Julian Avisenis has been working as an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) surgeon in Gisborne since 1994. He has treated generations of patients with many different ailments, as well as being a frenotomy provider (tongue-tie release). While he has been treating tongue-ties in children and adults for many years, over 7 years ago he became one of the first few ENT surgeons in NZ to perform frenotomies on infants, something which has now become well accepted in the ENT profession internationally.
In the past 7 years he has released hundreds of tongue-ties, improving breastfeeding for babies and mothers with close to 0% complications. All of them were performed outside of his usual clinic times, but captured in ENT clinic statistics. He has also been instrumental in the development of Hauora Tairāwhiti’s Tongue-tie Referral and Care Pathway, as well as the start-up of the Frenotomy Accreditation Pathway which will be the avenue for training more midwives and other health professionals to appropriately diagnose and treat tongue-ties.
“I realised that the evidence was mounting to show that frenotomy, when used appropriately makes a difference to breastfeeding, and after may help to prevent future problems relating to tongue restriction. This thinking has also been reinforced by evidence presented at national and international ENT conferences. It gives me great satisfaction to hear about the dramatic difference it often makes to breastfeeding experiences in cases that are appropriately diagnosed and treated”
Julian is a father of 4, and Grandfather of 8, all of whom were breastfed. He believes he was too!
