Tongue Tie and Surgery

I'm not sure if you've gone ahead with the surgery yet or not, so I might be late in this chain?! But I HIGHLY recommend the surgery. I was born with a "tied tongue" which at the time (1970's) it was corrected immediately in the hospital. It's too bad this still doesn't happen as it saves a lot of time later on with much less discomfort.

Anyway, one of my children (it seems to be inherited) had a "tied tongue" as well. When she was 2 months old I took her to an ENT to have it looked at, he suggested that he "clip" it then and there - it could be done as an office visit (think cost savings) and wouldn't require any anesthesia (think no hospital and much less worry). He swore I would cry longer than she did, but at the time I couldn't imagine my little girl feeling any pain so I opted not to do it, and adopted the "wait-and-see" attitude. I could kick myself for that...

At her 6 month check-up her pediatrician recommended that we revisit the frenulectomy idea. Her thoughts were that eventually it may cause speech problems down the road but the one that really got me was that she probably won't be able to lick an ice cream cone. At my daughters age the surgery would be quick, the recovery and pain minimal, and the recollection of it all non-existent. So we made the appointment - and it was just that! Honestly the hardest part was the idea of anesthesia, but within 10 minutes she was back in my arms grinning up at me. It was that easy! She had what looked like a canker sore under her tongue for about 4 days, but she never complained and breast fed SO MUCH better!!

She is now 4 and just a chatter-box, and she can attack an ice cream cone with the best of em! I wish I would have opted for the office visit, I believe it would have been much less of an event, but I'm so glad we made the decision to do the frenulectomy - hospital and all. My advice would be to do it - the earlier the better!

Hi, I see that you are on your way to resolving this issue, but thought I'd throw this in. I'm an SLP, and speech issues are generally independent of tongue-tie. So go ahead and look for speech therapy! You should be able to get free, in home speech therapy through an early intervention program in your state until your son's 3rd birthday. It will give him a boost in speaking and reading, and should be enjoyable. Once he turns 3, the public school system can continue services if needed. Talk to your pediatrician about it! Good luck!

My son was severely tongue tied and I had major problems breast feeding - just didn't work...finally, my midwife pointed out that he was tongue tied - When I asked my pediatrician about it, he too was aware. apparently, years ago, if a child was born tongue tied, they clipped the tongue right then and there. My doctor actually felt bad and frustrated that nowadays, he is not permitted to perform this procedure at birth. I was told to wait till 5 years old and see IF he had a speech problem...to me, that was completely unacceptable - wait until his speech is developed?? I opted for the procedure and am so glad I did - very quick recovery - no speech problems now at age 7!

I would advise you to find a dentist or oral surgeon who uses dental lasers. The procedure can be done quickly with no post operative bleeding or sutures. Because of the child's age you might consider whether or not sedation or a general anesthetic might be necessary. I have used dental laser for more than seventeen years and have performed several hundred frenectomies.

D. R. Pietrini, DDS

I asked my hubby about the surgery. He does the surgery fairly often and said the post op is pretty minimal. He told me of how he determines whether he recommends the procedure or not, and if speech is being restricted, he mentioned that it is a good thing for that child. If the tongue cannot touch the outer border of the lip or the child cannot lick an ice cream cone, he also recommends the surgery. He also said the parent has more difficulty than the child. :) Hope this helps! D. P.

Just more for the tongue tied issue.. my brother was tongue tied. I remember when he was little he had trouble with lots of words and could never stick his tongue out.

My parents took him to the dentist and he clipped it right there in the office. The weird thing is that now my brother has 4 children (girl 7, boy 5, boy 18mos and girl 2 mos) ALL 4 were born with their tongue tied. The boys were not as severe and resolved on their own. The oldest girl is still tied and does have SOME speech problems, but nothing major. The youngest was very severe, meaning the extra piece was pretty much to the end of her tongue, which caused problems with feeding. She was actually clipped yesterday and is fine.

I know that it's hard to make the decision, but having seen both sides, if it were my child, I would do it. It's a very minor procedure, mostly done in the office and it makes it easier on the child in the long run.
Hope this helps!

