What is our role when referring a client for frenectomy?
Q. Hi Sandra, I took your course in April, and have been thinking non-stop about the principles I’ve learned ever since (inside and outside of therapy). I’ve now referred 2 children who were on my speech therapy caseload to a pediatric dentist due to concerns regarding tongue tie. The dentist is very aware of orofacial Myology principles and even used to have an orofacial myologist on staff, My question is this. In cases such as these….am I actually recommending the tongue tie release itself OR am I just calling attention to my concerns and awaiting the dentist’s recommendation? In other words, with an ENT for example, I may believe or suspect that the tonsils should come out, and I would make the referral with concern abouttonsils and awaitthe physician’s recommendation. I would not of course, all-out actually recommend release, or recommend that the dentist consider release. Thanks for helping me with this important nuance. –Regards, LS
Orofacial Myology
Hi LS, Your question is so good that I think I’ll put it into our Q & A. Our Myo Masters FB group has a form to send to referrals to fill out for a patient referred to them. Not sure if that will be suffice but check it out and you might even want to create something similar so that the person you send your patient to see will have specific guidelines what to look for and what to send back to you.
If at some point you develop a close working relationship with a particular professional who does frenectomies, it might be easy to say that you are sending a client for release; however, I rarely was that direct and would not necessarily recommend it. On the other hand, you don’t want to put it entirely in the hands of your referral, either. They have to realize that you know a lot, especially about how ankyloglossia prevents success in your treatment program.
In my evaluation report, I put something like the following directly at the beginning of the recommendations section: If client has a frenectomy, then treatment plan to be implemented as follows: (you can change the wording, but if you place this right at the top of recommendations, then anyone reading it understands that treatment cannot and will not proceed without release.)
If you have performed a good evaluation, with good explanation, then the parent/patient will be excited to start therapy. If you are already familiar with one or more that you are comfortable with, you can point them in that direction. They should be informed enough about the ankyloglossia that they become their own advocates and hopefully select the right professional to do the release. Several of our grads have reported that they are invited to be present during the procedure with referral sources they use regularly.
