How To Spot Tongue/Lip Ties & Get FREE Expert Advice

Heather Dessinger

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How To Spot Tongue/Lip Ties & Get FREE Expert Advice

Yesterday I smiled at a green-eyed blonde in gorgeous leather riding boots while wiping a Charlie Chaplin-style snot mustache from my son’s lip. Wait! I forgot to tell you the best part: I wiped the snot blob with my sleeve. Oh yes, I am one of THOSE moms. The one who does NOT have a bandaid, wet wipe or [insert responsible mom paraphernalia] when zombie ducks attack. The one who can’t even get fake ducks all in a row and is still getting the hang of this mothering thing.

If you are feeling this way about breastfeeding, read on. Yesterday we covered why tongue and lip ties are often sources of misery like colic, reflux, low milk supply, early weaning, tooth decay, frequent night wakings and gapped teeth.

Today I’m going to show you how to make an informal at-home assessment, get a consult with the leading expert in the U.S. for FREE, and seek out treatment options. What you learn could be the vital piece of information someone around you needs to help them on their journey or relieve regret and guilt when things don’t go as planned. As Joy shared yesterday, understanding ties can be a very powerful thing:

“My son was born almost 8 months ago… I FOUGHT with everything I had to BF him….I cried, I searched the internet, I prayed, I talked to friends, lactation consultants and finally gave up and have been EP’ing [exclusively pumping] since 4 1/2 months… your article popped up in my feed this am and I clicked on it thinking it would tell me that I needed to pump more and eat this and eat that blah blah blah… MY SON IS LIP TIED!!!! and NOONE caught it!!! (%&#(&#$(&%(%$ is all I have to say right now… the guilt I felt was killing me… I am sure when I wake up tomorrow I will be relieved beyond words that it wasn’t about me as a mother or my milk supply… “(emphasis mine)

Let’s get started, shall we?

Step One: Make An Informal Diagnosis

Click here for a step-by-step exam guide.

Step 2: Get a FREE Email Consult From the Leading Tongue/Lip Tie Specialist in the U.S.

If you have a question or concern, Dr. Kotlow is willing to take a look at a quality photograph for FREE. Here’s how:

1. Take a photo of your child’s upper lip (pulled up) and tongue.

2. Make a list of your symptoms and your baby’s symptoms

3. Email the photos and symptoms to Dr. Kotlow at [email protected]

Keep in mind that he’s not going to be able to give you a diagnosis without actually examining the baby as well as knowing all of your symptoms. However, he can take a look and say whether it’s suggestive of a tie that should probably should be released..

Step 3: Evalutate Treatment Options

Mama’s often ask: I’m not having nursing problems, should I have the procedure done anyway?

According to Dr. Kotlow, a diagnosis involves looking at the structure of the mouth and discussing symptoms. If your baby is tongue-tied but you’re not experiencing any problems a revision may not be necessary. However, in some cases a revision might be recommended anyway due to the potential for  other problems: speech difficulties, trouble swallowing, orthodontic problems, etc.

Laser Revision

An erbium laser is able to effectively “vaporize” the extra tissue without any instruments actually coming in contact with the mouth. Babies usually feel little or no discomfort throughout the process (though they may protest at being swaddled – a safety measure to keep them still), and there is very little bleeding. Babies are encouraged to nurse immediately following the procedure and healing is very quick.

The photo on the right was taken 30 minutes after my son had the laser revision done by Dr. Kotlow (the quickie update I posted that morning is here). The rest of the day was spent strolling through Essex Village in Connecticut with my snuggly boy in the Boba. A great experience overall.

Unfortunately, few doctors/dentists currently use laser instruments so travel is often required. Here is the list of tongue-tie specialists currently using lasers. I haven’t personally vetted anyone other than Dr. Kotlow – this list was compiled based on your feedback. If you know of someone I’ve missed please let me know!

Note: So you don’t miss it I am adding this comment from Mellanie Sheppard (who discovered Micah’s tie): “Recovery is not easy for every baby. For many babies, they first 24 hours can be pretty rough – very fussy and not wanting to nurse. This probably hinges on how thick/fibrous/deep the tie runs. Also, it is not a miracle cure. Some babies will need suck training afterwards (sometimes with an occupational therapist or speech therapist). Most babies will benefit from CST (cranio-sacral therapy) or chiropractic support afterwards. A tongue that is restricted is creating the wrong “pull” on the muscles in the floor of the mouth, which can in turn lead to subtle misalignment in the jaw, neck, etc.”

I”ve put together some tips for easing discomfort after the procedure here.

Scissor Method

Scissors cannot penetrate as deeply as lasers and do not remove the extra tissue, but if travel is out of the question seek out a highly qualified professional in your area – usually an ear/nose/throat doc or a pediatric dentist – to do the scissor method. Then follow through with the stretching exercises described in the post-op section of this article. Most likely you will not receive instructions to do this but it is absolutely critical to the success of the procedure.

Micah first procedure was a frenectomy using scissors at 5 months. We were not given any instruction for post-op care and the tie grew back together with scar tissue on top, which is why we took him to Dr. Kotlow at 8 months.

Note: Mellanie’s statement about the above procedure applies here, too.

Other Beneficial Therapies

Cranio-sacral therapy and chiropractic care are both excellent complementary treatments to tongue/lip tie revision.

Breastfeeding a Tongue-Tied Baby

If, for whatever reason, neither procedures are available here are some tips on breastfeeding a tongue-tied baby.

Well, that’s it.

If you have questions, insights or doctor recommendations please share them in the comments!

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About HEATHER

Heather is a holistic health educator, herbalist, DIYer, Lyme and mold warrior. Since founding Mommypotamus.com in 2009, Heather has been taking complicated health research and making it easy to understand. She shares tested natural recipes and herbal remedies with millions of naturally minded mamas around the world. 

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440 thoughts on “How To Spot Tongue/Lip Ties & Get FREE Expert Advice”

  1. Okay, here’s my question. My son is almost 3 was tongue-tied. I had the scissor method done when he was 2 months old (I didn’t even know there were other options). But, now, at almost 3 (in April), he’s a little speech delayed. No one but my husband and myself can understand him. He says a lot, saying more every day. Definitely no hearing problems. But I’m wondering if the procedure wasn’t done real well, and now he’s having speech problems because of it. Thoughts?

    Reply
    • Not that I am an expert, but I’m thinking it might be one of two things. First, if you were not instructed in proper post-op care the tie could have grown back together/formed scar tissue. OR it could have a sneaky posterior element that was not separated the first time. Or it could be neither of those – if it were me I would email Dr. K and see what he says 🙂

      Reply
      • My daughter is 5 months old after much frustration of EBF (and wanting to quit) I found out that she has a lip tie and also tongue tie. She’s scheduled to have the laser revision for both in a couple weeks with Dr. Stephen Fetzik, DMD in Wichita, Ks. I so wish I would of read/knew about this sooner. It’s irritating as a new mom and knowing something wasn’t right and complaining to drs and lactation consultants. I now know for the next baby this will be the first thing I check for so I don’t have to go through this again.

        Reply
        • Sarah,

          do you have an update on how the procedure went with Dr. Fetzik? We’ve just discovered our 15 month old has a lip tie and are considering revision. Seems Dr. Fetzik is the closest one to us per Dr. Kotlow. Just wondering how it went. thanks.

          Reply
    • Hi Rebekkah,
      My son was born tongue-tied, but they did not find it right away because he was a premature twin and they were checking on other things (I do not blame them at all. They were great.) Since it was not discovered right away, we were sent to an ENT when he was around 2 months old. They said that he would have to be sedated and have it cut. Because he was premature, he also had some breathing problems so I did not feel comfortable sedating him. They wanted us to come back in a year. Long story short, we moved out of state so that didn’t happen. My son also had speech delays. When he was around 3 years old, I started doing tongue exercises with him. If you make them fun, they will do them. Whatever you can do to make them improve the tongue muscle. Have them go up and down, front and back, side to side, touch the top lip, touch the bottom lip. Making funny faces helps. I have been doing this on and off for a couple years now and I can really tell a difference. It didn’t happen overnight, but it did improve drastically over time. Hope this helps. – Tracy

      Reply
    • As a health care professional myself (Chiropractor), i would consider other things besides the tongue tie…. it would be good to be sure that any tongue tie has been cleared, but what you are describing with his speech could — let’s go here first — be normal for him. But it could also be mild vaccine damage. I would be very careful with any toxins in his environment, as vaccine damage is increasing in the community as other toxins are on the rise. This is not a single issue issue, if you follow me. I would advise delaying vaccines until this has cleared, at the very least. Be sure to do your own studying on that issue. Another possibility (and you can have multiple issues at the same time) is his upper cervical spine is impinged. This can occur through normal birth, c-section or otherwise, small bumps and falls learning to walk, or any other physical or chemical stress or trauma. If you seek a Chiropractor, be sure they see lots and lots of children, and have been asked by parents to see infants. Good luck with your path.

      Reply
      • Sherri,

        I know what you mean regarding vaccine damage. My boy was hospitalized w/ upper respiratory distress & developed latex allergies within 2 weeks of his 6 month-old vaccines & also lost his speech. He is also positive for MTHFR hetero C677T. He might have a lip or tongue tie which is also related to MTHFR mutations. Wish we had more chiros like yourself to help our kids out. Cheers!

        Reply
  2. Thank you for your blogs on this. My daughter’s lip tie was identified when she was 22 months old at her first visit to the dentist. I pumped exclusively for her first year of life after physical and emotional pain over what I perceived as my failure. Your blog was one of the sources that helped me understand that her lip tie probably was probably a huge factor in her poor latch. I am still so heartbroken about this. I hope that more professionals like Dr. Kotlow, Dr. Oser, Dr. Cindy Haggerton, and Kathy O’Brien will spread the word on tongue and lip tie and help struggling breastfeeding mothers.

    Reply
  3. My 3 1/2 year seems to have a class IV lip tie. I haven’t had it looked at yet because I keep telling myself that it is a cosmetic problem (gap between teeth). I hate the thought of subjecting her to a procedure at this age. You had mentioned in a previous post that Katie also has a lip tie. I was wondering if she has had that corrected and what was your experience with that?

    Reply
  4. What’s the risk for a less severe lip tie and tongue tie? My kid is 2 years old and he still breastfeeds. A lot. He eats very little (maybe this is from the ties too). He had severe reflux when he was little.

    Can I still do something? Is it necessary now, at his age? What will happen to him if I let him be? Will he have speech problems? Teeth problems? Eating problems? Does the procedure require total anaesthesia for his age?

    I am from Europe and here I don’t know any specialists in this procedure.

    Reply
    • my practitioner who takes care of my 13 and 15 year olds with palate and tie issues through exercise (for now) obtained her training in Germany. She calls herself an oro-facial-myologist. or something like that. With older children i would look for a practitioner who does the a.l.f. appliance work.

      Reply
  5. My 3 year old has Class IV lip tie, big gap between her front teeth & decay on her 4 front teeth which we are trying to remineralize. We faced so many challenges breastfeeding but still managed to make it to almost 3 years. Would it still be beneficial to have her lip tie lasered if she’s not a baby anymore and done breastfeeding?

    Reply
  6. Thanks so much for sharing this vital information! The more awareness there is, the more babies who can be helped. The only thing I would add is that the recovery is not easy for every baby. For many babies, they first 24 hours can be pretty rough – very fussy and not wanting to nurse. This probably hinges on how thick/fibrous/deep the tie runs. Also, it is not a miracle cure. Some babies will need suck training afterwards (sometimes with an occupational therapist or speech therapist). Most babies will benefit from CST (cranio-sacral therapy) or chiropractic support afterwards. A tongue that is restricted is creating the wrong “pull” on the muscles in the floor of the mouth, which can in turn lead to subtle misalignment in the jaw, neck, etc.

    Reply
    • Just wanted to tell your DFW friends that there is a CST clinic at UNT Health Science Center (aka “TCOM”) in Fort Worth near the cultural district. They take insurance, so I was able to go for just my regular copay, versus paying $200+ out of pocket then reimbursed as I found with other places. Website is http://www.hsc.unt.edu/sites/osteopathicmanipulativemedicine/. I saw Dr. Tham who specializes in pre-natal, post-natal, and newborn care.

      Reply
  7. Just knowing now that the crazy night nursing, flat white nipples after nursing, etc. was LIP TIE and not my huge failure (as all around me said) is an enormous, huge thing! Bless you for sharing this. More mamas & babies will have an easier time of it and get more much needed sleep!

    Reply
  8. Just knowing now that the crazy night nursing, flat white nipples after nursing, etc. was LIP TIE and not my huge failure (as all around me said) is an enormous, huge thing! Bless you for sharing this. More mamas & babies will have an easier time of it and get more much needed sleep!

