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The call to
collaborate How a dental hygienist found an unexpected business opportunity with a speech pathologist friend By Karen Smart and Jenni-Lee Rees
HAVE YOU ASKED yourself which profession outside the dental team you could work with to provide better outcomes for your clients? When I met my speech colleague in 2014, I never imagined that our professional worlds would collide the way they have. Back then, we were two health professionals working in regional Queensland who both shared an interest in orofacial myology. At the time of meeting this was the proposed area of collaboration. I knew that orofacial myology was not accepted as a practice area of dentistry; nor was it hugely recognised as an area of practice by Speech Pathology Australia at the time. However, we were aware that orofacial myology was an area of growing interest in Australia, and was already well-established in the United States and Brazil. As we had both completed orofacial myology training courses, we could see the sense in joining forces. We worked together to establish a speech student-led orofacial myology clinic at our tertiary institution. My role was an oral myologist in this particular clinic. Together we provided services to clients – assessing, identifying and managing orofacial disorders. It was through collaborative practice that we established a shared goal for our clients, mutual respect and educated one another on each other’s roles as a speech pathologist and oral health therapist. This experience led us to the realisation that we were in essence, two health
professionals looking in the mouths of clients with both having expertise in the stomatognathic system, yet seeing things through a completely different set of lenses. I had limited knowledge of a speech pathologist’s scope of practice and the various members of the dental team were not understood by my speech colleague. As the orofacial clinic grew, so did our partnership. We established commonalities, barriers and opportunities where oral health and speech professionals could collaborate. The most amazing elements that developed in this partnership were the friendship, support and trust we established which really helped with problem solving. We found we were very good at bouncing ideas off each other and we were able to use each other’s clinical and personal strengths to mutual advantage and for client benefit. As a dental practitioner I was focused on the function of the dentition in the masticatory process and I found my knowledge complimented that of my speech colleague who focussed a lot on tongue movement and lip seal during swallowing. The partnership with my speech colleague has educated me on the vast range of practice that is Speech Pathology. They assess, manage and treat people experiencing difficulty in speaking (which includes both how the voice mechanism works as well as articulation), listening, processing and
expressing language, reading, writing, stuttering, social skills, and swallowing. They even have knowledge of breathing because it’s important for talking and swallowing safely. I didn’t realise how much anatomy and neuroanatomy knowledge is required to understand and treat these areas. Most speech pathologists are working in particular areas and will have different skill sets so this needs
“ When I met my speech colleague in 2014, I never imagined that our professional worlds would collide” to be taken into consideration by any dental practitioner looking for speech pathology input. There are 9,000 speech pathologists out there so you should be able to find one who fits your needs and is open to sharing your vision. As our partnership progressed, we expanded the relationship with input into each other’s tertiary courses. I co-supervised Speech Pathology Honours students on projects such
