Robert Wesman, MD

Extremely experienced in managing tongue tie. He clipped our infant’s tongue tie and our infant was able to breastfeed immediately with no complications. While his office may be booked out for weeks, they were empathetic to our concerns and found us an early appointment within 48 hours. Advocate for your child and they’ll listen.

I took my toddler son to Dr. Wesman because of several ear infections on a row. Our pediatrician had discussed surgery and allergy treatment as options, but after two visits, it was clear that Dr. Wesman was not the right doctor for us. Not only he was rough with my son (who is very easy going and cooperative) but he was also rude to us.
And his office billed us twice — so one copay for the hospital and one copay for Dr. Wesman, plus an extra copay for Dr. Wesman per visit. We went twice, so we ended up receiving 6 bills. Ridiculous. Now I’m stuck dealing with his office so they fix their mistake and my insurance to make sure he didn’t bill them twice per visit too.
Good thing he is retiring…

UPDATE: Down to 1 star for getting billed twice for each visit — once by Dr. Wesman and once for the «facility use» by Children’s Hospital. That’s 2 copays for each visit. Be warned!

Dr Wesman saved my breastfeeding relationship with my daughter. One quick snip of a posterior tie and all of our problems were solved. If you suspect tie issues, go straight to Dr Wesman.

Both my husband and I found Dr Wesman cold, rude and pretentious. the kind of Doctors you definitely don’t want for kids. The front desk staff was incompetent and forgot to pass on messages multiple times. When I went back there few days later, the lady was on the phone chitchatting with a friend and her iPhone was in front of her with Facebook on. I knocked at the door (locked) and she made me feel I was bothering her. Switching doctor right now.

This guy was incredible. If I could give 6 stars I would.
My wife and I brought our daughter here at our pediatrician’s recommendation and we were nothing short of completely amazed. We waited for only a few minutes despite this being our very first visit… and then much to our surprise we were greeted by the good doctor personally. First impression? Very friendly, very well dressed and extremely knowledgable and confident without being pretentious (A cool dude). Dr. Wesman then led us back to our assigned room, making friendly but not awkward conversation along the way… very nice man. We discussed our options for our daughter’s multiple ear infections (8 in 7 months) and he explained everything that we needed to know in such a way that we left feeling 110% satisfied that we were in good hands. At no point in time did we feel rushed or as if our questions were ridiculous.
Skip ahead a few weeks to our selected surgery date (for ear tubes):
Everyone at Children’s Hospital in Oakland was amazing. We were made aware of every possible scenario at every step of the way without being overwhelmed by unnecessary information. We were allowed to accompany our daughter while the anesthesiologist and Nurses administered her anesthesia and then we were escorted out of the prep room by a very friendly gentleman who is apparently there to make you feel at ease in an otherwise uneasy situation. It worked. The Doctor came out personally after the surgery, did his «don’t worry, everything went spectacular and here’s what you can expect in the coming weeks» convo… which was brief but not made in haste… and made me feel at ease yet again. As always he was as cool as a cucumber.
Anyone searching for a great ear & throat Doc need to head this guys way. He’s the real deal, folks.

The [positive] reviews are right: this guy is pretty amazing. After my son was diagnosed with a tongue tie, I called on a Tuesday to be seen and boom, had an appointment on Thursday. Dr. Wesman called us in himself, which I thought was a nice touch. He took a look, and 5 minutes later, we were checking out. The tongue clipping took less than 30 seconds and my son cried for less than a minute. Freaking yes. He’s getting the hang of breastfeeding now. I have Kaiser but I went to Dr. Wesman anyway; it was worth it.