    Reply
  9. I’m really curious about your opinion on older little ones with this issue. My daughter has a lip tie too! She has a little gap between her teeth, which led me to notice the lip tie a few weeks ago thanks to your other posts about this back when Micah had his procedure.
    She’s almost 2 1/2, and not nursing much now…it never actually interfered with her nursing…and she’s quite the talker! Just wondering what the benefit would be of having something done at this point. And how is this so prevalent?? Genetics?? (Neither my hubby or I have it, but both our kids do…guess I have a new thing to pray for for the third one!)

    Reply
  10. So thrilled to see this! My six-week-old had upper lip tie and tongue tie. It was so bad that I cried every time she nursed, and I knew something was wrong since it was nothing like breastfeeding my first baby. I was bruised and bleeding for about two weeks before we were told to take her to a local pediatric dentist. I’ve shared this post on my FB page and will link to it when I blog about my experience. Thanks so much, Heather! 🙂

    Reply
  11. So thrilled to see this! My six-week-old had upper lip tie and tongue tie. It was so bad that I cried every time she nursed, and I knew something was wrong since it was nothing like breastfeeding my first baby. I was bruised and bleeding for about two weeks before we were told to take her to a local pediatric dentist. I’ve shared this post on my FB page and will link to it when I blog about my experience. Thanks so much, Heather! 🙂

    Reply
  12. Heather, thank you so much! A few weeks ago my husband made the comment that unlike our first three our little guy was never “milk drunk”. At the time I thought of it and it seemed strange, but didn’t think much of it. Then when you mentioned the waking every 1 or 2 hours at night even at 5 months (little guy is 7 months and his “long” stretch went from about 5 hours at 3 months to 2 hours. After that he wakes about every 30 min). My husband is gone right now but when he gets home I want him to look to. His lip is definitely tied but I need help looking at the tongue. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! This never even occured to me since he is gaining weight and it doesn’t hurt when he nurses but looking at his lip, it looks just like the class III

    Reply
  13. Just went to dr appt who said it doesn’t effect eating and no test for tounge tie only speech. Referred to throat and neck specialist. Continue to be disappointed by ” m.d.”

    Reply
  14. I had my little guys tongue clipped at 4 months and haven’t been able to get him to latch ever since (he’s 7 months now). 🙁

    Reply
  15. I had my little guys tongue clipped at 4 months and haven’t been able to get him to latch ever since (he’s 7 months now). 🙁

    Reply
  16. thank you so much for this post….i found you through NourishMD, and I don’t know why i haven’t seen this sooner…..i just sent a pic of my 22mo. old to Dr. Kotlow and am hopeful he can help….i never realized all those symptoms go together….sad to say i’m a nurse, natural childbirth teacher and have been nursing for 22 months and didn’t realize thats what we’re dealing with!

    Reply
  17. thank you so much for this post….i found you through NourishMD, and I don’t know why i haven’t seen this sooner…..i just sent a pic of my 22mo. old to Dr. Kotlow and am hopeful he can help….i never realized all those symptoms go together….sad to say i’m a nurse, natural childbirth teacher and have been nursing for 22 months and didn’t realize thats what we’re dealing with!

    Reply
  18. TreaSon Holdings – The sleep thing was a huge discovery for me. It wasn’t until my son was diagnosed that we checked my daughter – totally explained why she woke so frequently until she was about 2. On the flipside, my son was sleeping so well at 12 months I almost felt guilty, like I was getting away with something!

    Reply
  19. I wish I’d followed my intuition as early as you did, Creative Christian Mama! I had the same sense about my son not nursing nearly as well as my daughter but I just kept making excuses. So glad you followed through and got it corrected!

    Reply
  20. Kari R. SaintLouis – Yeah, unfortunately most doctors are pretty uneducated about this. There ARE studies published in peer reviewed journals, but it’s just not common knowledge yet. A pediatric dentist might be more open to the idea.

    Reply
  21. Thanks!! I’ve been EPing but not sure how much longer I’ll last. I still don’t regret getting him clipped though.

    Reply
  22. We scheduled the procedure for my daughter next week! Thank you so much! I’m looking forward to relieving my chronic mastitis!

    Reply
  23. My husband and I took our 3 month old to Dr. Oser to get the lip tie done this past Friday because he had a stage IV tie. When Dr. Oser looked at it, he said we needed to do that lip tie also. It was one of the hidden ones that we couldn’t tell how bad it was until after the procedure. He said the tongue tie was very deep and was pretty bad. I am glad we did both!
    The first few hours we were able to go back to our chiropractic office and get laser tissue procedure done which is suppose to help his healing. He took a really good nap. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to eat right away but I don’t blame him. It was a foreign place and he was just swaddled for 15 mins (he hates being swaddled). But the next couple of feedings I could definitely feel a difference. The past 2 nights he has slept 7-8 hours when before he was waking up every 3-4 hours to eat.
    We are so glad we did it! We would highly recommend Dr. Oser’s office! I really hope this blog post spreads and helps a lot of mothers!

    Reply
  24. Heather,

    Thank you so much for this post. It has been a whole-lotta-insightful for me as a mama.

    We have consulted with Dr. Kotlow and with the pediatric dentist in town regarding having a labial frenectomy (and possibly lingual frenectomy) done. Dr. Kotlow classifeed my son’s lip tie as Class IV after seeing pictures of my son’s mouth. Pediatric dentist we visited said our son’s mouth looked “normal for babies his age”. Our dentist in town doesn’t want to do it because she is of the belief that frenectomies can cause permanent scar tissue and a permanent diastema between the teeth. This is very common thinking in dentistry and orthodontics, it appears. I have yet to consult with Dr. Kotlow about this particular concern by other dentists, but it is quoted here, “It’s important to note that a frenectomy should not be done during braces treatment as it is believed that the scar tissue formed may prevent the teeth from moving together, thus creating a permanent gap between the two front teeth.” from this website: http://www.oralanswers.com/2011/01/labial-frenectomy-necessary-braces/. This is obviously where the pediatric dentist/ orthodontist we visited fell. I’m sure you have heard this perspective, so how did you get past it? Do you think their research is only in reference to frenectomies done with knives? I’m ready to hop on a plane and have Dr. Kotlow do the procedure, but hubby needs more convincing. Thoughts from your journey are much appreciated!

    Reply
    • Hi Kristen! I’m sorry it has taken me so long to reply. Yes, I do think their research has to be referring to knives. Lasers leave virtually no scar tissue and can actually clear out that area so teeth can grow together. I highly recommend that your hubby schedule a phone consult with Dr. K if he is skeptical. Dr. K knows his stuff 🙂

      Reply
      • Thanks so much, Heather! I’ve seen Dr. Brian Palmer’s literature showing diastemas spontaneously closing on their own after a frenectomy done with knives (http://www.brianpalmerdds.com/pdf/frenum_pdf.pdf, pp 53-55, e.t.c.) and in conjunction with speech therapy. I can only imagine with lasers it is even more plausible for the space to close on its own and for minimal scar tissue to be blocking the way for the space to close. The fact that speech therapy needed to be done with this patient who had lip tie is an encouragement to me even of itself to have my son’s maxillary frenum modified to avoid speech issues, among other possible issues like decay.

        Thank you again for sharing your story.

        Reply
  25. Thank you so much for sharing this. All the pieces came together and I almost wanted to cry. I checked my 5 year old and he has a severe lip tie that is causing a huge gap between his front teeth. All the struggles I had breastfeeding him. He was checked for a tongue tie, but never for a lip tie. His Dad also has one and the resulting gap between his front teeth. I have found a dentist who does the laser procedure locally (I am in Vancouver BC, Canada) and am taking my son in for a consult next week. Thank you for raising awareness of this.

    Reply
  26. It makes me so mad to read this!!!! Not at you. LOL My daughter is now 18 months old and has a lip tie. I noticed it a long time ago but the dr said it was nothing to worry about. I read more about it later then called a few different dentists and pediatric orthopedics and were told not to have it clipped due to scar tissue causing problems with the teeth later on. My little girl has had weight gain issues and I’ve had to take her in for regular weight checks. I’ve been fighting to keep her exclusively breastfed without giving formula or nasty pediasure like the dr wanted me to. I had a hard time breastfeeding and had the flat white nipples that burned so badly and bled and were so cracked for the first few months. I also had supply issues and took herbs and was sure to eat a nourishing diet to keep it up. (With my son, I had produced of milk) And all this time it WAS her lip tie that is the problem. Like I thought. And it should of been fixed.

    We did work through the pain and I’m still nursing her to this day and she never did get a drop of formula. But things would of been so much easier for us both if I would of read this sooner. And maybe she would be bigger. Thanks for getting the word out!

    Reply
  27. I want to cry. I knew about tongue tie from ready the LLL book before my son was born, and noticed in the delivery room. We had trouble latching, as expected, an he had his tongue clipped on his second day of life. Still, even with lactation consultants, we couldn’t get him to latch. Part of the problem was that he would bite down, but also he wouldn’t flip his upper lip out. We had to manually flip it was time. I ended up pumping for four and a half months before getting mastitis and loosing my supply. Today, at 7.5 months I was looking at his upper teeth because one just popped through, and I noticed that his lip seemed more attached than I thought it should be. Sure enough, I looked at some pictures and I’m pretty sure he has lip tie. I can’t believe the lactation consultants missed it, especially when he constantly couldn’t flip his lip out to nurse (even on the bottle — same thing, couldn’t flip his lip out). I’m so sad. I wish I would have known, we could have at it clipped when we got his tongue clipped. Now the poor kiddo might have to have general anesthesia to have it done if it is needed. The word really needs to be spread to the lactation community about this issue, as lip tie isn’t as well known as tongue tie.

    Reply
    • Oh, my heart aches for you! Big hugs to you, though, for seeking out the help of a LC and pumping for as long as you did. <3

      Reply
  28. I have been tongue tied all my life, I’m 28. My mom was told “if it doesn’t mess with her speech, then it isn’t an issue.” I wish you were around for her! She was talked out of having it cut and told just to wait. I have dental issue, my mom couldn’t nurse and it could have been avoided from the get go. Mine isn’t the sort of thing you glance over, its really very obvious. An orthodontist told me I could take care of it at home with scissors if I wanted, but when I spoke to a specialist I was told that I would need to have it done professionally. I have a large vein in mine and I was told it was like to heal back together if done incorrectly and that I would have to spend some time relearning to speak. If your itty bitty has a tongue tie, just take care of it before they get older!

    Reply
  29. I am so glad I found this page! My daughter, almost 5 months has been very fussy as the breast lately and has only been gaining about 1.5 oz a week. I’ve been doing a lot of reading and It led me to your page. My daughter is lip-tied, I want to take her pedi, but to say the least I’m not very happy with her. I’m so lost on where to start, but glad to know there is an answer and my daughter isn’t having a nursing strike for no reason!

    Reply
    • Shelby, I’m so glad you found the info you needed! If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact Dr. Kotlow – he is sooo helpful and may be able to recommend someone nearby who can correct the tie.

      Reply
  30. All the puzzle pieces just fell into place with this post! My 3.5 year old daughter’s decay is NOT MY FAULT! And my 5 month old son now has an appt. in Fort Worth to get his lip tie taken care of. Wow… If he developed decay down the road like my daughter I may just loose my mind. THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS! Now to keep remineralizing my daughter’s teeth 🙂 I read all the comments and saw lot’s of questions pertaining to “should one have an older child’s lip tie corrected”? I have the same question. When she’s older (5-6 area). I wonder if I should have hers done too to prevent a space between her teeth… Hmm.

    Reply
    • So glad you found this post helpful, Christina! Regarding whether older kids should have lip ties corrected, I think it depends on how severe it is (like whether it is causing a gap). My daughters gap eventually disappeared and we are not having it corrected, but when you take your son in you might want to have Dr. C look at your daughter and give an opinion 🙂

      Reply
  31. That’s a great idea Heather! I will ask Dr. Cole to peek. Thank you for telling me what you did in the same situation 🙂 I’m very curious… How did you finally find out that both your babies have lip ties? Your own research or a professional or ? There’s not a whole lot of information out there!

    Reply
    • I sensed something was off about my son’s nursing from the moment he first latched but brushed it off. By the time he was five months old, though, things were getting really bad. He woke every hour to two hours to feed because he couldn’t get enough nourishment for his growing body – I was so sleep deprived I ended up washing his clothes with the hangers still on! My friend suggested I contact Mellanie of For Babies Sake, so I did. She came out to my house and identified the tongue within seconds of the exam. Some ties are very sneaky so no one caught it at his birth, so needless to say I LOVE Mellanie and am so very grateful that she helped us figure things out AND found the only dentist who was qualified to correct the problem at that time (many more are now doing the procedure thanks to her raising awareness about tongue and lip ties!)

