Tongue tie, a condition otherwise known as ankyloglossia, occurs when a child’s tongue is still attached to their mouth. Tongue tie can cause a variety of different issues which can affect normal functions such as speech, breastfeeding, eating, and more. However, there are several tongue tie treatments that can fix your child’s issue. Read below to learn more.
Examination and Tests
Before any surgery is performed, a doctor will carefully run a physical exam with a screen tool in some cases. Once a tongue tie is diagnosed by a doctor, then decision will made on whether to perform surgery. Tongue tie surgery is a somewhat controversial subject in the medical field because some feel it should be corrected right away, while others might want to wait and see if the lingual frenulum could loosen itself over time.
Frenotomy
The first kind of surgery that may be performed for tongue tie is called frenotomy. The good thing about frenotomy is that it can be done with or without anesthesia. All a doctor will do is use sterile scissors to cut the frenulum free. This procedure is known to be painless as well, since there aren’t a lot of nerve endings or blood vessels located in the lingual frenulum. If there is bleeding, it may only be a few drops of blood, and potential issues after the surgery are rare.
Frenuloplasty
Another surgical option for tongue tie treatment is frenuloplasty, which is necessary if the lingual frenulum is too thick for frenotomy. Anesthesia and surgical tools are both used during the procedure. Like frenotomy, there aren’t many complications that come with the surgery other than the possibility of infection, tongue or salivary gland damage, and scarring, which are all rare.
See A Doctor
Tongue tie has the potential to cause some issues down the line and should at least be looked at. If you feel your child might have tongue tie and need the necessary treatment, take them to a doctor for a proper diagnosis at a Houston ENT clinic.