We flew all the way from NYC to see Dr. Wesman – no kidding – and it was completely worth it. (True, we have family in the Bay Area; in fact, my sister took her newborn to Dr. Wesman for a moderate tongue tie, which is how I knew of him.) Dr. Wesman is WONDERFUL!
This will be more detail than most people will care for, but for those of you who might be reading this because you are researching lingual frenetomy, hopefully these details will be helpful.
I had suspected for a while that my 3 y.o. had a mild tongue tie, and that it was at least a contributing factor in her speech problems. I couldn’t even see under her tongue; she couldn’t lift it up at all. She could stick it out just past her lips, and if she tried to touch her nose, it barely cleared her top lip. She could never lick an ice cream – always just mouthed it or bit it. She didn’t have nursing problems (tho she was the second child I breastfed, and with the second, a mom’s anatomy is often more, a-​hem, flexible about poor latches and so forth). When she was 2, it was clear she was «behind» in terms of typical speech development. At 2.5, she was diagnosed with mild oral-​motor dysfunction. Basically, she has a little trouble pronouncing more sounds than usual for her age. In particular, the sounds she struggled with were the ones related to tongue movement. Speech therapy was only slightly helpful. No one out here on the East Coast seemed open to discussing fenectomy. In the opinion of the speech therapist and her pediatrician, if it’s not a severe tongue tie, it’s not worth treating unless it is an infant with a feeding problem. Almost no one does fenectomies on children older than infants. Those who do usually require it be done in a hospital under general anesthesia. I found there is a dentist in upstate New York and also one out on Long Island (maybe the LI doc is an ENT; I can’t quite recall) who are big proponents of laser surgery for fenectomies. I considered seeing one of them, but after talking to the dentist’s office, I learned that parents are not allowed to accompany the children, so they are taken from parent’s arms to the procedure room and returned ten minutes later. For a child over 2, this seems unconscionable to me – turning your child over to a stranger who is going to hurt them (as this is essentially what the child must, to some degree or another, experience). But then I learned of Dr. Wesman, who seems to be the only person in the country willing to do a simple clip-​type frenectomy even on older children in the office.
The night before the visit, I almost chickened out. I was googling about after-​care, and came across all these horror stories about adults having frenectomies…
But I tried to trust the few stories out there from people who described the experience with Dr. Wesman. (Berkeley Parents Network has a few posts in which parents describe having their children, including one about a four year old, have frenectomies done with absolutely no tears and simple recoveries).
At the appt, Dr. Wesman chatted us all up, putting everyone at ease, while he felt under my daughter’s tongue and explained that she had what he’d call a moderate tongue tie, and that he thought there was at least a 50% chance that a fenectomy would help her speech significantly (and that we’d see improvement in a month or two), and that there was no downside – the procedure was so simple and quick. We said okay, and then, again, all while chatting away with us and my daughter, his assistant came in to assist and they did the whole thing SO quickly! I sat on the chair with my daughter in my lap (we didn’t have to recline!), the assistant held the little tongue lifter under her tongue, Dr. Wesman dabbed some topical anesthetic on it, waited a moment, and clipped – I think twice – with a little device like a scissor-​meets-​nail clipper, they dabbed some silver nitrate on it, and then the assistant took my daughter’s hand and said, «Hey, do you want to see my sticker book?» Literally, from the moment the tongue lifter went under her tongue to us getting out of the chair was probably less than 90 seconds. My daughter didn’t even flinch. Literally, she didn’t even tense up her body, much less cry or even tear up. And there was no blood. It was almost surreal. She can be rather anxious about doctor’s offices and dentists, so it was truly amazing that she didn’t mind this at all. 5 minutes later, she was wiggling her tongue back and for, saying «My tongue is loose!» 45 minutes later, she was licking an ice cream cone – I swear. The recovery was hardly noticable. She never complained of any pain or even sensitivity. And 3 months later, her speech began to improve markedly. It’s not perfect, but it definitely helped. THANK YOU, Dr. Wesman!
And note: Dr. Wesman charged merely a flat rate of $ 100 or $ 150 for the procedure (I forget exactly), and he is the head of ENT at Oakland Children’s Hospital!