J. -- I realize your son already had his surgery, but I wanted to give you a few speech therapy tips. My son is 5 and had his surgery at 3. He's had extensive speech therapy and I've found different therapists have different methods -- some more effective than others. Our first therapist worked on sounds w/Henry -- which was great, but even more effective was a therapist who worked with him on lengthening/strengthening his tongue. She did this by holding his head gently, while holding a lolllipop or stick w/peanut butter just out of his reach. He learned very fast to stretch out the tongue and now instead of being blunt and square, it's a more pointed tip -- much more effective for making sounds. She also made up silly songs where he had to use his tongue to "point" in different directions. He had a lot of fun and I think it was extremely beneficial. I would recommend you work with someone who will first strenghten and then move onto sounds -- or do both simultaneously. I think my son would have progressed faster if we'd taken this approach. Good luck!

My daughter just had hers done at about 19 months. I too noticed it way earler, but my doctor never did. As she got older, when she stuck her tongue out, it was heart shaped, and she had a lispy "s" sound, so figured later this would interfere with speech. The surgery was done in 10 minutes. No big deal, they just clip the frenulum under the tongue, no bleeding, bruising or pain involved. There are so many worse things that can happen, lets count our blessings this minor thing is all!

Good luck with it,
I.

My daughter had a tongue tie and had the surgery when she was still an infant. It is the simplest procedure and its done before you know it. I did early so I am unsure if it helped her speech. She is four know and I can understand her very clearly and she doesn't have any problems with it at all. I would do it again if I had another child with the same problem though; I imagine its much easier than speech therapy down the road. Good Luck; don't worry too much, but I guess that's part of the job we as mothers do anyhow.

My daughter had this surgery done when she around 5 1/2 months. Her tongue, at the end was heart shaped, and really all she could do was push her bottom lip out. I really think the surgery was harder on me than her. She only had some pain for a little over a week. She was back to eating as normal in a jiffy.
Now she is 8 1/2 months and her tongue is free and wild. She just loves her tongue. She shows it to anyone who wants to look. She is able to eat and babble alot easier and able now to lick food off of her chin....its so cute but funny. We just know that getting this surgery was the best thing that we could of done for her.
I would reconmend this to any mother who has a child with this problem to get it done. the sooner the better. It is worth every penny just to see how much of a diffrence it made in my little girl.

I'm 36 years old and until just now when I read your question I didn't know that "tongue-tied" meant anything other than being speechless! What makes it really funny is that I myself am tongue-tied, although not too badly. I just can't stick my tongue out, and sometimes I don't articulate well when I speak. But I'm actually a decent singer. :)

One dentist mentioned clipping the membrane under my tongue, but I was in my twenties at the time and didn't bother with it. That was the first time anyone ever said anything about it.

You learn something new every day! Good luck with your son.

J.,
My daughter was tongue tied as was my younger brother. The surgical proceedure is called a frungalumectomy. The frunalum is cliped and requests one or two sutures after the "cut".

My daughter could NOT say many words as her frungalum was to the end of her tongue and she couldn't stick out her tongue at all. This was done the same time she had tubes put into her ears and for my daughter, she didn't seem to have any post surgery pain that OTC Tylenol didn't cure.

Speech therapy at two and a half for a year and she was caught up with her age group as far as her expressive language goes.

Who is recommenting the surgery? I saw Dr. Ben White with Children's Scottish Rite.

GREAT Doctor!

B.
deaffmommie

J.,
I was born tongue tied. They didn't realize until I started talking. I did have surgery when I turned 2. I never had any other problems after that. My mom said my speech was corrected pretty much immediately. I know she said it was an easy surgery and went home the same day.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

My oldest son was tongue-tied when he was born. When he was about 7 months old, we were scheduled to see a specialist to have it "clipped" but days before, he had a temper tantrum and cried so hard that it ripped. :( When we saw the specialist, he saw no need to do anything but it's still pretty tight. Now he's 3 1/2 and he has a little trouble saying words that begin with "y" and "th" but it's getting better, which means he will be able to say those sounds correctly without surgery. Also, my husband is a basketball coach and one of his players (now 17) is tongue-tied, really tight, and she has no speech problems at all. She's maneuvered around it! It's ultimately up to you and he probably wouldn't remember it but I figured you could use some success stories for the alternative. Good luck!

D. Darnell
Independent Business Owner
AmeriPlan USA
www.freedomathometeam.com/40550162
Ask me how to work from home today!

My daughter (who is now 7) was born tongue tied. It runs in my husband's family. Our pediatrician noticed it early and told us of "potential" problems. She said surgery was only an option and didn't think her speech would be greatly affected. We didn't want to take any chances so had it done when she was about 2 months old. She didn't even realize what was happening. I think my husband and I felt more pain that she did.

She has perfect speech now and no problems.

This is the first time I have hear of it.