      Reply
  32. Wow! That must have been so hard for you!! Hugs! The worst I’ve done is use my daughters toothbrush so far 😉 Hehe! Thank you so much for talking this through with me 🙂 I think I only have one more question for you 😉 My scenario is this… My daughter (3.5 years) has tooth decay that I believe was caused by her un-diagnosed lip tie. We are working to remineralize them. My son (5 months) has a very obvious lip tie. I had some issues breast feeding him in the beginning, but now we are completely fine. If this were your scenario… Would you go ahead and have his lip tie laser cut just to make sure he didn’t develop the same decay? Or would you let it go because all is well and he could be different and not develop any decay? I nursed my daughter to 2.5 years and suspect I may nurse my son longer as I don’t plan on having any more pregnancies. My husband is uncertain if we should do this procedure. Of course neither one of us want our baby boy to be put through any unnecessary pain. Even the receptionist at Dr. Cole’s office asked why I wanted to have this done if we weren’t experiencing any problems. My only answer is that I don’t want his teeth to decay like my daughters has…

    Reply
    • Christina, I think it is a great idea to have his lip tie revised earlier rather than later, even if it’s not causing problems nursing. First, the very thick frenulum can cause problems with spacing between the front teeth, which can lead to needing braces later. Second … I had my lip tie revised as an adult in my early 30s because the constant tugging from the frenulum was actually pulling hard enough to cause my gum tissue to recede. Even after the procedure, I ultimately developed several cavities along the gum line in my front teeth. Anything you can do to prevent that for your children would be a huge blessing.

      Reply
      • I really appreciate that Ginger 🙂 We have already canceled his appointment though… It just seemed off to us to do such a drastic procedure since we aren’t having any issues (He’s in the 90th percentile on weight and 95th on height, so he is obviously getting enough milk!). We feel very blessed to have all of this information at hand though in case something does arise we will know what to do. I’m hoping that our change of diet will give him a head start to nice strong healthy teeth 🙂

        Reply
  33. http://www.pdaoflincoln.com/
    To add to your article, we had my son’s lip- and tongue-ties revised by laser at Pediatric Dental Arts, PC by Dr Melissa Sveen. She was extremely helpful, after a frustrating search to find someone local who could handle a non-classic tongue tie. So here’s another resource for people looking. 🙂

    Reply
  34. I am always keenly interested in info about tongue and lip ties. From my visual diagnosis my 2 year old daughter definitely has both and from what I can tell they are both Grade III. HOWEVER, I cannot for the life of me figure that it is causing ANY issues. I had absolutely no problems breastfeeding, not even slightly sore nipples (not bragging I was expecting at least SOME issues). At her 10 day post natal check up she was already 4 oz past her birth weight and the midwife exclaimed that I had very rich milk (thanks WAPF diet!) and that she was obviously getting plenty to eat. No colic, no reflux, no frontal tooth decay and so far no speech or eating issues. Is it possible that I’m overlooking some other issue or can a little one have a totally symptom free tongue and lip tie?

    Reply
  35. Cont. Sorry kiddo hit enter….

    Anyway. not really searching for a real answer, just wondering if anyone else’s LO had a symptom free tongue/lip tie.

    P.S. Love your blog!

    Reply
    • Hi Genevieve! A huge factor in whether lip/tongue ties cause problems is how stretchy the connective tissue is. I’m guessing here, but maybe if it is really stretchy it is possible to not experience any negative effects. Either way, I’m glad your daughter hasn’t had any issues with it. Though I can’t say this for certain I think Dr. K would say there’s no reason to consider a correction based on what you’ve described 🙂

      Reply
      • Thank Heather! I don’t want to look for problems but sometimes the Mom Brain goes into overdrive 😉 Her doc said it wasn’t an issue since we haven’t had any problems but hearing so many heart breaking stories makes me double check all the evidence. Will continue to not worry 🙂

        Thanks again!

        Reply
        • Lol, I **so** get this. Sometimes I get so many worried emails about a particular subject that I start to worry that I’m not worried! 😀

          Reply
  36. Hello! I wanted to let everyone know of some more dentists in Western Canada who are using lasers to perform lip and tongue tie revisions. I work with two dentists (Dr. Chris Lan and Dr. Peter Lam) who have both been helping babies and their moms breastfeed successfully. It has been so rewarding to know we can offer help to these families whose only option before was to fly all the way to New York City for this procedure.
    Please visit this link for more information on Dr. Lan and Dr. Lam, and also several other laser-certified dentists in Western Canada: http://www.breastfeedingaction.ca/index.php/resources

    Christy

    Reply
  37. Thanks for posting this again!!
    I had so much trouble breastfeeding my now 3 year old daughter. I chalked it all up to her food allergies and the death of my Mother right before she was born, I went through a bad PP psychosis. But this has opened my eyes to see that my daughter’s lip tie may have been just another contributing factor. At about 4-5 months of BF with serious difficulty, I just gave up. I feel such guilt about it.
    My poor daughter’s front, top teeth are stained, though the dentists have told us it’s from old iron supplementing, not decay. But maybe the iron only stained those top front teeth because of the lip tie? Her bottom teeth are so pretty and pearly white!
    She has no gap yet, but I may consult the recommended Dr. anyway!
    Thanks again for another great, ultra helpful post!!!!
    My 2 year does not seem to have these issues but if we ever have any more children, I’ll know what to look for much earlier!
    Thank you!!

    Reply
  38. I stumbled upon this post while looking for a recipe and it caught my attention because…

    My son was pretty severely tongue tied and it caused major breastfeeding issues right from the start (extreme pain for me). Luckily one of the LCs at the hospital noticed it so we were able to get it taken care of when he was a week old (scissor method but it hasn’t grown back). He’s now 20 months, still breastfeeding, we’ve never had any issues, and last week we JUST noticed that he is also lip tied, probably class III or IV – it goes all the way to his teeth. I can’t believe we never noticed before but I’m also kind of not surprised because he locks that mouth down like a maximum security prison anytime I try to look in at his teeth, brush them, etc..

    Anyway, his front teeth were gapped when they first came in but now that the others have come in too, they’re very normal looking, and obviously it hasn’t caused breastfeeding issues for us. At this point do you think we should look at getting it fixed? I am guessing the procedure is a bit more involved with a strong, squirmy toddler. Your advice would be much appreciated 🙂

    I LOVE your blog by the way 🙂

    Reply
    • Hi Lindsey! If it were me I’d contact Dr. K and gethis opinion on whether the tie might cause upper tooth decay. Hope that helps!

      Reply
  39. Hello, i have never expirenced this before. but im fairly certain my daughter has this. She is now 22 months old, and was a horrible breast feeder, we had to stop fairly early. i wish someone would have spotted this sooner. Could anyone look at her picture and tell me what you think, so i have some knowledge to go to the dentist with. Im in phoenix, az…

    Reply
    • Nikki, I am so sorry to hear your experience with breastfeeding was difficult! If you email a photo of your daughter to Dr. K he will give you a free expert opinion.

      Reply
  40. Hi Heather,

    Thank you so much for this post. I noticed a pretty severe lip tie in my 10 month old son after looking at the pics you posted. I struggled immensely in the beginning with nursing and continued to have problems with blockages and blisters caused by my son’s shallow latch. Your blog post convinced me to consult with Dr. Kotlow. My husband and I then decided to fly to NY to have the procedure done (we live in San Antonio). It turns out my son was also tongue tied but I was never able to see it myself since my son was way too squirmy to let me have a look. We were very pleased with how things went with Dr. K. The procedure took no time at all: within 10 minutes he was back in my arms. Nursing has improved but I’m still working on his latch a little as he’s so used to the old way. I don’t have any more blisters or blockages and my son seems to enjoy nursing a lot more than before. He now asks to nurse, something he never did before. I’m so happy about that. Did you have to work on your son’s latch at first to “re-train” his muscles?
    Anyways, I wanted to thank you. I would never have known about Dr. K if it hadn’t been for this post.

    Reply
    • Oh Julie, THANK YOU for leaving this comment! I try really hard not to be annoying about sharing this post too often on Facebook, but I soooooo want to get the message out and am thrilled to know that it found you (or you found it – I’m not sure how to phrase that!). To answer your question, yes I did have to work with my son to re-train his latch after the procedure. I didn’t put a huge amount of effort into it because the procedure made such a huge difference for us and I was happy with the improvement, but it definitely did need some work. Thank you again for stopping by!

      Reply
    • Hi both Heather and Julie,
      I need to get my daughter’s lip tie revised. she’s now 10 months. When you ladies brought in your children, how does Dr. K get them to lie still? My daughter fights like crazy when I tried to lift her lip to just take a picture. Was it traumatic for the children? Did he use any pain medication on them prior to the surgery? Did he use local anesthesia? Sorry for all my questions!

      and thank you Heather for your post on this subject, I just wish I knew about it a lot longer so I don’t need to wait until she’s this old.

      I am in CA by the way, does anyone have any experience with any experts here that do the procedure with laser?

      Reply
  41. Dr Wynn in Peoria IL – I don’t have personal experience but know several moms who have had their child’s lip ties revised by him.

    Reply
  42. Thank you so much for this article! We just got back from Dr. Oser in Keller after discovering (thanks to you!) that my daughter (3.5) and my son (13 months) both had type IV lip ties and my son also had a Type 2 tongue tie. Which explains my sons colic caused by my over supply and my daughters low weight gain – amongst other things. I had hoped to visit Dr. Cole, especially since we do not have a holistic dentist here in Arkansas. Unfortunately, he does not perform the procedure on children over 9 months of age so we chose to visit Dr. Oser. Dr. Oser was very kind and professional. We were not allowed in the room with our children during the procedure. I think I might of spent the extra money going up to Dr. Kotlow if I had known that prior to the appointment. Hearing my children scream in the next room for 15 minutes took years off my life, but the kids seem to care less now, lol. Anyway, I had two questions if you do not mind. Firstly, I remember seeing a link on your blog to a guide to the postop exercises and now I cannot find it anywhere, can you please direct me to that link? Also, my son is experiencing quite a bit of inflammation and discomfort, he acts like he cannot nurse at all anymore. There is little to no suction and he is refusing to nurse from what appears to be frustration or pain. I am afraid that because of his age he might not be able to relearn how to nurse and might wean from this. I still nurse my daughter and I would prefer for him to continue until he is emotionally ready to stop. So I was wondering if you or any of your readers have had any issues with premature weaning after having the procedure and if they had any suggestions on how to help him through this?

    Reply
    • I have two kids with special needs and we’ve had many procedures, I would never let a doctor take my chilren out back unless they were under sedation already, that practice in my opinin is highly questionable. You little kiddos should not be in pain or traumatized for 15 mins. w/o momma there to comfort them. I’m so glad our kids are OK now, but for other mommas reading this know you have other options.

      Reply
      • And I just re-read my post and wanted to let you know my comments are not directed at you, but at the doctor who allowed such a thing!

        Reply
      • I agree Amy. Actually you can be and should be in the room with them the whole time. a Dr. who takes the child out back I would not trust. You must see an orofacial myofunctional therapist for help. Find one on myofuntionaltherapist.com

        Reply
  43. Hi Heather,
    I’ve just realized that I have a lip tie. It’s never been a problem that I know of, but is it something that could potentially cause problems in the future? Or does it only cause problems in children? Any info you happen to have about lip ties in adults would be greatly appreciated.

    Reply
  44. I would include Dr Douglas Galen in LA, CA to your list of people who are really good at doing a frenectomy. Also, it is very important to work with a myofucntional therapist immediately afterward unless breastfeeding which should be started asap.

    Reply
    • Yes, I believe it usually is. My son’s procedure took all of five minutes and he was smiling just a few minutes after they brought him back to me. He was a little sore that day but seemed to really enjoy our day trip around Boston!

      Reply
  45. I thought I chime in here now that we had the procedure done. Thank you so much Heather for putting this information out there, allowed me to diagnose our 11 month old’s lip tie. We live in Northern California so we drove 8 hours down to see Dr. James Jesse in South Cal. I wanted to tell those who might be interested that Dr. James Jesse is an amazing person. Before we even went in, I had exchanged a few emails with him, and in each, he was very detailed in explaining everything and answered ALL my questions. Our appt was on Jan 21st, we were asked to be in the room with the baby. My husband lied down on the chair holding our daughter who was on top of him, I sat next to them and just kind of talked and watched. One of the assistant held her head. The procedure itself was like 30 seconds (she only has lip tie), our daughter screamed at first because she didn’t want to be held tight but midway she stopped and was really quiet. We later found out because we allowed them to film us (so Dr. Jesse can use the video for his lectures), she was watching herself and us on the screen. Our experience was very positive and the Dr. was simply amazing.

