What makes wny orofacial different?

At WNY Orofacial, we are crazy about providing evidence-based, individualized care tailored for your family's particular needs. This means we assess every baby from head to toe, take an extensive medical and feeding history of the baby as well as the rest of the family, and create an individualized treatment plan that targets the root of your baby's challenges while also supporting parents to meet their feeding goals. This also includes the habilitation of your baby's oral function.

What is habilitation, you may ask? Rehabilitation is a term we hear more often, which means learning functional skills that were once present but have been lost. Habilitation occurs when your child develops those functional skills for the first time.

While we are Internationally Board-Certified to support breast/chest feeding process and lactation-related health for the nursing parent, we have additional intensive training beyond many of our IBCLC peers in the habilitation of the oral function of newborns through toddlerhood. The work we do goes well beyond assessing your baby's latch; we are watching your infant use their lips, cheeks, mouth, and also the rest of their body (really!) to eat successfully, whether it is on the breast or on the bottle. When we identify the root cause of your baby's struggles, we will teach you the techniques and strategies you can implement at home to help your baby suck, swallow, and breathe comfortably and effectively. 

For this reason, and with the understanding that all baby humans need to suck, swallow, and breathe in order to grow and thrive, we tailor our services for any baby that needs to eat and is having challenges. After years of parents who lost their nursing relationship after weeks or months of struggle asking whether they could still work with us if they bottle-fed their babies, we want to be abundantly clear in our response: We lovingly welcome families who bottle-feed their infants every bit as much as we welcome those who feed their children "from the tap." Wherever you are in your journey, we support you. 

You may ask, what about older babies who have weaned from the breast/chest/bottle? Or how about older children? We'll happily assess anyone in your family- siblings, parents, grandparents- and for those who fall outside of our scope of treatment, we will refer you to the best and brightest- but most importantly, the most trusted- providers that Western NY has to offer for all of your orofacial woes. Whether you need palatial expansion, myofunctional or craniosacral therapies, help alleviating TMJ pain or sleep apnea, we have close working relationships with a myriad of providers throughout the region and can help you understand what they can do to help YOUR individual circumstance.

​WNY Orofacial provides a continuity of care between providers that is seldom seen in healthcare. We will stay on as a part of your team to consult with you and/or your other providers for as long as you deem necessary to ensure that the root cause(s) of your particular challenges are identified and treated effectively.​