My oldest son, now 26 years of age had a severely tied tongue and no speech problems whatsoever.
When he had his wisdom teeth out at 17 the surgeon clipped it as a courtesy...just so he could stick out his tongue at girls! HAHA LOL

Hi J.-
Just thought I would tell you--my husband has this. He is 33 now and I would say it hasn't really affected him badly. His mom said it interfered with breast feeding and he does mumble a little so I have to say "what?" a lot, but otherwise he is fine. His mom now says that maybe she should have had it done but back then because he talked a little bit later than most but the surgery made her nervous--I would assume it's pretty different by now. Good luck either way!

My son is 3 and a half years old. In September we were informed that he was tongue tied and I also died! I had never known ANYTHING to be wrong with my child and now they were telling me he needed his tongue clipped and speech therapy.

The good news... we have been doing speech since October and he has been stretching his tongue more and more. It may still be an option to clip it by his fourth birthday but for now we are just exercising his tongue in hopes that things will move naturally.

I am glad the surgery went well! I know that any time our kids have things happen to them that is out of our control we can be quite frightened and protective! Good for you for handling it so well.

My next advice would be to get him into speech. The earlier the better!

I want to let you know that I had the surgery done when I was in 3rd grade and to this day I still have issues with my tongue not doing what it should and I have trouble saying some words now at 47. My daughter is know 18 and she has the same thing and has not had the surgery. Her Dr. said that if she is not having a problem with speech don't do anything about it. I do know that the only thing she can't do is stick out her tongue it does not even go to the end of her lip. When she was young she did have some problems saying some words but she has out grown that and has never quit talking know!!!

My daughter had an attached frenulum. The Pump Station (breastfeeding center/store) recommended a Dr. in Santa Monica that clipped it, without anesthesia. He was awesome. She was over it in a matter of minutes. She was a baby when she had the procedure; it may be too traumatic for a 2 year old. I know a lot of people say to wait to see if the child develops a speech impediment, but why risk it when there is so little risk involved in fixing it. I think it's great you are doing it now.

Did anyone NOT have surgery? I have two girls who are tongue tied and, trust me, it has never stopped them from talking just fine. The only problems the one had was with auditory processing difficulties, but NO problems with her speech related to her tongue. Second daughter didn't have ANY problems at all. When she was two, she could speak quite clearly.

I don't have a child that was tongue tied but I was when I was born , I did have the surgery and don't remember a thing so it must not have been that bad, and mine was 29 ish years ago I'm sure things have gotten even better since then.

Hi J.,

My son isn't tongue tied, but my brother and my father were. My brother had the surgery when he was about 16. He had never had any speech problems, but the dentist found and and encouraged my parents to have it done. My brother was in and out lickety split. He is now 43 and never had any side effects. The only thing that changed is that he can't talk like Donald Duck quite as good as he could when he was younger. But he is glad he had it done.

My dad had his done after my brother. He didn't know he was tongue tied either. Apparently it runs in the family. Again, it was a really fast process, and he was out within an hour.

Hope this helps!

T. Ashe

Hello i just wanted to say i am 31 years old and i am still tongue tied.I have no problems with speaking.When i was younger i did have a problem swallowing pills but i do not have that problem anymore.I also did have to take speach in class when i was in ele.Haveing his tongue cliped doesnt say he wont have to take speach.Both my boys had to take speach and their tongues are fine.It is all up to you and how you want to do it.Me i wouldnt have the surgery for it.I would save all the surgerys for something that cant be helped.
L.

My son had the same thing. He had surgery at a year old. It was a great sucess. He had very little pain and was back to normal the next day. He is now 8 years old and has no problems with speech. He has grown into a very heathly happy boy. I also have an aunt who has this and she did not have it repaired. She went through years and years of speech training and has trouble eating certain foods. Now that she is in her 50's and wishes she had went ahead with the surgery years ago. She was very pushy about making sure my son had the surgery so he didnt have to go through all the hard times she did. I hope this helps you. Good luck. I hope you make the best decision in the interest of your child. Have a blessed day.

My son was tongue tied and he had surgery when he was 18 months old. The surgery was very short maybe 10 mins. I didn't notice that he was in much pain if any. My doctor said the earlier you have the surgery the better, especially before they really start talking. That way their speech is not affected. I would do it again given the choice.