    However, given our daughter was already 11 months old, so far she hasn’t changed her old latching yet, the site is completely healed and the gap between her teeth already disappeared. I think her brain is still working on transitional to the new found possibilities. She’s still waking up at least 3 times a night!

    To answer some questions, yes, a tiny bit of local anesthesia is used. It is injected directly on the tie and around the gum next to the tie. Very minimal. Dr. Jesse said if he doesn’t use it, then it would be too painful for the baby. Our baby was able to nurse 1 hour after the procedure, I didn’t try sooner as I fed her before we went in. She didn’t fuss much about the soreness. But she was NOT sleeping well since 6 months so any night waking wasn’t unusual for her. Hope my experience can provide some insight to those in need of the same thing.

    Reply
    • This is why it would be better to take her to se a myofunctional therapist right away after the procedure. Try Carly Schnieder up north or Kathy Winslow. They are good and can help you.

      Reply
  46. What a BLESSING that I found this. I just thought my baby was small and that she needed to eat every 1.5 hours at night at 5 months (and every other month before this) because she was having a growth spurt. She never would take a paci or a bottle, she drools a ton and always has and gums my nipples! She’s in the 3rd percentile for height and not much more for weight. I have every issue you mentioned including a recent bout with mastitis. For mamas in AZ, I found this dental practice in Tucson that does laser procedures http://www.tucsonsmilesaz.com/ Looks like a trip to Tucson for me! Thank you SO much for this information!

    Reply
  47. Thank you for this post! I recently discovered our 4 week old daughter has a lip tie, this is our third child and prior had never had any issues with nursing until this time. We are relieved we found an answer. I’ve spoke to Dr.Kotlow, and his staff and looking into either going to him for the procedure or he also mentioned Dr.Margolis out of the Chicago area, here is his page http://www.fredmargolisdds.com/index.php.
    I’m curious as to how other parents, infants have progressed with nursing after the procedure? Was it successful? Do they recommend? I’m interested in how the young infants handle the procedure? We are planning to do the procedure over the holiday break at the end of this month she will be 6-7 weeks old. Thank you for your time and insight!!

    Reply
  48. Thank you so much for this information! I believe my 8 month old may have a class III or IV lip tie based on the photos She has never seemed to have an issue breastfeeding though. Is it possible that the tissue is long enough to not be an issue? I am an RN and worked in Postpartum/Antepartum for many years, so I have definitely seen newbies with the tongue-tie, but never even knew about the lip tie! Since she nurses really well and is an otherwise chubby/healthy baby, I am wondering if you think I should still get it checked? I am kind of nervous about the speech delay, front tooth decay. Ironically my 3 year old (who also seems to have a lip tie, but not as pronounced) just got diagnosted with cavities between her two front top teeth. (We are trying the Weston Price diet to help remineralize.) Fortunately I actually live near Albany, NY so maybe a trip to see Dr. Kotlov wouldn’t hurt…It is pretty horrifying that pediatricians/MDs aren’t more educated in this issue. Most of the babies we cared for in the hospital only had their tongue ties diagnosed by our lactation consultants!

    Reply
  49. could a tongue tie cause allergy/food/digestion issues with a 2 yo?!! she did have a lip tie- (that got ripped)- and we have been on gaps for over a year–but she still has digestion issues — i have wondered about her tongue tie (type 3 or the bottom left in your pic type- which is less severe?!!)- could they be tied and does ANYONE do the procedure at that age?!

    Reply
    • Hi Lala! I can’t say that I know it **does** have an effect, but theoretically I believe it **might** if it affects how well a child chews.

      Reply
  50. This group in Alexandria, VA does lip tie laser procedures. http://www.alexandriaoralsurgery.com/
    I have a first consult with them next week. I think it’s interesting that so many WAPF families have lip ties. I thought oral issues were the one thing I would not have to worry about being on the WAPF diet! My daughter is 12 months and she had no problems breastfeeding thankfully but I noticed a problem when I saw a gap between her two front teeth. Thank you so much for your posting because it is what made me look. Otherwise I wouldn’t have considered looking under her lip and her pediatricians did not catch it. Thanks again!

    Reply
  51. I think my son has a posterior/submucosal tongue-tie. All the lc’s have said he’s fine, but he has all the symptoms. I have to pump for him. He will be 6 weeks old on Sunday. I think my 3 1/2 yr old needs a revision, too (for speech)
    Who would you recommend that is within driving distance of San Antonio? (So no further than DFW, but preferably closer)?

    Reply
    • Hi Christine, there are a few DFW practitioners mentioned in the post that you might consider contacting. I don’t know of anyone close to San Antonio.

      Reply
    • Christine- Our LO’s are very close in age, my baby will be 6 weeks on Saturday! We are driving down to Fort Worth (from KC) on Tuesday to see Dr Cole. It took about a week and a half to get in. His staff is the nicest and most professional I’ve come across so far. We’ve been through a lot these first weeks and I’m ready to finally see someone who can help us. I’ll report back after our visit.

      Reply
      • Erika,

        How did the procedure with Dr. Cole go? My son was born on March 17th so will be 8 weeks on Sunday. I think your LO is very close in age? We live in the KC area too! We’ve been having latch and reflux issues since birth and I am just now realizing it’s probably lip and tongue tie as I have compared his mouth to the pictures. I am thinking of taking him to Ft. Worth for the procedure as well,

        Reply
        • Hi Tiffany,

          So sorry I am just now seeing this.

          I’m not going to lie the procedure was difficult and I don’t think I was prepared for the aftercare and possible issues. Dr Cole and his staff are absolutely wonderful. We were in the room for the procedure, which those few minutes were awful (hearing your newborn scream like that, I don’t feel it was from pain, but she was definitely scared). She nursed immediately and then we did CST with Dr Cole’s wife. She nursed at the hotel and was very tired so we decided to get on the road. After another nursing session she started to refuse to nurse, so we had to stop in OKC to buy a manual pump to give her milk in a dropper.. She was very swollen, her lip looked like she had injections! And I would say she was in pain at that point. I tried giving Arnica and Hypericum but it was hard and she would spit it up. She finally started nursing again when we reached KS somewhere.

          The stretches are critical and they are VERY difficult to do on a sore and cranky baby with a TINY mouth.. She started to have nursing/oral aversions from me trying to do the stretches. I tried doing them while she was asleep which she also started keeping her mouth very taught. Both incisions started to grow back together on about the 3-4 day. Now they have reattached unfortunately and I hear from many other parents that it’s pretty common to have to repeat the procedure twice or even a third time. She also started to become anxious which she was not like that before the procedure. We also continued CST twice a week with our chiro and did adjustments. She was tired of having people messing with her mouth constantly, all of us were very gentle of course.

          At this point, I am not willing to put her through the experience again. I know we will have to when she is older. My toddler is not revised and we experienced struggle with reflux, gut issues, oral aversions, tooth decay, choking, eat difficulties, etc it was EXTREMELY hard for her first 2 years of life. So I’ve seen both sides and they have both been difficult for us.

          I almost feel my infant’s latch is now worse post procedure especially her tongue. But I’m no longer getting mastitis and she’s gaining well (always has). It has been a catch 22 in our situation. Going back I would probably still have done the procedure, there’s just now way to tell how your infant will react or if it will reattach. I’ve read stories of moms who did everything correctly and it still reattached.

          If traveling, I would definitely stay a full day post procedure to catch any blips. Plus everything is expensive and OOP, especially when traveling. The 8 1/2 hour drive each way took us well over 10 1/2 each way. I envy everyone who had everything go smoothly.

          Let me know if you need more info.

          Reply
  52. Hi,
    Would like to say thank you for posting this information, especially the dentists in our DFW area. I truly appreciate the information.
    Angie

    Reply
  53. How do I email my picture to the Dr.? It doesn’t have the option to post a photo on that page you linked.Thanks so much-Tina

    Reply
    • I think I contacted him via his contact form and then emailed the pics when he responded. You could also call their office for the address.

      Reply
  54. Like so many others, I really appreciate this post!! I came across it while looking for another post of yours and just checked my baby out of curiosity and she has one! I’m glad to be catching it before teeth come in but I *so* wish a pediatrician would have checked. It would have saved both of us from so many months of sleep deprivation and tears! Thank you!!

    Reply
  55. Oh my gosh- I can’t tell you (like so many others here) how much I appreciate this post. I am in tears.

    My son is 8 months old. We gave up nursing at 5 months, after fighting for so long (pumping included, but my body wouldn’t produce for the best pump on the market) he was done. We have had gas, reflux, diagnosed with dairy protein allergy … Then the other day I was looking to see if he was getting more teeth, and thougt, “wow, I don’t remember L’s (my daughter) gums looking like that.”

    A few days later this post came across my fb page. I read it, because I like to read and learn. And when I saw those pictures I knew this was what is wrong with my mister. We have a dr appt in the morning; we live in a tiny town with no pediatrician and I am so nervous. Thank you for this post, so I have an idea of what I am talking about. =)

    Reply
    • Meghan, I am so sorry you had such a rough time but I am glad you found your answer! I bet you’ll discover that as you share your experience with other mamas who have had trouble with breastfeeding that things might “click” for them, too. Sometimes it just helps to know, don’t you think? Hugs to you, mama!

      Reply
      • Yes, it does help. 🙂 Like many pps, now I am wondering if we are supposed to correct it or not, since he is no longer nursing. It looks like to me it causes his smile to look different.. I emailed Dr.K tonight, and will send him pictures. Maybe the family dr here (we recently moved 12 hours away from our families, to Nebraska) has seen or heard about lip ties. If not I don’t know where to go from here, so hopefully Dr. K can help.

        Thank you again for this pot and the amazing resources.

        Reply
  56. My son just turned 1 and we just figured out that he has a pretty bad lip tie. I am having a hard time finding anyone to get it taken care of in my area. He can’t even say mama which breaks my heart but he can clearly say daddy and girls. By now he should be able to say mama. I won’t give up until I have found someone that will work with us to get it corrected. We have enough dental issues in our family I don’t think we need to add any more especially since it can be corrected. Thanks for you great post! I have emailed the doctor that you listed, hopefully he can be of some help.

    Reply
  57. So I happened upon some info about lip tie, and recognized that my daughter definitely has it. Oddly enough, we didn’t struggle much to establish breastfeeding, and now she is 15 months old and has cut down on her daily nursing sessions. What other problems does lip tie cause? If there isn’t much else it can interfere with, then I won’t need to pursue getting it fixed in any way. I’m planning to ask her pediatrician next month when she goes in for her routine check-up.

    Reply
    • Other than causing a gap between the teeth for some children, I am not aware of any long-term issues associated with lip ties. Dr. Kotlow would know if there are any, though!

      Reply
  58. I’m an adult in my 30’s with both a lip tie and a tongue tie. The lip tie has caused my front teeth to have a gap that has gotten wider with age. I have had trouble with my teeth and gums all my life. My dentist never mentioned anything about the ties and always scolded me for not taking better care of my teeth. I brush and floss at least twice daily and it’s not enough. Is there any advantage to getting ties fixed as an adult? I’m wondering if I should get it done to prevent future erosion of my teeth and gums or prevent jaw and neck pain. Would I have to re-learn how to speak if I had my tongue tie clipped? I can’t stick my tongue out hardly at all and it has always bothered me. I can talk and eat just fine but I’m wondering if there is some advantage to fixing it now. Thanks for your informative post. Because I have these ties in my mouth I will be sure to watch out for the condition in my children.

    Reply
    • Hi Kate, I recommend you contact Dr. Kotlow with your questions. I honestly don’t know the answers, but I bet he will!

      Reply
  59. I completely agree with Kate. It’s better to get the tie fixed as early as possible. When we did our daughter’s when she was 11 months back in January, the big gap between her teeth closed together within two weeks! It was so ugly before and I can tell that the tie on the lip was pulling the two front teeth outward and upward. I just can’t imagine if when she’s in her teens and she looked like that, I would not be able to forgive myself for not doing anything then when it was such a simple procedure. Her smile is beautiful now. 🙂

    Reply
  60. Thanks for the quick reply! I will have to contact the dr and see what he says. I’m pretty sure this runs in my family as my mom had to have years of speech therapy to learn how to pronounce words and she still can’t say some things correctly. It seems like such a simple thing to fix. I wonder why more doctors don’t know about it…

    Reply
  61. Oh my gosh, thank you SO MUCH for this article! I’ve read about tongue ties, but no one mentioned a lip tie to me. I have one, my 5 year-old son has one, and so does my 5 month-old baby! My son has terrible tooth decay in his top front teeth, and I’ve been having horrible issues trying to maintain my milk supply. Now I know and can follow up, THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  62. So, I don’t know how many husbands comment on your blog, but my wife LOVES reading your stuff and finds it so helpful. We recently discovered our 8-month-old has a lip tie. This will be his first big ordeal since birth as he’s been a champ in the health department (thank you, breastmilk!) Anyway, I was going to research lip ties, and Google brought this up! How handy! I do have a question, though (for which you may or may not know the answer). Is it better to see a pediatric dentist or an ENT doctor when seeking reversal of the lip tie? Or doesn’t it matter? We were told ENT, but I see that you’ve cited numerous pediatric dentists. Thank you for sharing all of your wonderful knowledge. Jasey and I (as she relays info to me) have learned so much in the past few months!