Dr. Wesman saw our 18 month old who was tongue tied. Our son’s pediatrician had advised since birth that we wait to see if he developed a speech impediment since he did not have difficulty eating. Once he started eating solid food, our son would swallow his food whole rather than chew it, choked more than norman because he could not move food around and food would often stick on his palate. We were referred first to an eating specialist at Kaiser and then to head and neck surgeons where we were told we would need to consider full surgery with general anesthesia. We did not consider surgery and felt it was counter intuitive to wait to see if a speech impediment would develop. We saw Dr. Wesman, and like so many others, had a very positive experience. He evaluated our son and performed the procedure right then and there. He was great with our very active toddler and the procedure took no more than 30 seconds. Our son cried for about 2 minutes and then was completely fine. We were shocked how fast and easy the entire event was. We had taken the afternoon off from work thinking we would need to stay home with our son, but he was fine and was at the park 20 minutes later playing and eating his lunch like nothing had happened. We have notice significant improvement in our son’s ability to eat — no more choking and he was actually chewing his food within days of the procedure. Our only regret is that we did not see Dr. Wesman sooner. We highly recommend him.

Despite the fact we waited 3 years (and 4 visits) to decide to have the surgery, Dr. Wesman was patient at every visit. Answering our questions and highlighting the latest research related to our specific case. Dr Wesman was professional, knowledgeable and helpful. Furthermore, he respected our decision and gave us data points so we could make our own decision. The surgery went well and he quickly came out to tell us the results and assure us it went well. Dr. Wesman has done many surgeries and that is important when choosing a surgeon for your child, experience makes a difference! Thank you Dr. Wesman for helping our daughter with her sleep apnea issue!

Dr. Wesman treated our 8-​month old suffering from antibiotic resistant ear infections. Upon our pediatrician’s referral, his office staff fit us into the schedule within a day. After examining the baby, Dr. Wesman had a thorough and thoughtful discussion with us about the pros and cons of ear tubes. We decided we wanted to proceed with the tubes. Dr. Wesman performed the surgery that week, on one of his non-​surgery days because his schedule was full but he wanted to fit us in as soon as possible. The entire experience at childrens, from pre-​op to post, was excellent. We were in and out within 2 hours and our baby had immediate relief. We found Dr. Wesman to be knowledgeable, personable, and compassionate. We recommend him to other parents without hesitation.

We were referred to Dr. Wesman (an Otolaryngologist) from my daughter’s Physician for an evaluation. He evaluated my daughter’s tonsils since they were too large and she had sleep apnea (when someone stops breathing for a few seconds at a time during sleep because enlarged tonsils are partially blocking the airway). We had such an amazing experience and he made my daughter feel really comfortable. The waiting time was always less than 15 minutes and he always took his time during the appointments and was never in a rush.
Dr. Wesman recommended for my daughter to get a Tonsillectomy and Adenoidectomy. I wasn’t surprise since both my husband and myself had the procedure done years ago from another Otolaryngologist. I was SO scared and nervous for my daughter because of how young she was. But Dr. Wesman made it clear it would improve her sleep apnea and snoring. The day of the procedure Dr. Wesman and his staff took extremely good care of my daughter and she was very comfortable. I think I was the only one feeling uneasy and crying (but couldn’t let my daughter see that lol) He is very professional and he made my daughter feel very comfortable which made the visits easy. A few days after the procedure my daughter was back to normal and feeling herself again. And now my daughter has absolutely no breathing problems at night when she sleeps and I’m a happy Mommy! I highly recommend Dr. Wesman for any ENT (Ears, Nose, Throat) evaluations and procedures.

I was referred to Dr. Wesman by Sylvia Boyd, my lactation consultant. Dr. Wesman is definitely kind and friendly. He is also very careful to clip just enough. He was able to clip my newborn’s tight frenulum to release his tongue-​tie in seconds. He even allowed me to nurse my hungry baby right there in his office immediately after the procedure. Now my baby is 3 months old and is nursing extremely well (90 percentile in weight and 75 percentile in height!)
Thank you, Dr. Wesman!

