Understanding Tongue Ties
Each of us has a frenulum, a layer of fascial tissue, which connects the tongue to the floor of the mouth. When this tissue is tight, short, or too close to the tip of the tongue it can impact the tongue’s movement and alter its mobility and function, therefore it is called a tongue tie or ankyloglossia.
Problems associated with tongue tie in infants may include breastfeeding difficulties, poor/shallow latch, poor milk transfer, inability to maintain latch, weight loss, poor weight gain, prolonged feedings, short sleep episodes, arching with feeding, choking on milk or formula with feeding, making clicking sounds while breastfeeding, chronic crying episodes, inability to hold a pacifier, reflux and colic symptoms due to gas and swallowed air, leaking milk while breastfeeding and bottle feeding. Mother may experience pain with latch, blistered, bruised, cut, or bleeding nipples, plugged milk ducts, engorged/unemptied breasts, low milk supply, yeast infection of nipples, and mastitis.
The goal of our team is first to identify whether the feeding problem that you experience is related to something else besides tongue tie and correct it with non-invasive intervention and the timely referral to an appropriate specialist. Because we know that many breastfeeding and bottle-feeding challenges are not caused by tongue tie. However, when non-invasive interventions don’t improve breastfeeding and/or bottle feeding we will offer you a frenotomy procedure.
Frenotomy is a tongue tie release procedure. It is a simple surgical procedure in which a provider performs an incision of a frenulum with sterile scissors. The procedure takes just a few seconds and the baby is offered to breastfeed or bottle feed right after it. Usually, the first feed right after the procedure feels better right away, but full improvement in tongue function and range of motion may take 1-2 weeks or longer depending on the age of infant, level of restriction or the frenulum, compensatory mechanisms, etc. We will create an individual plan for your infant, provide you with the pre-operative and post-operative care instructions, and help to arrange follow up appointments with our provider and a lactation consultant.
Frenotomy procedure is associated with breastfeeding improvements in newborns and is linked to the reduction in mother’s nipple pain especially when performed by an experienced provider. Svetlana has completed nearly a 1000 successful frenotomy procedures and she truly loves what she does and she does it very well.
References:
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