Child Guardianship & Surgical Consent

Many children live with adult caregivers other than a biological parent. We understand that in many such cases, the child and the caregiver have very strong and real emotional bonds with each other, as strong and real as with any other parent-child relationship. However, River Ridge Oral and Maxillofacial Surgical Center’s policy is very clear on the requirements for surgical consent and special procedures must be followed in these cases.

Consent can only be given by the legal guardian of the child. This is not necessarily the person(s) with whom the child lives, but the person or organization determined by a court of law to be the guardian.

If you are the legal, court-appointed guardian, you must be here to sign surgical consent and stay for the duration of the child’s surgery. If you are not the biological parent of the child, and you are giving consent in person on the day of surgery, you must have the official court document stating that you are the child’s guardian with you.

If it is not possible to obtain consent as outlined here, or if you do not come to River Ridge with the appropriate court document, the surgery will be canceled and rescheduled. There can be no exceptions to this policy.

Thank you for understanding.