Dr. Wesman has saved us — TWICE now! He performed a frenulectomy (correction of a tongue tie) on my newborn daughter last year, which allowed my milk to finally come in, for her to achieve a deeper latch, and for nursing to be less painful. Yesterday he performed the same procedure on my newborn son — same results.
We are so grateful for this service, and though we hear the procedure’s effectiveness is controversial, it has helped both of my children (and me, the nursing mom) immensely!
Finally, even though Dr. Wesman is very busy, he makes these newborn tongue tie appointments a same-​day priority because he knows how desperate new moms are to start breastfeeding (painlessly, hopefully!).

Dr. Wesman evaluated my daughter also for fluid in one ear which was resulting in hearing loss. But he recommended that we wait 3– 4 months as he felt it was the aftermath of a really bad sinus infection of a few months earlier and it would take care of itself. Another doctor had already recommended eartubes and I went to Dr. Wesman for a 2^nd opinion. He was correct, when we went for a followup 3 months later the problem had cleared and no tubes were necessary.
His style is a bit clinical but if you don’t need warm fuzzy, he is very competent and experienced.

Dr. Wesman evaluated our son for hearing issues and found he had fluid in both ears, with some hearing loss because of it. He performed ear tube surgery, which went great. He wasn’t super warm and fuzzy but answered our questions and was very responsive and thoughtful on the day of the surgery when we were a little nervous. Highly recommend him and his staff to anyone needing help.

Dr. Wesman really is great. He fixed my little guy, ten years ago, for a infant tongue-​frenulum. It was done so quick, I barely knew he did it. After, my little guy latched on and we never looked back. But that was ten years ago and I know you want something current. My seven year old ended up in his office last summer. Tonsils. She went through that well too. Gotta say Childrens Hospital is great too. And then, my nephew was born with a cleft palette, not to mention a couple other issues. I found that my nephew was seeing Dr. Wesman too. He seemed to really care about our kids. I would definitely recommend him.
Would have given the big 5, but billing has been a problem. Seems we’re still getting bills from last year.

So, I guess these are the kind of exciting, chock-​a-​block-​filled-​with-​action-​and-​debauchery reviews I’m going to be writing now that I’m mothering a newborn? So be it.
We were referred to Dr. Wesman for a tongue-​tie consultation at the recommendation of Georgeanne Walker, the awesome lactation consultant for Primary Pediatrics Group (really, she’s fabulous).
His staff at the Oakland Children’s Hospital Outpatient Surgery Center (a very cool building in itself) was super friendly on the phone, and was able to accommodate us the same day — which is huge when your 8-​day old infant is having a difficult time latching onto your boob to get his meals 10+ times a day.
Dr. Wesman himself was nothing but cordial and professional — the man has clipped thousands of infant tongue-​frenulums, so his skills in that department never came into question. He made a quick assessment of Sir Poops-A-Lot’s tongue, gave us an honest opinion about the efficacy of the procedure, and allowed us to decide if we wanted to go ahead and see if the clipping would make things easier for Miles (Sir Poops-​A-​Lot) in the eating department.
Dr. Wesman even asked if «mom» (holy shit, that’s me — I have to get used to being called that) wanted to leave the room during the procedure.
I did.
And I still cried anyway.
But guess what? Sir Poops-​A-​Lot eats like a champ now. This kid could be the next competitive eating machine. Watch your back, Joey Chestnut.

Dr. Robert Wesman is a very compassionate and skilled ENT. When I see babies who have tongue ties that keep baby from easily breastfeeding, I love sending the parents to Dr Wesman. His staff is courteous and helpful. Many of the parents are given a very prompt appointment. They report that he efficiently clipped the frenulum and baby was able to nurse right after the procedure. One mom drove from San Jose to Oakland because she couldn’t find anyone nearby willing to release her baby’s tongue tie. She told me how pleased she was with his kindness and skill. Sylvia, IBCLC