The Peel Technique ® - A New Paradigm in Pediatric Tongue Tie Treatment

Course Overview

5% or more of the babies born in the United States have such tight tongue-ties and frenum pulls that they cannot successfully latch onto their mother’s nipple and breastfeed. For the baby, serious consequences include loss of weight and the label of “failure to thrive”. For the mother, this results in sore and cracked nipples, mastitis, painful engorgement and post-partum depression due to an inability to nurse her baby. This has classically been treated by a physician taking a scalpel or a pair of scissors to the newborn’s mouth and cutting the attachment. The treatment of choice, however, is for a dentist to use laser technology to painlessly, bloodlessly remove the attachment, allowing the infant to immediately nurse. Though many practitioners perform tongue-tie release, few are trained in the PEEL Technique ®.

Objectives

• Accumulate all of the required data via history intake forms
• Perform a clinical examination to arrive at the correct diagnosis
• Evaluate when this procedure should be done
• Perform the procedure using laser technology
• Network with lactation consultants, pediatricians, neonatologists, and the rest of the medical team
• Grow your practice of neonatal dentistry