PTBCCT Member

Dr. Mel Bartlett was born and raised in Astoria, Oregon. She attended Pacific University and majored in Exercise Science with a minor in Biology in 2013. Her original plan was to attend dental school to become an orthodontist but she later fell in love with the field of Physical Therapy during her junior year of undergrad. She attended George Fox University and graduated with her DPT in 2016. She became fascinated with TMD after discovering the unique marriage of both dental and physical therapy professions within this specialty. One of the first TMD courses she attended was Jeff Mannheimer’s, where her passion for TMD was really ignited. Following that course, she was determined to become a board certified CCTT, which she later obtained in 2024. 

 

Dr. Mel focuses her practice on manual therapy, neuromuscular re-education and perhaps most importantly, patient education and patient empowerment. Dr. Mel feels it is crucial to not only treat the patient with specific manual therapy techniques, but also to build an individualized program that patients can utilize for years to come to help manage their symptoms. In her experience, combining knowledge and training with compassion and empathy for patients has yielded the best results, as many times patients have seen numerous providers who have never spent the time to listen to them. We cannot underestimate the power of empathy! She also especially enjoys the collaboration with dentists in her community that often provokes thoughtful discussion and enlightenment about the role PT can play in treating TMD. 

 

She currently practices in McMinnville, Oregon in an out-of-network model with occasional concierge services. This type of practice allows her quality, one on one time with her patients, which she finds imperative to seeing results. She plans to pursue Myofunctional Therapy certification in the future, in hopes of impacting pediatric patients and decreasing their risk for developing TMD.