My son stuttered from 20 months on until I quit working full time. That seemed to help alot, he felt more secure. His older brother (3yrs) older always talked fast and tried to speak for him. My little guy is 35 now, he does think about what he is going to say before speaking but there is no stutter. I do not know any child that had surgery for tongue tie. Jan Pressler

J. I am glad everything went well with the surgery. I am an orthodontist and I have seen this situation a lot. Not everybody need to have it done, but if you have a kid with speech problems it is great to do it early, because it is very easy recovery for them.
If he keeps having speech problem I would recommend you to go a see a speech therapist. Because he probably will need a couple of session to learn how he should posture the tongue to talk. It is not going to hurt to have him evaluated.

My husband and one of my daughters is tongue tied. Neither have had speech problems or any problems at all. It was one of my other daughters that had a speech problem (We took her to a therapist for a few months and she speaks beautifully now). My doctor and my mother-in-law's years ago said the same thing- wait and see. I would wait until your child is three before speech becomes an issue. Don't rush into it. Your son might not need it after all.

I never thought about this. I was born with that issue and my mom had it clipped and I am glad she did. I think I was really young because all she said is that my cry was different, so it must have been before I was old enough to talk. My 2 daughters were not born with this issue.

I know this is all over for you now, but my daughter had a frenulectomy at 9 months. I knew something was different about her tongue from the moment she was born but no one would confirm anything then! I wanted to nurse so badly but she just couldn't do it. The sedation took longer than the surgery. She is almost 5 now and is extremely verbal - though we'll never know if the frenulectomy helped or if it wouldn't have made a difference. Speech will be great to get your son on track! Good luck!

My son was born tongue tied as well. He had the surgery when he was 3 months old. He had difficulty nursing and the doctor was concerned that he could have future problems with speech in the future. It was quick for him and recovery was fast. Of course, he was much younger. The doctor who did the surgery said that the older the person, the more painful and longer is the recovery. (He had recently done the surgery on an 18 year old girl.) If you decide to do it, I would get it done as soon as possible so that your son does not have to endure more pain. At this age, he might not even remember it when he gets older. Good luck !:)

I am interested in seeing the responses for this as well. My 21 month old also has a tongue tie, severe enough that it kept him from being able to latch on correctly to nurse. His doctor told me that I had to wait until he was a year old to have it evaluated, and then he would need to have the procedure done as outpatient surgery. I've gone for the evaluation, and they also found that his upper lip is tied and will need to be taken care of when the tongue is.

While discussing this with some of my friends, I discovered that there were many moms who had babies born with tongue ties. Most had told me that their baby's tongue tie was done as an outpatient procedure in the doctor's office at just a couple months old. All that had to be done in their cases was to numb and clip it, and it was fine within a few minutes.

Hearing that it could've been so easily taken care of when he was younger made me think twice about doing the surgery. Because he is nearly two, he will now have to be sedated when it could've been unnecessary. That really bothers me, but I need to do what is best for my baby now. I've heard it can really make a difference in speech, so once we have the money in line, it will be done.

BTW- Tongue ties can be hereditary. In our case, my husband's grandfather had a tongue tie. He never had his clipped, and he had a lot of problems with the "th" sound. It always came out as an "f".

Thanks for posting this question. I have a 2 year old who is tongue tied, but apparantly her's is not as bad as some. I asked a relative who is a speech patholigist in Atlanta for some things I should look for whether to get it clipped or not. She said words with certain sounds..."d" "t"..like daddy and stop. She also said can she lick her lips all the way around. I began to take a lot of notice to my youngest daughters words, and realized she says a lot of words and can lick her lips some (haven't seen her do all the way around)..I heard the tongue can naturally break at any time as well. My pediatrician said it was my call, and that he doesn't see a need, unless I see or feel a need. Since I am around her all the time. This was great to see the discuss list out pros and cons. I have heard that when she gets older...4ish. I would really be able to tell if I should clip or not, and then she would have to go to therapy to work on using her new found tongue freedom. But thanks again for the question. I'm new to this site..and it was very helpful. :o)

I had the surgery when I was a baby and had to have speech therapy for one year when I was in 1st grade and that helped tremendously. My daughter also had it done at 3 months of age. However, the doctor did my daughter's in his office (without anesthesia or novacaine)while I held her.(I'm sure they have much better methods now). She screamed but it did fix the problem completely and she is an excellent public speaker now. In fact, she is a Speech Therapist. Hope this helped. I do recommend it and the younger the child, the better.

Yes I would have it done atleast you will still have youre son and be blessed good luck.