    Reply
    • Hi Dave! I would use either depending on who had more experience. Dr. Kotlow might be able to recommend someone nearby. One quick note, though: If your ENT/dentist doesn’t go over stretching exercises with you after the procedure please call Dr. K for more info – otherwise the frenulum can reattach!

      Reply
    • There is a really good oral surgeon in LA, Dr Galen, who has done lots of tongue tie releases. Whoever you see should have done many! Also, you should see a lactation consultant or a myofunctional therapist right away and breast feed immediately afterward. Get someone good and do not do the laser.

      Reply
      • Hi Melinda – why are you against the laser?

        I just discovered my almost 4 year old has a class IV lip tie (my diagnosis — not doc’s yet) and it has caused a significant tooth gap in front teeth. No decay, though. I’m highly considering correction of some kind, but not sure where to go. We live in Phoenix AZ suburbs.

        Reply
  63. Just thought I’d let you know, Dr. Ronald Albert DMD in Manchester, CT and Dr. Leonard Kindell of Stamford CT both do laser revisions 🙂

    Reply
  64. I emailed a picture to Dr. Kutlow and he never got back to me. Thankfully I found a wonderful holistic dentist practically in my back yard who corrected it with a laser.

    Reply
  65. Just wanted to let you know that there is a dentist in Peoria, IL that also uses laser to revise TT and LT. My 4 month old had her LT revised on Monday. His name is Dr. Wynn.

    Reply
  66. We are very fortunate to have Dr. Rajeev Agarwal in Scottsdale AZ, who has performed hundreds of tongue-tie revisions via laser. He is well aware of the association of lip-tie and other mid-line defects that often go hand-in-hand.
    Thank you for providing valuable information, Heather!

    Reply
  67. We tracked out of state as well 2 mo ago to have my sons lip/tongue tie revised and my tongue tie revised. Best decision ever. He’s chatting up a storm now

    Reply
  68. I was just there a few weeks ago with out 5.5 month old who had been treated for all the above symtoms and was not getting better so i started to research myself and this is what he had both tongue and lip and not is 99% better.

    Reply
  69. Are you going to Dr. Kutlow in Albany? My husband and I made the trip when our daughter was just weeks old. We were so nervous but it was the best thing we did. I wish we had only gone sooner. Best wishes!

    Reply
  70. There is someone in Cincinnati, OH that did a GREAT job helping a friend of mine who’s baby had both lip and tongue tie.

    Reply
  71. Mellanie Sheppard was our life saver with our third baby who was lip/tongue tied! We saw Dr. Cole and all was perfect. And yes, the first 24 hours were a little rough. Great post!

    Reply
  72. We discovered my son’s tie at age 2 and had it clipped with scissors (we didn’t know any better). Our new dentist partners with an orofunctional myofascial therapist who evaluates ties. We found that all 3 of my kids have ties, which was shocking because the girls were voracious nursers. We learned that the ties cause headaches, neck tension, narrowing airways, and sleeping difficulties. It can even cause bed wetting as that is one way the body wakes you up when you aren’t breathing properly. It’s amazing the difference in their behavior as 9 year olds as we are relearning how to use their tongues!

    Reply
  73. my daughter had that. my midwife identified it immediately after birth and gave her a little snip and she has been fine!!!PRayers your way <3<3 <3

    Reply
  74. A good oral surgeon will do this. We had my 10 yr old done last summer. He was eating chicken breast that same night. It bled a lot, but kids recover soooo quick!

    Reply
  75. My son had it and has temporary struggles that passed with persistence. He is now 10 months old with exclusive brestfeeding and eating fantastic all sorts of vegetables and meats with ease. I believe they learn what to do with their own mouth.

    Reply
  76. Kotlow is the best! We saw him too (for baby #3) and may see him again this summer (we got a partial revision of an anterior for baby #4 – but our doc would not go further back and would not release the lip. We’ll be near Kotlow in June and will have it done then. Breastfeeding is much better, however, just from a partial revision).

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  77. We took our son to Dr. Kotlow at 10 months and he had a severe lip and tongue tie that he revised using laser in just minutes! Unfortunately his nursing habits had been set but we still lasted until 15 months with a shallow latch. For next baby, I will know so much more! The lip tie had become apparent once his two front teeth were coming in and there was a huge gap and a lot of extra tissue connecting his lip to the top of his gums and come to find out, he was tongue tied as well. I am so glad we had it done, even though it didn’t much help his nursing but his teeth spacing is so much better and I was worried about tooth decay, too. Glad to see the word getting out about this!

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  78. Been there twice! My second and third babies had tongue and lip tie. They both received manual therapy & CST to help loosen muscles and pathways following clippings. We went to a great doc here in Seattle who works out of a home clinic.

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  79. (I understand some are worse than others) my sons was apprasied to be snip worthy but he began eating better on his own as he grew.

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  80. It’s great that you’re bringing attention to this important deterrent to successful breastfeeding and later issues too! We went to dr notestine and have never regretted it. We also did several sessions of cranial sacral therapy. Best decision we ever made.

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  81. Just as there can be problems with tongue ties, there are just as many with no problems. My two youngest are tongue tied and we had/have no problems nursing and none of the other issues cited. I am tongue tied, as is my mother. Also, none of us have speech issues. My tongue-tie and those of my children are severe, anchoring the tips of our tongues. Everyone should also know that clipping the tie may not be permanent. They can grow back!

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  82. My son was tongue tied as well…luckily we caught it pretty early and after a little snip at the dr office…he was a happy boob eatin baby!

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  83. My son had the lip tie and we have yet to fix it because we have state medical and no oral surgeon is ever available to help. My son is 9

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  84. We had do deal with this with my firstborn! Though they didn’t figure out that’s what it was until he was three months old!! His was a minor tongue tie which is why it took so long to diagnose, the tell tail sign was how painful and uncomfortable nursing was!! After it was fixed though…. 100% better!!!

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  85. What about if you have it as an adult and just figured out that’s what it is? My husband is and we just put 2 and 2 together the other day. What is the recovery like and should he get it clipped?

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  86. I read your post a few months ago and realized my son had a severe lip tie. I wish we had known sooner. We had it revised by Dr. Kaplan when my son was 12 mo. Next baby I will know to check right away. Thank you for the information!

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  87. Two of my boys and my husband both are, but it neither has been snipped. Boy #2 is the furthest connected, but ate well from the very beginning. It has not caused any trouble for him. We did have a dentist ask if we wanted it done last year, but we said no, not necessary. This one has enough other issues anyway!

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  88. Thank you for bringing attention to this!! I struggled nursing my DD for the first 4 months until we had her lip and tongue revised. 10 months and going strong!

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  89. I can’t find anyone in my area who will fix my son’s lip tie 🙁 he’s 3 months and nurses well, but it’s so painful for me.

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  90. Our youngest was tongue tied too. It was super quick and easy. Took just a couple minutes and we were out of the office and he was fine.

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  91. We went to Chicago to have my sons lip tie lasered and the Doc didn’t want to do it until he was old enough for braces. What a waste of time. I want a second opinion.

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  92. My son had this also..I had to wait in the waiting roomso they can fix his tongue tie.(The doctor clipped it)My husband was with him I couldnt bare to watch.But ever since he has had a drooling problem.And still does at 6.

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  93. Belinda many doctors think they do it but don’t actually do a good job. Some even don’t believe it’s a problem or don’t understand what they’re trying to correct.

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  94. This is important information for parents even if the baby does not have difficulty breastfeeding. I shared our story as a comment to your blog post. Hoping it helps other parents. 🙂

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  95. Both of my kids are lip and tongue tied. My son’s ties are less severe that my daughter’s, but his seemed to cause a lot more problems. He couldn’t even latch when he was a baby, we had to supplement. She can latch but is having a lot of transfer issues.

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  96. I wonder if this is why my oldest was such a poor nurser? I would nearly cry every single time I nursed him it was so painful. Coupled with food intolerances was too much and I ended up giving him a bottle in defeat. :(. With soy formula no less):

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  97. My firstborn was tongue-tied, I breastfed him anyway but it was painful and he would almost daily violently throw up an entire feeding at once (very scary!) because he swallowed so much air.. the tongue tie was snipped when he was 6 weeks old, the difference was amazing and immediate! Hope Levi’s is a quick fix as well!

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  98. My oldest son was tongue tied, but the doctor didn’t think we had to have it clipped, so we didn’t. But it did “clip” itself when he was a toddler. My daughter had to have hers clipped at one day old, hers was so tight they said she would never be able to lick an ice cream cone, so we had it done. She never had any issues.

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  99. My daughter has this, her little tongue is heart shaped when she sticks it out lol anyway I just pumped, and still am, she’s 19 months today ❤️

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  100. My daughter is 3 and I have just discovered what lip ties are and that she has a severe one that no one noticed. She now has a large gap between her teeth. Is it necessary to get this fixed at this point? If it is needed, when should it be done by to help the most?

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  101. My 1st child had this and we did not find out until he was TWO YEARS OLD! He was not able to nurse, not able to eat baby food, was a horrible sleeper and so much more! It’s very frustrating as a new parent that the doctors do not check for this! I plan to have the child I am carrying checked as soon as she/he is born!

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  102. My second son was tongue tied, my doc informed me that he wasn’t. Went home tried nursing he wouldn’t latch on, had to pump for 3 months. I then tried nursing and he latched on, no way was I going to have surgery at such a young age. He finally had surgery when he turned 8, his dentist highly encourage it, and it was affecting his speech.

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  103. My mom had surgery for this much older & remembers the wad of stitching under her tongue.
    My nephew & niece both went into doctor office & literally just had it snipped, nursed, & left.

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  104. I am fortunate enough to live near great medical care, and I had my son’s clipped at 2.5 mos at a satellite location of Children’s Hospital Boston. No issues. I had two of the nurses hold him for the physician, an ENT specialist if I recall correctly, as I did not want to flinch, sneeze, or whatever and cause a disaster!

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  105. My mom never got mine done, but I am sure I need(ed) it. Mine is so bad, I remember as a kid, getting it stuck between my teeth. :-/ That hurts.

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  106. This explains a lot with my son! He was a horrible nurser & had horrible colic & threw up all the time after eating. The docs kept checking him for stomach issues but never found anything. I wonder why they never considered him being tongue tied as the culprit??! It kinda makes me angry because had the doc mentioned that & he had the corrective procedure done I may have been able to breastfeed him much longer.

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  107. Be careful about who does the procedure. There are many nerve endings and saliva glands that run through there. If done incorrectly you could end up with permanent problems such as the excessive drooling some have talked about.

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  108. My youngest had a pretty thick tongue tie at birth but he was able to nurse so I left it alone. Now he’s almost a year and I see him making faces and stretching it out all the time. So I think his is self resolving ok.

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  109. Oh no. I’m sorry. Glad you found it early though. My son’s was consistently undiagnosed even though I was desperate for help bc bf was excruciatingly painful. He wasn’t even extracting the milk effectively. This ended our beautiful nursing relationship. I didn’t get an answer and then a frenectomy until he was 9mo. At least I was able to exclusively pump for a year and a half 🙂

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  110. We had our daughters severe tongue tie lasered in Chicago by Dr Fred Margolis, who was referred to us by Dr K, Mommypotamus’ doctor. A good option for those in the Midwest. Thank you Mommypotamus for your posts about tongue tie, they were exactly what we needed 18 months ago when our tongue tied baby was born.

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  111. This is a 2 second procedure that doesn’t hurt the baby and is really no big deal. I don’t know why’re pole are so scared to do it! It is a thin piece of skin the they clip with scissors (there are no nerve endings) my son had it done because he was tied to the tip, we had it clipped he nursed right after and was fine.

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  112. Melanie Griffin, my son was developing a gap between his teeth because his lip tie was so severe too. As soon as Dr. Kaplan lasered it they started moving together. He showed us pictures of an 8 y.o. With horribly deformed teeth because of a lip tie and once he lasered it within a few months the teeth looked beautiful all on their own. Email a pick to get advise. That’s what I did.

