is our commitment to treating the root cause — not the symptom. So many patients come to us after years of being told their child’s behavioral issues, their snoring, or their chronic fatigue are just something to live with. We don’t believe that. We look at the whole person — their airway, their sleep, their development — and we build a care plan around what’s actually driving the problem. That whole-body, root-cause philosophy is woven into everything we do, from infant tongue tie releases to adult sleep apnea solutions, and it’s what keeps patients referring their friends and family to us.
Getting here wasn’t easy. Airway health is still an emerging field, and one of the biggest challenges we’ve faced is changing minds — both in the medical community and among patients who have been dismissed for years. There’s still a lot of skepticism about the connection between tongue ties, breathing, and overall health. Early on, that meant educating other providers, having hard conversations, and sometimes being the first person to tell a family that what they were experiencing wasn’t inevitable. That takes persistence. But every time a pediatrician starts referring to us because they’ve seen what’s possible, or a parent finally gets answers after years of searching, it confirms we’re on the right side of this.
What I’m most proud of — and most excited about — is the growing awareness around airway health. We are at a real inflection point where more families, more providers, and more researchers are connecting the dots between breathing and whole-body wellness. At Untethered, we don’t just want to treat patients; we want to move the needle on how this field is understood. Whether that’s through educating healthcare providers, showing up for families who feel lost, or simply doing the work with excellence every single day — we want Untethered to be part of why airway health becomes a standard part of every wellness conversation, not an afterthought.
The lesson I keep coming back to is this: do the right thing for the patient, always. When that’s your true north, the rest — the growth, the reputation, the community — follows naturally.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Oh, I would have the best week planned for you — Colorado does not disappoint.
We’d kick things off with a morning Fierce45 reformer pilates class to shake off the travel, then coffee at Lavender Coffee – their nitro is excellent. After that, we’re heading to Red Rocks for a hike and to run (or walk!) the stairs. The view is incredible and they often do sound check mid morning. Nothing like your own private show!
For dinner on night one, we’re going to La Rocca Rossa — a new steakhouse in Morrison with a unique and local inspired menu. Great for lingering over a bottle of wine and catching up. Make sure you come hungry because the garlic rosemary focaccia bread is to die for.
Day two is a golf day at Fossil Trace Golf Club in Golden — one of the most unique courses in the area, with stunning views and a layout built around fossilized prehistoric plants and animals. It’s a public course and you can’t even believe how gorgeous it is. Afterwards, we’d grab dinner at the Golden Mill Food Hall and walk through downtown Golden.
Mid-week, we’d do a day trip to Idaho Springs — they just opened the Mighty Argo Cable Car. You can ride up to the top, have some lunch at the Outpost, and watch the bikers race down the mountain. It will get your heart rate pumping the jumps they do! Then we can hike down and finish with the Argo Mill Tour and panning for gold. BeauJo’s pizza with honey for the crust is a great dinner spot before heading back. By day four, we’d slow it down — morning pilates, exploring the Belmar neighborhood, and a mini golf at Putter’s Pride, which is awesome for kids right here in Lakewood.
We’d close out the trip with a sunset walk around Johnston Reservoir and Clemente Park. Our kids go crazy for this place. You can walk over from The Lakehouse after having happy hour on the deck. Honestly, the hardest part of showing someone around here is that there’s too much to fit into one week.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are so many people who deserve credit in this story, but if I had to start somewhere, it would be with my co-founder, Dr. Meggie Graham.
Building Untethered wasn’t a solo journey — it was born out of a shared vision between two dentists who both experienced airway and tongue tie challenges within their own families and couldn’t ignore what they were seeing. Meggie’s passion, expertise, and drive to do things differently pushed us both to think bigger and build something that could truly change lives at scale. I wouldn’t be where I am without her partnership.
I also have to recognize my husband Mike and my two kids, who have been my greatest support system through all of it. Building a practice from the ground up takes an enormous amount of time, energy, and sacrifice — and they gave me the space and encouragement to pour myself into this work without ever making me feel guilty for it. My family is my “why” in the most literal sense. It was watching my own child struggle that first opened my eyes to airway health, and Mike’s unwavering support is what gave me the confidence to turn that awakening into a career and a calling.
And finally — the families. Every parent who trusted us with their newborn, every adult who came to us after years of exhaustion and dead ends — they believed in us early, shared their stories, and became the heart of everything we do. Their courage to seek answers is what keeps this mission moving forward.

Website: https://untetheredairwayhealthcenter.com/lakewood

Instagram: @drlizzzt

Image Credits
Emiliy Songer Photo