My twins were born tongue-tied. Their pediatrician at birth recommended NOT doing the surgery, but as they grew, we noticed definited speech problems, compounded with the fact that they were twins are had their own "language." After seeing specialists and their recommending a procedure that included anesthesia, a day in the hospital, huge expense, etc., we found a dentist who did it in his office - simple, pain-gree, and quick procedure! If I had known how easy it would be on the boys to have the procedure done, I would have done it much sooner, and their speech improved greatly over the next year or so.

I am a kindergarten teacher and I know how important is the speech in early childhood. It is very important to have a successfull surgery, make sure his doctor is the best, look into his record and find his or her previous patients.

If his or her record is good go ahead, good luck and God bless the hands of those doctors that will perform the surgery.

Hi J., I saw that you went ahead with the surgery and I wanted to say good job! My sister (who's in her 30's now)had this problem and our family dr. clipped it in his office when she was very little. No problems with her but I have a younger brother who is almost 18 and is "tongue tied" and my mom decided not to get his fixed and now he has trouble with some of his words. My dad's is this way but doesn't seem to have any speech problems, he's kind of a quiet guy though, but also can't stick his tongue out very far. (My mom figured this out when they were fist married 40 yrs. ago when he stuck out his tongue at her, ah married life, so fun.) :)It's such an easy problem to fix and your child will be way better off for it in the long run.
M. B.

Hello J.. My son was a little over 1 year old and found out that he was "tongue tied". I want you to know the surgery is nothing. They will give him some medicine (my son calls Nasty juice) that will calm him and all the doctor will do is clip the small piece of skin under his tongue. It took us longer to wake him after surgery than the whole surgery took. At that time he had tubes put in his ears, tongue clipped, and adnoids removed all at the same time. We left the hospital and we stopped by McDonalds to eat and he ate a cheeseburger, fries, and chocolate milk with no problem. Never complained & never said it hurt. Healing is really fast! It will be easy & over in no time!

My 3 year old had a moderate tongue tie that was found during a speech therapy session. I noticed that as a baby he never stuck his tongue out or blew raspberries but it wasn't a concern because he was babbling and eating well. When he didn't develop speech properly or normally we put him in speech therapy and his therapist found the tie when she tried to get him to say certain sounds and letters. We took our son to Childrens ENT in Suwanee (right off of Peachtree Parkway behind the Lowe's in John's Creek) and his tongue tie was diagnosed.

Our son had an outpatient frenluectomy (I know I am spelling that wrong) under general anesthesia only because the Dr. doesn't like to snip in the office for older kids because they bite. I think we waited longer in the outpatient surgery waiting room than we did for the entire surgery and recovery. The surgery itself took about 10 minutes and they let me go in with him as they put him to sleep. He was playing fine that night, eating soft foods and popsicles and only needed Children's Tylenol for the pain. We had to make him stick his tongue out a good bit so he didn't develop scar tissue but there was no bleeding or pain.

We wish we would have found his tongue tie sooner because once he got it snipped he has just taken off as far as speech and tongue movement is concerned. He is like night and day! We are still working on strenghtening his tongue because it wasn't used properly for 3 years but I cannot tell you how exciting it is to see my son stick out his tongue all the way, lick a popsicle and drink out of a cup perfectly.

Hope this helped.

Oh good lord/ I am an Aussie and over 50. I guess we have very different views on this BUT get a good speech therapist surgery holds major complications and this is not a live saving event or necessary surgery any more than making your breasts look bigger/smaller or tummies being little and flat. I as an ex-nurse who has worked with kids who also sorts of "disabilities" and I would never recommend a child to have unncessary surgery and cutting the ligament under the tongue is unnecessary surgey when a good speech therapist could work wonders.

My daughter is tongue tied. She couldn't nurse properly and so she was always hungry and cried a lot. I had to stop breastfeeding her and give her a bottle (which she made a big mess with!) The occupational therapist in the hospital and the lactation consultant and the NiCU doctors and nurses never noticed she was tongue tied.

When I found out, her pediatrician said he doesn't recommend the surgery for young children. She's 5 now and speaks with a small lisp but not any more pronounced then other children her age. So, we shall see I guess.

S., mom to four girls!

I know you've made your decision and I'm glad this is working out for a younger child. This is a warning for adults. I have this and a friend had it too. No issues or speech problems for either of us. She had surgery about a year ago and as an adult it was VERY painful. She said she would not have done it as an adult knowing how painful it is.

My Brother In Law had that done when he was very little and doesn't remember a thing and talks normal to this day and he is a bit over 20 yrs old.