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  113. I’m finding it odd how many commenters have had this situation – are these people who never comment, but identify, or is this a widespread phenomena? If it is that common – is it abnormal then, and do children grow out of it? Does it serve a purpose? Or is it a ‘birth defect’ of some degree? I don’t get it.

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  114. Haley Christine Pouland – We did the scissor method with our second son and found that it caused a lot of scar tissue and actually made our situation worse. In the end we took him to a specialist who cleaned up the area with a laser. This time around we are starting with the laser method- little chance of scar tissue and Dr. Kotlow can go a bit deeper into the tissue than the scissor method.

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  115. My 16 month old son has both a lip and tongue tie. I actually had him scheduled months ago at a local ent office to have him sedated and scissor clipped but cancelled thinking it would really interfere w/ nursing from the discomfort he might experience. I have tried w/o any luck in finding a local office that will do this by lazer which I think would be the best. My trusted family dentist said to let it go since this is the newer thing to clip them or do anything. He has know MANY who are now adults with this how have no speech issues etc from not ever doing anything w/ them. He takes a less invasive approach and has the if it is not broke dont fix it mentality. He told me they are becoming more of a big money maker w/ correcting this. I really do honor his opinion but I am thinking if I can find a place in PA who will do this by laser I would like to at least get seen. Anyone know of any places in PA? I really hate to have to travel to NY. Thanks so much!!

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  116. Dr. Kotlow is wonderful. I’m so fortunate to live in the city he is located in. I self-identified my littlest guy’s ties at 5 months after lack of weight gain and issues breastfeeding. His pediatrician never checked for ties even though they are located right by kotlow and kotlow has trained them to check! Anyway, it worked immediately. I wish I had caught it earlier…

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  117. Terran Felter Murphy – You’re right, they can grow back! That happened with my first son because we were not instructed on how to stretch the tissues after the procedure. With proper stretching they shouldn’t, though.

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  118. This seems to be common these days. I had never heard of it and then 3 friends’ babies were in a row! All healed well and nursed in the end 🙂

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  119. Emily Rogers – I could be wrong, but unless there are speech issues I don’t know of any benefits to getting it clipped as an adult.

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  120. I had never even heard of this until my son was born. Fortunately he was able to nurse quite well (18 lbs at 3 months!) His was Level 3 & it was snipped & cauterized, but not until he was weaned. He is 34 now, has a son of his own & is expecting a new little one in June on his 35th birthday. Needless to say I reminded him to tell the pediatrician that he had been born with this condition so they could check the babies when they are born.

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  121. I’ve never checked, Nicole Coughlin. I know Damien was lip tied. He broke his on his own though but has a huge gap in his teeth. I’ll have to take a closer look at Wyatt but pretty sure it’s not tongue tie, I’ve seen him stick his tongue out before.

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  122. I’m pretty sure I’m barely tongue tied and it hadn’t ever caused me any issues. But my mother never tried to bf me.

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  123. after reading your original post and some others I discovered my 6 month old has a lip tie. After a hard start to nursing we seem to have overcome most of it (minor discomfort on my part from time to time but he is gaining well and comfort nurses often) BUT he is a terrible sleeper and often wakes up screaming despite being a generally happy little guy the rest of the time. Maybe it is causing tight tissue and/or headaches? Has anyone had any experience with this procedure helping sleep patterns?

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  124. I am tongue-tied (31) and it was never clipped, my great- grandfather was tongue-tied also and never was clipped. My nephew (2) was and had is clipped when a few months old. I believe my youngest daughter has both a posturior tie and a lip-tie but the doctors we have seen (She is currently 6 months) don’t seem concerned even when I was having constant cracked nipples and trouble feeding. They told me I didn’t know how to breastfeed. Really hum I managed for a year with my first one.

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  125. I’ve been having a lot of BFing issues with my 4 week old son. We just had his posterior tongue tie and lip tie fixed on Friday. Fortunately, there is someone just as knowledgable near where I live on Long Island so we didn’t have to travel. Unfortunately, we haven’t had any real improvement yet but I’m working with a Lactation Consultant and hoping things get better soon.

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  126. If there are no nursing concerns and baby is gaining well, should you get the procedure done? I knew my son was lip and tongue tied pretty much from the start, but he hasn’t had any issues with latch and sleeps well through the night (since very early on). He is 5mo now (and over 20lbs, happy and healthy as can be), I’ve never had painful or even tender nipples (except maybe the first 2 weeks, but it really wasn’t bad). I have been going back and forth since he was born! There are no issues now, but there could be in the future (speech, teeth…). I just don’t know if it is needed until it actually becomes a problem? Anyone have any thoughts?

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  127. Drove from NH to Dr. K’s in Albany. So grateful that we did that! 3+ months of painful nursing remedied in about 2 minutes. 2 tongue ties and a lip tie- even though his ‘only tongue tie’ was ‘properly fixed’ when he was 2 days old. HA! Will do it again with #2 in a heartbeat, even if we only suspect there could be a slight TT or LT.

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  128. My first had tongue tie and my pediatrician was the only one in his office that knew how to fix it. I had to fight tooth & nail to get him to do it and when he did he brought a whole audience in to watch…I was horrified. Now my son is 11 yrs. old and it’s all behind us. I wish you the best! <3

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  129. One of my twins, baby #7 was tongue tied and we didn’t know it. Thankfully I was an experienced bf by then because it was difficult and I got sores on my breast. I thought it was because she was so tiny. Realized way after bf and waited to see if it interfered with her speech. It didn’t, so left it alone. We checked with #8 and he was clipped soon after birth. No problems.

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  130. Oh I have this though maybe not as severe as a couple of those pictures. Never knew it had a name but my mom had to quit breast feeding me early… I wonder if it was related. Otherwise I was/am perfectly fine 🙂

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  131. Oh I have this though maybe not as severe as a couple of those pictures. Never knew it had a name but my mom had to quit breast feeding me early… I wonder if it was related. Otherwise I was/am perfectly fine 🙂

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  132. Took all three of my kids to Dr. James Jesse in San Bernadino CA. My third went when only two weeks old. He is friends with Dr. Kutlow. He also does laser. No pain no bleeding. About $300. Best thing I ever did.

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  133. I’m 26 yrs old and have a tongue tie. I speak fine, although too much talking/reading out loud at once wears me out quickly. No one ever notices until I try to stick my tongue out. A lot of people use to ask me how it affects kissing and I can say this, my husband says I do it better than any “normal” mouth he’s kissed. Lol I’ve never had problems with it!
    My daughter was born with it and we went ahead and had it clipped because she fussed a lot while nursing (possibly from problems latching, as said) and my husband was worried about speech problems. She recovered quickly and at 2 yrs old she speaks better than a lot of 4 and 5 yr olds I know. I think as long as it’s not causing eating issues or speech problems then don’t worry about it.

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  134. Just down the street from me. We didn’t see him but I know plenty of people who have and are pleased with the outcomes. Good luck and safe travels. He doesn’t let parents in the room while the procedure is taking place, just FYI.

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  135. Ugh! Had that with my son. Took a few weeks to figure out why his latch looked perfect but it was still SO painful! Thankfully it is a simple procedure! Sorry you had to fly somewhere to get to a dr who could treat it! We were with our son the entire time. In fact, my husband had the job of holding his head still while the dr did the numbing and snipping. Turned out great!

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  136. I thought I was the only one who had ever heard of this. Luckily my lactation consultant caught the problem at our one week check up. I hade a screaming baby who was loosing weight quickly and it had been 10 years between nursing I didn’t know what it was supposed to feel like.

    At 10 days old he had is frenulum snipped and after many months of using a shield he was finally able to suck in his own. However now at age 6 he has severe cavities and dental issues. Makes me wonder what has caused all of this.

    More to look into. Interesting. Btw he still has a heart shapes tongue.

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  137. My friend had it done w her daughter and the tie regrew back! Sometimes that happens. She did not repeat the procedure. Her midwife advised against it even the first time.

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  138. I had been wondering if little Levi had a lip or tongue tie after reading about your experiences with Micah. Your article on tongue and lip ties was seriously God-sent and helped us to figure out why we had been having so many problems with our little guy. We had his clipped at 11mo and most of our issues resolved within a couple of days. I also found this FB support group quite helpful. They have a list of providers who perform laser revisions. Safe travels and good luck, Heather! https://www.facebook.com/groups/tonguetiebabies/

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  139. Nicole Grey – Yes, that happened with our first son because we were not instructed in proper post-care. We had the procedure redone and with good post care it did not grow back 🙂

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  140. My dad was tongue tied and snipped at birth and his parents told he would have a speech problem for the rest of his life. He ended up news radio journalist with impeccable speech. My niece was born with it and the drs said not as best to wait until she was 2-3, because she learned to talk with her tongue tied she now has speech problems. Should always be done right away.

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  141. I found out about tongue and lip ties from your article…My daughter (now 1 yr) had so much trouble nursing and it was very painful for me. No one could help us. We are not sure now what to do since we’ve overcome the nursing issues and we’re doing fine now. My son has a severe lip tie too but at 2 1/2 we aren’t sure whether to do anything about his. I’ve been educating our lactation consultant and Dr about them since neither pick up on our son or daughter.

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  142. My son had that cut when he turned three. he is in speech now, he didn’t talk much until after the surgery. It has done wonders.

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  143. Anna Berthelius Mallik i am looking at setting up an appointment with him for my sons lip tie! So glad you reccomend him! Do you mind if i send you a message with specific questions???

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  144. My oldest had a tongue tie. It got clipped when he was 2. If I knew that when I tried to nurse that that was the issue one it being so difficult for him. Would have been easier to deal with

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  145. My little one will be 6 weeks tomorrow and is gaining weight just fine but he nurses about every two hours day and night. After reading this post I looked and I think he may have a lip tie and tongue tie. I was going to have him tested for reflux. He spits up a ton but also just seems miserable a lot of the time. Can anybody tell me what the tongue is actually supposed to look like? I’m thinking that my five year old may have this too. Nursing him was horrible and now he has a gap. I just want to have something to compare it to when I’m checking. Can anybody help?

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  146. Blessings on your trip! I took my 3rd child (6 weeks old) to Dr K after working with a LC for 6 weeks. The post op is definitely the hard part. I wish I had heard about the lip/tongue tie with my 1st. She struggled with breastfeeding/weight. Looking back all 3 of my kids had a combination of tongue and/or lip tie. I had to stop nursing all 3 before I wanted to. I hope others can learn from your story.

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  147. Tai Rae – I would visit with a doctor you trust. My son was very mildly tongue tied but the doc said latch is good, he’s gaining don’t worry. I had one blocked duct in 30 months of nursing and no other issues – breastdeeding was so easy for me it was almost embarrassing. He speaks normally at 4. But I would have it checked.

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  148. my oldest was, and finally noticed around 2 months , is was super hard to nurse her, she got surgery at 1 year since she had anesthesia

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  149. There is a fabulous doctor in Portland who is very knowledgable about this! Don’t go old school and wait! One if the best breast feeding interventions possible!

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  150. My husband had a tied tongue. He didn’t learn to talk until it was corrected at age 5. However, he had a twin sister who happily communicated for him, so he didn’t have to learn to compensate. Hoping all is well for you and baby Levi! 🙂

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  151. I’m 35 and I had a PTT. My troubles were certainly NOT only my inability to lick an ice cream cone. I have a host of gut issues, all of which could very well stem from my structural issues –from birth. I had my PTT revised this past Spring and I believe proper digestion and gut health begins in the mouth, with a freely-moving, unrestricted tongue. I am worlds better for having mine released and feel like I am now fully on my way to better gut health for life. :-))

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  152. for my next baby if i would have this problem, i need to ask other doctors opinions. My last baby never nursed good . quit at week old and is been at bottles ever since. that was frustrating too. And when I look at the pictures of upper lips, I can see that it looks just like my babys upper lip. She also has hard time eating solids. she is 9mos now so i wonder is it worth of still looking into it.

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  153. We had our daughter’s lip and tongue tie done by Dr. Kotlow when she was 2 days old. We live about an hour and a half from his office. It was the right thing to do, but very stressful on her. I highly recommend bringing some baby rescue remedy with you to help his relax deal with all the over stimulation.

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  154. My daughter had her toungue tie clipped at 4 wks. Nursing hurt soo bad. She is now 3 and a half and im soo glad we clipped it. It went right to the very tip of her toungue. Everyone said to leave it so I went to a family friend who is a gp and he said it would b crazy not to clip it.

