Download/Print as PDF

Introduction

Enhance your understanding of the issues of pediatric laser dentistry, including tongue-ties and lip-ties! As many as 5 percent of all babies born in the US have tongue-ties significant enough to cause breastfeeding difficulties. Affected babies often fail to thrive and can be erroneously labeled as “lazy nursers” or “stubborn feeders”.

A good surgical laser for cutting soft tissue must be able to vaporize soft tissue, while at the same time efficiently coagulating surgical margins. Not all laser wavelengths are suitable to comply with both requirements. This course focuses on the practical aspects of soft tissue laser surgery and on the fundamental processes involved in the laser-tissue interaction; it helps attendees learn how deep the laser beam cuts and how deep the coagulation and hemostasis extend into the surgical margins. Our hands-on participation lab is designed to train attendees on what surgical lasers can do safely and efficiently.

Instructors

• Piya Gandhi, DDS
• SPECIAL GUEST: Shannon Thorsteinson, DMD
• Alayna Pagnani-Gendron, DC
• Leah Whitley, IBCLC
• Catherine Kangas, RDH, Myofunctional Therapist
• Peter Vitruk, PhD, MInstP, CPhys

Clinical Curriculum

• Background and significance of Tethered Oral Tissues (TOTS);
• Diagnosis of pediatric tongue- and lip-ties;
• Multi-disciplinary approach to treating pediatric tongue- and lip-ties;
• Lactation support for the breastfeeding tongue-tied dyad;
• Bodywork and alternative therapy for the tongue-tied baby;
• Setting expectations with families and patients;
• Implementing TOTS treatment into a business;
• Building and training an in house team;
• Billing and insurance setup and details;
• Current methods of clinical assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of pediatric lingual and labial ties.
  

  Attendees will be able to:

  • Describe infant sucking physiology and how tongue-ties impair infant suck;
  • Appropriately use reliable diagnostic criteria to screen babies and children for this condition;
  • Clearly express orthodontic-myofunctional connection;
  • Discuss how the soft tissues of the orofacial complex may lead to malocclusion, TMD, headaches, and other problems; and
  • List and define all consequences and benefits of using lasers to remove oral restrictions.

Laser Curriculum

Laser Surgery and Safety Basic Knowledge Certification Curriculum for this Course has been developed by the American Laser Study Club (ALSC). The ALSC’s curriculum overcomes the known limitations of many laser dentistry courses and includes the detailed physics of soft tissue ablation and coagulation with laser and hot tip (non-laser) devices. Laser hands-on wet lab on tissue samples will include laser safety instructions, frenectomy simulations, and other surgical laser procedure demonstrations. Laser instructions will be assisted by the guest speaker Peter Vitruk, PhD, MInstP, CPhys, a laser physicist who founded the American Laser Study Club, and LightScalpel Inc.

Hands-On Participation Session

• Laser Safety
• Laser Surgical Technique Simulations
• Superficial Ablation
• Superficial Coagulation
• Shallow Incisions
• Deep Incisions
• Practicing Surgical Techniques on a Pig jaw

Course Certificates

Course participants, who successfully complete the examination, will be awarded a LASER SAFETY basic knowledge CERTIFICATE from the Board of Laser Safety of the Laser Institute of America (DISCOUNTED cost for the ALSC members), as well as a Laser Dentistry and Laser Surgery Basic Knowledge and Hands-On participation Wetlab CERTIFICATE from the American Laser Study Club (FREE for the course participants).