Short lingual frenulum: results of an intervention to improve continuity of care

Introduction: we created an informative triptych about short lingual frenulum/ ankyloglossia (SLF/A) to avoid discrepancy in the referral criteria of patients to the pediatric plastic surgery consultation from primary care (PC). The main objective is to analyze the impact of this intervention on the referrals to specialized care (SC).

Material and methods: the information was sent to the primary care professionals attached to the health area of our hospital. We performed a retrospective analysis of the referrals to SC in the 2 years prior sending the information. We compared these results with the prospective analysis of the consultations attended in the year after sending the triptych.

Results: we analyzed 874 consultations. 59.6% of them were attended prior sending the information. 61.9% of the referrals adjusted to the proposed criteria for lingual frenotomy, observing a significant reduction in the wrongly referred patients between the compared periods of time (41.8% vs 32.6%). We also found a significant reduction in the number of patients with no functional problem associated to the SLF (34.4% vs 23.3%).

Conclusions: our informative triptych about SLF/ ankyloglossia has adjusted referrals from PC to the proposed criteria for lingual frenotomy in our hospital.