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  155. Both my daughters were born tongue tied! Easy procedure to correct. With my first I was told they didn’t clip them anymore and it would correct itself. Well it hasn’t but thankfully she has no issue with it and we are scheduling her tongue to get clipped soon after Discovering they do In fact still clip when our new doctor noticed My youngest was tongue tied too. Had hers clipped at 2 months because of nursing issues.

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  156. The operation actually did nothing for my little girl. Her tie re-attached TWICE when we had it snipped at about 6 weeks old! But luckily I am very tenacious and wanted to breastfeed big time. So I continued, after almost calling it quits several times because of the pain. By 4 months, it just became easier. She will be a year old in a couple weeks and still nursing with a tongue tie and no major complications. Tongue tie does not mean the end if you are breastfeeding.

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  157. Hello Heather, can you please add dr. Levine (Fort Lauderdale) to your list? He revised my daughter lip tie with laser and I know he’s also doing tongue ties, but not the posterior kind (my daughter had also to revise a posterior tongue tie, but we had to go to another doctor), here’s a link for his website http://www.drkennethlevine.com/, I really recommend him, he’s extremely good with babies. thanks

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  158. My 3 year old has tongue-tie and three doctors that we have talked to all said that we do not need to do anything for it. It has not affected him in anyway so far?!?!? Not sure if we have made the right choice or not. Hopefully it does not cause issues as he gets older!!!

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  159. Wow! I am so glad you posted this. I really think my 7 month old has a lip tie! Can anyone tell me how intense a procedure will be? Or recovery time? He’s EBF and I’d hate to lose that. He refuses bottles.

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  160. Holy cow! This just blew my mind!!!! My four year old, two year old, and myself all have lip ties! I guess that is why we all have gapped teeth! So, should I be concerned or do anything now that they are no longer babies?

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  161. All 3 of my kids have lip tie. My 3rd baby had both. It was horrific feeding her. The pain and damage caused to myself was shocking. She couldn’t empty the breast. I was exclusively pumping by day 4 and after beating down the doors of a knowledgable lactation consultant we had the baby lasered at 6 days old. It took her about 3 weeks to get the muscles she hadn’t had access to to build up and now she is a brilliant feeder!
    We were told unless the ties are causing problems that there really isn’t any reason to do it. Although I read a grown woman who had her ton tie snipped and cried with joy over how much tension was relieved in her.
    The younger the baby the better. Once the baby reaches a certain age (6 months I think) then they have to start using anaesthesia which presents a whole list of very serious risks. We went to a dentist who uses a laser. It didn’t require any pain medication, she slept through half of the 90 sec procedure. She was sore to the touch for a couple days. Lasers have less incidence of reattachment I’ve heard, but I am not sure if that is true.
    Our dentist explained that some women and babies can feed just fine even with severe lip and tongue ties so there is no need to treat. Others experience terrible trauma and feeding issues with mild cases and need treatment.
    If it affects speech or dental health later in a child’s life, they would probably do something about it.

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  162. My son had his clipped at 6 months. It was no big deal at all-5 minutes in the office and maybe two teeny drops of blood, but he was able to feed better after. Before clipping milk would just run out of his mouth (breast & bottle) and we’d both be soaked. Nipple shields helped with the pain. He’s 10 now! 🙂

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  163. I had my tongue clipped when I was a baby. Thankful my parents had this done for me, as they were told I would have had a speech impediment if they had not.

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  164. At Alanna Rae I didn’t know that about your kids! Did you do anything about it? My oldest is lip tied and I wonder if that affects her speech?

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  165. I wish I had! The lip ties ripped after a few good falls. Grady is still tongue tied (will be 5 in January). He’s in speech and everyone swears up and down that it has nothing to do with his speech

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  166. My oldest son was ‘tongue tied’. He had a simple surgery, called an angioglosy (sic). Easy recovery. One of the best thing I did for him as a child.

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  167. My daughter was tongue-tied and they snipped her after birth. Mainly to help with breastfeeding. It’s not a big deal unless they don’t do anything about it.

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  168. Both of my children had tongue ties, they were clipped, my first didn’t nurse until he was 6 wks, my second at least nursed, but with tons of bleeding, glad to see more info is prevalent about it !! <3

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  169. Interesting! If my guess is correct, my daughter who is now 5 is both lip and tongue (posterior) tied; this would explain why she had a hard time with breastfeeding in the beginning and why she was so colicky. What is recommended for a child age 5? It doesn’t seem to have affected her speech.

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  170. Thank you for the awareness, my sons undiagnosed tongue tie was the problem of our breastfeeding difficulties and caused a lot of stress because I had to pump around the clock! It made me feel like a bad mother when I finally came across the problem that made him resistive to nursing at 7 months! It was a hard and difficult road.

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  171. My daughter had lip tie and her pediatrician recommended we not clip it. She said most likely at some point she’ll have some sort of fall and it will tear itself loose (she said this would actually be a less traumatic way for it to be corrected becuz they don’t put them to sleep to clip a lip tie just local anesthesia) Sure enough, when she was 4 she face planted on a trampoline, it tore and she was fine.

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  172. My lip is tied as well as tongue. I had the tongue snipped as a small child. But bpth my babies have the same thing and I didnt do anything.

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  173. My daughter was 1 day old when her tongue was clipped. There was no blood and she didn’t cry. They gave her sugar water before they did it. I was told she would have problems nursing and may have problems with her speech.She couldn’t even stick get tongue out to her lip:( I think that I was more upset than she was. She’s 8 now and she’s fine. Neither of my other 2 kids had problems with it.

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  174. Tongue tied is a heredity feature. I still have mine but I had both infants snipped. One 5 days old and the other 2 days old.

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  175. My son had tongue and lip tie that wasn’t diagnosed until 4 months. We had nursing issues from the start. I took him to a specialist, dished out the $500 for the laser treatment, and it didn’t work 🙁 I put him through all that pain for nothing. Next time I won’t do it.

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  176. I also was born tongue tied like my dad and brother. I was type 1 with no issues and choose to get it clipped at the age of 13. I don’t know if I would clip my kids or not as it didn’t cause a speach impediment before or after clipping

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  177. Jenny Martin what do you mean it didn’t work? Shouldn’t they re-do it for you then? We’re thinking if getting it done so hearing other stories is very helpful right now!

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  178. Dr Kotlow did my baby girl’s tt/lt. We had struggled for months. By the time a got it fixed, it was too late to totally rehab her latch, but we’ve been powering through with nursing 1-2x/day and pumping the rest of the time. Dr Kotlow was amazing!

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  179. We flew to Dr Kotlow when my youngest was 12 weeks old. He really helped us.
    I figure for next baby we’ll just save up for the airfare and the midwife.

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  180. My grandson who is now 3 y/o had a tongue tie at birth. Before it was corrected their Pedi put the newborn baby on Prilosec-ugh. So glad you are so aware. Have a safe & productive trip. He’s a beautiful little guy, btw.

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  181. Both my boys were tongue tied. At birth the midwife caught it. She used sterile scissors to snip right there in the birthing suite and had my son latch on immediately. I had no problems nursing and we were greatful to our midwife for knowing what to look for.

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  182. Tongue tie is a very complex issue. There are as many different tongue as there are noses and toes. Maybe more. Some cause feeding problems, some cause speech problems and some cause toothe decay. Now I learn some cause tension. It is very hard to document what issue may come up. That is the issue with medical establishment. No data they can stand on. Many of my cousins talk funny, I ‘made hamburger out of my mother’s nipples. ‘ I’m 68 and still feel guilty. Should I get it clipped now. One ent told me he had no idea how I could talk at all but all my teeth are crowned. Decisions!

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  183. We had the scissor method done to both of our babies. Granted, their tongue tie was not severe, but it did the trick and helped me have a great nursing relationship with both children. The recovery was also incredibly simple if you catch it early enough. My daughter’s was done on day 5 of life, and my son’s on day 3. Just wanted to put this out there that tongue tie can successfully be taken care of by a good ENT locally for those mamas that can’t afford to travel.

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  184. We are headed to Dr K next week for the same procedure! My daughter is older — too late to correct the breastfeeding. But glad I am informed now (thanks to you). I have a couple of questions on what you do for pain control. I hate the thought of giving meds. Any suggestions? My daughter is now 20 months.

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  185. My daughters was very minor and some simple craniosacral therapy helped more than anything else!! My son was clipped on day 10 and we’re still nursing strong at 13 months 🙂

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  186. My daughter was and had none of the symptoms listed …, breastfed like a champ…. No speech issues… In fact out pediatrician didn’t notice… It went undiscovered until she was five when we had it fixed. Surgery went well – and she had no speech problems after either… Which they were concerned about

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  187. Wow I am so glad you posted this. It just made me realize my son is lip tied! He is 16 months old and we are still nursing, and have never had a hard time with it but he had a TERRIBLE time cutting his two front teeth. I wonder if that’s why. I remembered thinking something looked funny about that piece of tissue when his teeth were coming in but figured it might correct later on. Apparently it won’t. I’m not sure if we should do anything about it or not. He does have a slight gap between his teeth. So glad you posted this!

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  188. I was tongue tied at birth. I am 37 now and have had this corrected several times throughout my life. Just an FYI it can grow back.

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  189. We have a dentist locally who revises with a laser. We were so grateful to find him! My daughter’s tongue and lip tie revision absolutely saved our nursing relationship. We would probably have nursed anyway but I was miserable; she could not maintain a latch and so every nursing session was so much work on both our parts.

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  190. So… My son’s (4) gap in his bottom teeth won’t go away unless the tongue tie is fixed? I noticed its attached between his middle lower teeth.

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  191. Our family doctor just snipped it in his office when our baby was 6 weeks old. It took us awhile to notice it, it was painful nursing, after he clipped it, no more pain. So thankful!

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  192. So… not all tongue ties are detrimental. Our 7 month old has one and we were really concerned about it. He has always breastfed like a champ. We insisted on seeing a pediatritian at 2 months because we wanted to fix it due to all the info we read about speech problems, etc. The doctor said it would fix itself and guaranteed he would be able to lick an ice cream cone and have no related speech issues. We also had info from a speech pathologist saying more or less the same thing. The recommendation where we were living is not to interfere if the baby can nurse. And at 7 months, his tongue has changed as the specialists both advised it would and he is starting to stick it out past his lips. Just a different experience to add 🙂

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  193. My 18 month old still has a short tongue to this day. Nursing was hard the first week but I decided not to have it snipped. We didn’t have any of the issues listed thankfully.

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  194. Eliza Russell – I am planning on using homeopathic remedies and/or Rescue Remedy. My older son had a pretty easy recovery at 8 months and I’m hoping Levi will have a similar experience. It might be more painful for an older child, though. Mellanie, my LC, is the one who gave me the list of homeopathics to use. She’s putting together something more formal that I hope she’ll let me publish soon.

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  195. I read this info you posted previously on your blog … It was instrumental in solving the bf prob with my newborn. I was almost at the point of giving up bf due to pain, but this helped me find a way to fix the prob and nurse pain free. My son is almost 5 months and we’ve now bf exclusively the whole time. Thanks!!

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  196. I have a question.. my 2 1/2 yr old is still nursing but we had some trouble at 4 weeks old and experienced some of these symptoms. Nobody mentioned a tongue tie. Now her teeth are gapped but if I am concerned. What should I do? I wish inhad known to look into this!

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  197. Stephanie Weis did your kiddos experience this? I think mine have Upper lip ties and possibly posterior tongue ties. It’s amazing how many people/”professionals”are oblivious!

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  198. Both my kiddos were tt- diagnosed & clipped within hours of giving birth right in my hospital room. Mom & Dad were both tt so I knew that there was a big chance my kiddos would be too. Nursing was night and day within seconds of getting clipped and both kids barely made a peep during the 2 second procedure.

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  199. I have the tt in the first picture. I’m 28 yrs old and I’ve never had it cut free. I’ve also never had any feeding, speech problems or any gaps in my lower teeth. I guess I got lucky.

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  200. Lisa Wanless , both have a posterior tongue tie and upper lip ties….they weren’t clipped though. I talked to a lactation consultant, and they each were able to stretch the tie enough to get a good latch (over time). Also I’m pretty sure that’s why my oldest had dental issues (her lip tie is still tight, but the dentist thought it was fine??) on her top front teeth. Lol I checked and my husband and both seem to have ties! None are super bad, and we thought about getting them clipped, but they both were gaining well and it wasn’t hurting our breastfeeding relationship. Thankfully I easily over produce milk lol 🙂

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  201. FOLIC ACID supplementation rather than FOLATE has led to a huge increase in TT. There is a huge difference between the two but FA is cheaper to produce and this isn’t taught in medical school so they (Dr.’s) unwittingly prescribe it. Multiple studies correlate. Dr. Ben Lynch simplifies the genetic reasons why.

