Lingual Frenectomy aka; tongue tie
In this day and age of women ingesting folic-acid enriched foods and vitamins and more women inheriting the MTHFR gene snip, we've seen a huge increase in babies born with tongue tie affecting breastfeeding.
Tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, is a condition in which the frenulum (the thin flap of skin under the tongue that attaches to the bottom of the mouth) is short and limits tongue motion, especially the ability to lift and stick it out. The frenulum may be attached near the tip of the tongue and on the back of the lower gum. Ankyloglossia is rarely a serious medical problem, with the exception of causing difficulty with breastfeeding.
When a baby breastfeeds, the tongue is extended and curled into a U-shape on the underside of his mother’s breast. The nipple and surrounding breast tissue should be drawn deeply into the baby’s mouth, near the back of the throat, so that when he suckles, the nipple is not pinched against the roof of his mouth. For tongue-tied babies, the limited tongue motion may prevent the baby from taking the breast deep in the mouth and interferes with latching.
A mother-baby couplet with tongue-tie may exhibit:
- “Heart-shaped” tongue, with a dent or divet in the tip of the tongue, especially when crying
- Inability of baby to latch onto the breast, settling his mouth on the nipple and then pulling off repeatedly
- Latches on but tends to “slide off” the breast during the feeding; only weakly attached to the breast
- Clicking sounds or sucking in of the cheeks while nursing
- Nipple pain throughout the feeding that doesn’t improve with relatching; nipple may appear pinched like a tube of lipstick; bruising, scabbing, cracking of nipples.
- Excessive weight loss or failure to gain weight despite nursing adequately
- Mastitis (breast infection) and/or low milk supply, usually due to infrequent or incomplete emptying of the breast
A laser frenectomy (also known as laser frenulectomy, laser frenotomy, or laser lip- or tongue-tie release) is the laser excision of a frenulum, a small fold of tissue that prevents part of the body from moving too far. This procedure is most often done by laser ablation of the labial or lingual frenum for infants with a laser in a dental office.
