Tight Frenulum - Laser Alternative to Surgical Clipping

How old is your child? they tend to clip babies, my 3 year old had surgery in August and did great with it and it only took about 5 minutes he was put under because of his age and it was done w/ a laser there was no bleeding and no pain the thing that bothered him the most was having the tape over the iv taken out (they put the iv in after he was sleeping) Depending on your child's age and how cooperative he/she is they don't need to go under to have it done. We had our son's done because of speech problems and he now doesn't stop talking :)
Edited:Michelle, my son's tongue was very tight. It looked heart shaped when he would try to stick it out it would not go beyond his teeth, he could not lift his tongue, it was interfering with eating he was getting food caught on the roof of his mouth. How are her teeth? It can interfere with the ability to clear food off of molars and lead to cavities it can also cause a gap between the two bottom front teeth which my son has hopefully having the surgery will help with gap when he starts losing teeth and getting adult ones.

I'm a speech therapist and I must admit that I have had very few children who truly needed this procedure. The tongue needs to be very tight for it to be done...you should see a heart pattern when they stick out there tongue just a little.

Not seeing it I don't know, but I would give the speech therapy a little time. The trick is can she move it enough to make the sounds in isolation "t" "ul" "sh" etc. If she can, she probably has enough lingual (tongue) movement. Can she open her mouth and put her tongue up behind her front teeth? Can she scrape it back like she is scrapping peanut butter off the roof?

Like Kristina mentioned, the older you are when it is done, the more disruptive it might be to speech because you have learned to compensate. However, there are some cases where it might help. Good luck.

Why would one use a laser? A quick snip with the scissors does the job with no pain and perhaps a drop of blood. I've known several people who had this done and they all said it was no big deal.

Yeah, my son had it done at 6days old snip and done he only cried b/c he was held still. Once he was fully back in my arms DONE CRYING. I had his clipped b/c he was having a hard time nursing, and I have the same issue. I would have loved it if my mom got mine cut when I was a kid, I only wont do it now b/c I do not want it to effect my speech I have had it for so long but when I get a cough it gets caught between by bottom teeth and gets a sore and sooo swollen and I can not talk 2 days in. Sometimes I even get a lisp but I am very aware when it happens and can prevent it but I do not want him to go thru that if I can avoid it. I would think that a local (like when you go to the dentist) would be more than enough for a 6yr old takes 2 sec to cut and maybe 2 min for set up/clean up.

I do not know how tight it is; but most can be done with just a little snip or with a little local anesthesia. I have never heard of them needing to place the child under unless the child needed some type of reconstruction surgery or if the child was special needs. Actually Lasers have so many null effects; I guess I would not put my child under a laser at anytime if I did not have to. They have no idea of long term effects on the eyes; even if wearing protective glasses. Did you know that the mouth is the fastest healing part on the human body. If you just have it clipped she will be healed in just hours. Congrats BTW on having the procedure done. Be sure to go out and have an ICECREAM CONE party the week of the surgery. She will never lick icecream the same again. I have told parents this and they actually say the look on the kids face as they take in a large amount of icecream with their tongue is "priceless". Good Luck!

As a child I had it done. It was no big deal to me. My Mom may have been worried but I was alright. As a teen I had to have a fronectomy 2x. That to was no big deal. That time it was for my braces. I think that when it comes to speech and eating it is worth it!

I can't say for an older child, but we had my son's clipped very young - about a week old. We just had it clipped in the doctor's office, and he stopped crying as soon as I held him. No other problems after that. I'm not sure if they get more blood vessels or nerves in there once they are older, but his was really no big deal. He had the heart shaped tongue but nursed fine. We could have waited, but I wanted to avoid problems rather than deal with it later. Very happy we did it.