Sometimes the greatest growth in clinical practice begins with discomfort, reflection and personal aspirations.

You may have taken courses on tethered oral tissues and started integrating these patients into your caseload, only to realize that the real challenge is not simply identifying a frenulum. It is navigating timing, trust, team dynamics, release decisions, lactation, bodywork, orthodontics, airway considerations, and the quiet but persistent question: Who is guiding this process?

For many providers and families, the journey feels fragmented. Robyn and Dr. Kapoor share a rare dual perspective as both provider and patient within an evolving interprofessional partnership. What began as a professional meeting unfolded into a deeply personal release story, one that challenged assumptions, refined protocols, strengthened communication, and reshaped how collaborative airway-centered care can truly function.

This course is not simply about when to release or what appliance to choose. It is about the mindfulness required to pause, assess, communicate, and decide ethically and collaboratively. It is about building trust across disciplines. It is about understanding timing, when to treat, when to wait, and when to support.

Through personal narrative and case analysis, participants will explore how meaningful collaboration develops, how shared values influence patient outcomes, and how to build local networks that prioritize patient-centered and ethically aligned care. Because comprehensive care is not a procedure. It is a relationship.

1. Differentiate roles and responsibilities among interdisciplinary team members.
2. Analyze clinical factors influencing timing of intervention
3. Develop a structured framework for evaluating and establishing collaborative referral networks that align with ethical, airway-focused, and patient-centered care principles.

• Robyn Merkel-Walsh, MA, CCC-SLP, COM®️
• Radhika Kapoor, DDS

Registration Fees

• $150  0.2 ASHA CEUs, digital workbook & certificate of completion.

Schedule

Timed Agenda

• 10 mins: Introduction (bios and disclosures)
• 30 mins: The members of a TOTs team: roles, responsibilities and scope of practice
• 30 mins: From the initial contact to treatment: creating forms and procedures that establish clinical rapport and best treatment outcomes
• 30 mins: Case presentation: Robyn and Radhika’s journey
• 15 mins: Complex scenarios: when to pause and reflect
• 5 mins: Q and A

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Content Disclosure: This presentation will focus on treatment methods related to the use of TalkTools® resources. Other similar treatment approaches will receive limited or no coverage during this lecture.

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