Certification through The Synergy Academy means that a provider has completed a defined course, passed a proctored examination, and documented a required number of treated cases. It is a record of training completed, verifiable by anyone who asks.
We want to be exact about what it is and is not. This is a training credential. It is not specialty recognition, it is not board certification, and it is not a substitute for licensure. Every provider practices within the scope of their own license, in their own state or province, and nothing conferred here changes that.
Certified is awarded on completion of the course, the proctored examination, and the required documented cases for that pathway.
Advanced Certified requires two years held at Certified, plus the higher case requirement for that pathway.
Providers who previously earned Fellowship or Mastership status carry over to Certified and Advanced Certified respectively. Nothing is lost and nothing needs to be repeated.
Course: ALF Evolution. Hands-on, 21 AGD PACE approved credit hours.
Eligibility: Active dental license.
Examination: Administered online under independent proctoring.
Cases: 10 documented cases for Certified. 25 for Advanced Certified.
Content: The ALF family of appliances across the three age groups — Genesis, Grow and Guide. NINJA endorsement is available after the foundation is complete.
Course: RestOralase. 18 AGD PACE approved credit hours, preceded by a required virtual session that carries the didactic content, so that in-person time is spent on hands-on work and live patient assessment.
Eligibility: Dental, medical, physical therapy, chiropractic, and speech-language pathology licensees, in states and provinces permitting the licensee to own and operate a Class 4 laser for non-ablative therapy. Documented laser safety training and access to a qualifying laser platform are also required.
Examination: Administered online under independent proctoring.
Cases: 10 documented cases for Certified. 50 for Advanced Certified.
What each certification covers:
OraLase is the foundation — the child and adult technique. It does not include dental appliances and it does not include the Er:YAG application.
RestOralase is the advanced certification. It adds the Er:YAG application and the implementation of dental devices to support outcomes.
BabyLase is the infant application, ages 0 to 2. It is carried as a rider on OraLase or RestOralase certification, with its own separate examination and 10 documented infant cases. OraLase certification is the gate.
All three are taught within the RestOralase course. Instruction in appliance implementation is included for every participant, including providers who will not place appliances themselves — understanding how a patient responds to a device, and why a given laser approach may or may not work alongside it, is part of practicing safely within a treatment team.
Conferred on providers holding certification in both Pathway One and Pathway Two. It is recognized as the combination of the two, with no separate course and no separate examination.
Dual-certified providers are eligible to apply for teaching faculty status.
Case requirements are not a formality. They are structured so that the work a provider does to certify also contributes to the NFDM research program.
A case series is 10 consecutive patients, or six months of enrollment, whichever comes first. Consecutive means consecutive — patients are not selected for how well they did. Anyone lost to follow-up is recorded as such and is not replaced.
Follow-up timepoints are baseline with a two-week diary run-in, then two weeks, 60 days, and six months. Pathway One adds final records.
This is deliberate, and it is worth saying why. When every provider assesses differently, no two results can be compared, and a field ends up with a great many confident clinicians and very little accumulated knowledge. Measuring the same things, the same way, at the same intervals is what makes it possible to ask whether something worked — and to answer honestly when it did not.
Certification is current for two years.
Renewal requires 10 hours of relevant continuing education and confirmation of active licensure.
Providers who trained in ALF Therapy or the OraLase sequence with another instructor are welcome, and enter the same sequence as everyone else.
For OraLase specifically, providers previously trained by Dr. Nordstrom may certify through a bridge route: documented prior training, the examination, and the case requirement.
There is no separate track and no shortened path. The sequence is the same for everyone, including providers we have known for years.
Instructors are appointed by the Academy, per pathway and per course.
The sequence is: Advanced Certified in the pathway, held for one year, then observing a course, assisting, co-teaching, and teaching under observation before appointment.
BabyLase instruction requires 20 documented infant cases, twice the certification requirement.
Two limits are absolute. Instructors cannot confer certification, and instructors cannot appoint other instructors. Faculty complete annual calibration on STOP, SWITCH and ACORN scoring.
We built this deliberately. Uncontrolled instructor proliferation is how a method drifts away from itself, and the only reliable protection is a sequence that everyone passes through — including people we like.
POST-IT — administered at initial assessment, at insertion, at every adjustment or titration visit, and at final records, always at the start of the appointment and before any intervention.
STOP — Subjective Test of Pain. Floor-of-mouth and associated site palpation, scored on an absolute three-level scale.
SWITCH — Strength With Influence of Trigeminal and Cranial Harmony. A four-step within-visit sequence performed on both sides, in teeth-apart and teeth-together positions, before and after a therapeutic intervention.
Starfish — identification of retained primitive reflexes.
ACORN — Assessment of Cranial Reflexive Oral Neurology. The infant assessment instrument.
The R&B's — Release and Balancing. The manual sequence supporting neuromodulation through physical touch.
CARE — Careful Assessment, Restriction Evaluation. The reasoning that runs through all of it, in two distinct stages. Careful Assessment is the patient's function. Restriction Evaluation is the restriction itself and whether it is reducible.
ALF, OraLase, BabyLase and RestOralase are federally registered trademarks. Providers who have completed the corresponding course and hold current Academy membership are licensed to use the marks and logos in their advertising.
Trademark registration protects patients. It allows someone searching for a provider to confirm that the person they find completed the training the mark represents. It is a statement about training completed, not a judgment of anyone's clinical skill.
Questions about trademark use: admin@thesynergy.academy
The ALF appliance and the OraLase sequence were originated by Dr. Darick Nordstrom. That is stated plainly wherever our work appears.
NFDM, RestOralase, BabyLase and NINJA are Dr. Tenholder's.
ALF Therapy supports improvements in functional capacity, yet does not claim to cure anything. It promotes a more ideal environment for the body to heal itself.
Certification says a provider completed a defined course, passed an examination, and documented cases to a stated standard. It does not predict any individual patient's result, and no provider should present it as though it does.
The Synergy Academy sets and maintains the framework. Our provider community advances it — and through the research network, will be what validates it.
Registration is personalized. Email admin@thesynergy.academy or call the office Monday through Thursday, 8:00 to 2:00 CST.
Reviewed August 2026.