Members: $50    Members' Staff: $50     Student Members: $25    Non-members: $100

Subject Code: 430 - Pediatric Dentistry      Credits: 1

Five percent or more of babies born in the United States have such tight tongue ties and frenum pulls that they cannot successfully latch onto the mother’s nipple to breastfeed. For the baby, serious consequences include weight loss and the label, “failure to thrive.” For the mother, consequences may include sore and cracked nipples, mastitis, painful engorgement and postpartum depression due to an inability to breastfeed. Classically, this is treated by a physician removing the attachment. But the treatment of choice is for a dentist to use laser technology to painlessly, bloodlessly remove the attachment, allowing the infant to immediately nurse.

This participation course will cover how to accumulate all required data via history intake forms, perform a clinical examination to arrive at the correct diagnosis, evaluate when this procedure should be done and how to perform the procedure using laser technology. The course will also explore the practice management/marketing side of this procedure: how to network with lactation consultants, pediatricians, neonatologists, and the rest of the medical team in order to grow your practice of neonatal dentistry. 

This course is recommended for general dentists, periodontists, oral surgeons and pediatric dentists who already have some laser experience.

Learning objectives:

• Understand how to diagnose anterior, posterior and submucosal tongue ties
• Learn how, when and why to treat neonatal tongue ties.
• Learn how to identify the best devices and techniques for treatment.