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  202. Well, I’m 42 and never had the tt snipped. There weren’t any probs with nursing, speech, colic, no tooth decay at all etc. I just can’t touch my tongue to my nose but I can live with that lol. Plus, my kids are not tt but they had problems nursing, son had colic, daughter had tooth decay because there is no fluoride in our water in NJ. Keep in mind there may be people born with tt but it may not be causing the problems some claim it does.

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  203. in the 80’s snipping tongue tied was common for the two oldest, in the 90s for my other son they absolutely refused to do it even on request but he never had issues with nursing or anything else….in fact was a happy healthy baby and his was a severe tie

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  204. My daughter was born with tongue tie. She could not latch and my milk suffered greatly because of it (couldn’t even pump enough). She had horrible colic (like there’s a nice version!) and her sleep was all over the place…she once stayed awake for two weeks straight, and another time slept for a solid week! She’s going to be 4 yo in March and she speaks well (for a 3 yo that is), sleeps good most nights and, though she’s thin, eats well (when it’s what she wants, lol!). I know that there are others who have had it so much worse, and my heart goes out to them <3 It can be so frustrating for both babies and parents, but keep strong! It will get better!

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  205. My son is five, speaks really well and never had any problems sleeping (sleepyhead!) or gaining waight (I had A LOT of milk!). It was however really really hard breastfeeding him the first three months! I was exhausted and we both had trush really bad. After three months we changed his way of drinking. Because of the tongue tie he had made up his own version of latching on whilst drinking. I have to say…it was painfull, very painfull! We both had to learn a new way of breastfeeding. It worked out fine and I breastfed him up to nine months when he wasn’t interested anymore. A really natural way to stop. He still has the tongue tie and does cool tricks with his tongue! ♥

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  206. 91 years ago my grandfather was born tongue tied. they snipped it and he did well. a few speaking issues, but nothing major. 🙂

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  207. I am a Lactation Consultant and you have given some really accurate and useful information. Unfortunately TT gets overlooked frequently leading to many breastfeeding problems (as well as others you mentioned). I would encourage parents to do alot of research before they pick a doctor to do the revision. Not every ENT who says they can do it do enough to do a through job. They tend to be very conservative which may not be enough to help the situation which just leads to more frustration. The lazar procedure is really amazing and I would add another expert to your list. Dr. Jaju and Ashburn Children’s Dentistry in Ashburn, VA.

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  208. I wanted to let mamas know that Dr. Kotlow understandably is in very high demand with folks flying up to see him from all over the country. When I asked him in early November if he was still able to diagnose via email, he responded that he sadly did not have the manpower to keep up and that emails do get replied to but they recommend scheduling an in-office appointment. I do not want any mothers and babies to go any longer than necessary without treatment (or have moms waiting on an email diagnosis that may not be answered). If you live in Arizona we are very lucky to have Dr. Agarwal of Agave Pediatrics, also an expert in tongue-tie diagnosis and revisions.

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  209. We knew our daughter was tongue tied and they wouldn’t do anything about it in Indianapolis – said we had to wait until 2. So I pumped and fed. At 2, they said it was in “normal” range, so they would not do anything. We moved to Iowa and she started complaining that it hurt to talk. Finally at 4, she had the frenectomy. The doctors should have done it the day she was born! I knew better with my second child, but she wasn’t tongue tied.

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  210. Thank you for sharing this! I will share it as well! I just figured out why my FOUR year old has almost every one of these problems!

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  211. Utah is very blessed in having two dentists that will revise tongue and lip ties with laser. I believe that Dr. Branton Richter worked with Dr. Larry Kotlow via internet and phone, and we had a very positive experience with him when he revised our son’s lip and tongue. His website is http://dcpdsmiles.com/ Really, he was great. The other dentist that will do laser is Dr. Matthew Swann, in Ogden. I don’t have contact information for him, but he worked with Dr. Richter, and has had a lot of experience with laser release. Hope this information is helpful for others!

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  212. You can add Dr. Greg Notestine in Beavercreek (Dayton) OH to the list of doctors. We’re going to see him tomorrow with our 3 week old. We saw him 2.5 years ago with our first child as well. He was recommended to me by both Dr. Kotlow and Cathy Genna. Many families from Louisville, KY have now been to Dr. N.

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  213. Out of curiosity, what happens to a severe LT if nothing is done? My 9 month old has one but we are way down south in GA, and there are no doctors in the area that I trust. She is very wakeful (still every 2 hours at night to nurse) and has quite a large gap in her top teeth, but weighs 19 pounds and doesn’t seem to have any other issues.

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    • http://www.kiddsteeth.com/articles/ttfactssheet.pdf‎ Will give you some ideas on what happens. Keep searching, or consider taking a trip to see Dr Kotlow in New York or someone else closer. We had my daughter’s Grade IV lip tie revised when she was 18 months old; it was a 13 hour one-way drive to get to somewhere that would do it with laser, and on a child less than 5 years old. It was worth every second of the drive and the cost of the trip. Good luck.

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  214. So I have an almost two year old that has buck teeth. When he was first born, we had him checked for a lip tie, and there wasn’t one present. We never had breast feeding issues. He gained weight very well and still has a very hardy appetite. He has just never slept well. So I looked on his mouth as I was trying to make sure he didn’t have food left in it before his nap. It now looks like he hasa. Major lip tie and also he has ties to his eye teeth. Is that normal? Is it worth looking in to? Even though he hasn’t had eating issues?

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  215. My daughter was born in 2010, Calgary, AB, CanaDa. A city of over 1 million people, and not a single dentist in this city will touch a lip-tie until age 3, most not before 5. After emailing Dr Kotlow, we came to the conclusion that her lip-tie was significant enough to need repair sooner rather than later. Eventually, we found Dr Glenn Van As in Vancouver, BC. A 13 hour drive later, our daughter had her tie repaired by laser, the day before she turned 18 months. We had an immediate and dramatic change, and though she had some reattachment that may need to be dealt with in another couple years, things are great now. No speech problems, she’s still nursing (we were lucky that she was able, though only on one breast), and no cavities or other tooth problems. For other Canadians, finding someone can be very hard. I highly recommend Dr Van As for those out west. Here’s his website: http://www.drvanas.com/home/

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    • Hi Melissa..thanks so much for mentioning my name here for lip tie and tongue tie releases. Yes I am doing these procedures for new borns on a regular basis with a laser and am willing to take photos from your smartphone if you are concerned enough prior to making a long journey to our office. I appreciate your kind words very much and as a good friend of Dr. Kotlow and someone who has lectured with him in the past and who lectures all over the world on lasers in dentistry, the ability to quickly release lip and tongue ties to help with nursing is something that many moms are aware of but not a lot of dentists are. If anyone is concerned about your son or daughter, feel free to either contact our office [email protected] or my personal email at [email protected]. Thanks again Melissa that was very kind of you to mention us. Warmest regards- Glenn

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  216. You say Dr. Kotlow will look at high quality picture and give a consultation. Any thoughts on how to capture a good image of a squirmy almost one year old’s mouth? She for sure has a lip tie, and I think possibly a posterior tongue tie, but I’m not sure on the tongue. Thoughts would be appreciated!

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  217. Actually, Dr Kotlow no longer has been able to keep up with email correspondence. It might be easier for you to feel under her tongue for any bump your finger may go over. If there is resistance and inelasticity when you start at one side and move your finger across to the other and there is a rather obvious ‘speed bump’ to go over then you will know there is something there to be evaluated by an expert. Hope this helps, and you can always email a picture to me, for an IBCLC eval. :)Rene’ Moore

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  218. I know moms who’ve gone to Dr Leonard Kundel DMD (holistic dentist) in Stamford, CT and have had very good results with their babies. He diagnosed our non-breastfeeding, pumped-breastmilk-drinking 9 mo with a lip tie and partial posterior tongue tie and, given we were well beyond learning how to breastfeed, suggested NOT correcting anything and keeping an eye on how things progress which I really respect.

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  219. My three daughters had their lip tie revisions all done with Dr. Amy Grawey in St. Louis, MO (one of my daughters also had a lip tie). She has a laser and I am almost positive she was trained by Dr. Kutlow. She is excellent! I recommend her very highly. She has patients come back several days after a tongue tie revision to check and make sure it is not healing up. When we did this, she said that the tie was healing up paritally (we had been doing the post-op procedures) and she “popped” it back open (just with a forceful maneuver with a tongue depressor). I’m so grateful for this follow-up. My daughter began to nurse much better after the procedure and is still going at two years old.

    A very knowledgeable LC in my area (who regularly evaluates for tongue tie and then refers to other doctors) recommends Dr. Grawey and also a Dr. Kohler. I don’t know anything about him, or whether he has a laser.

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  220. Adding to the list: Annette Skowronski, DDS, FAGD, in Shelby twsp, Michigan.

    My son was just now diagnosed with a posterior tongue tie & a lip tie. We have not yet went to see her, but I understand she is the only doctor in Michigan who does laser revisions.

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  221. Holy cow, I’m tongue tied. This explains almost all of my mom’s breastfeeding problems she had when I was a baby. 😀

    It also explains my jaw issues, grinding, shoulder & neck tension, and alignment issues that bring me to the chiropractor regularly. With that bit of tissue pulling on everything up there, little misalignments lead to bigger ones…

    Wow. I’ll have to be on the lookout with my kids one day.

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  222. Just discovered my little 7week old has a lip tie. No major nursing issues- other than he pulls off often and has trouble maintaining a deep latch for long. Do you know of anyone near Nashville that does the laser procedure. Traveling is out of the question for us until Sept, I would like to see someone sooner than later. Thank so much!

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    • Elizabeth, I am just outside of Nashville, so hello! I’ve heard some folks say Vanderbilt does the procedure, but I have not confirmed whether they do the laser or scissors method. There is also a doc in Chicago that Mama Natural went to. It’s a short flight, so if you can’t get it handled immediately you might consider asking her for a reference later on.

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  223. I wanted to let you know of another doctor using a laser to correct tongue and lip ties. Dr. Bobak (Bobby) Ghaheri is an ENT working in Portland and Gresham, OR. He treated my 4-week old daughter last week. I can’t recommend him enough! It’s been less than a week and my girl is nursing so much better! He literally saved our breastfeeding relationship! He entered this arena after his wife had breastfeeding issues due to ties with both of their daughters. More info can be found on his website, drghaheri.com. I will be blogging about my experience soon on my site, thepaleohygienist.com.

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  224. You can add Andrew Goldstone at Ear, Nose, and Throat Associates at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He used a laser to correct one of my children’s tongue-tie. We were very happy with him and would travel to him again if we had another child that needed a tongue tie corrected.

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  225. Can you please provide links to medical studies that back up the claims being made here?

    Most everything about this “condition” that I can find on Google are poorly sourced blog entries that don’t really cite to any medical studies that can confirm that lip ties are abnormal, cause long term problems, or that procedures to snip them are safe for children long-term. Linking these studies on your blog would be helpful as many people may not know where to find the medical journal resources to locate the scientific information about this condition and the effects of the procedure.

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  226. Hi! Just wanted to let you know that Dr. Gina Tanios-Rafla in E. Brunswick, NJ also does a laser revision. Actually, it’s a water laser. She did my son’s type III PTT.

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  227. We live in Perth, Western Australia. Our little boy had his tongue and lip tie reversed by Dr Mody at Woodvale Park Dental. He is one of only two dentists in Perth that use laser. Highly recommended. He very quickly identified a lip tie and posterior tongue tie after we were told by midwives, lactation consultants, doctors and nurses that he was fine, and that lip tie wouldn’t affect breastfeeding. I’m glad we had it reversed, breastfeeding is much more pleasant now, though we are still working through issues with low milk supply. Trying not to think on the “if only…” !

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  228. Hi Heather! My daughter had laser surgery done to correct her tongue and lip tie by Dr. Leonard Kundel, a holistic dentist in Stamford, CT. He is wonderful! I hope that you add him to your list.

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  229. Heather, your information on ties has been invaluable to me and I can’t thank you enough for it. We took our little one to Dr. Rajeev Agarwal in Phoenix, AZ. He uses the laser method for revisions. I would have recommended him to anyone and everyone just on the basis of our consult. After having our revisions done (tongue and upper lip) I would recommend him even more highly! We even decided to switch to his practice for our regular pediatric care.
    Do you have any information on buccal ties? Not only did our little one have PTT and ULT but Dr Agarwal also diagnosed buccal ties. PTT and ULT were revised, but since he didn’t know if buccal ties need to be revised he hasn’t scheduled a revision.

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  230. I couldn’t agree more that Dr. Agarwal be highly recommended! (have recommended him here before) It may be important to know that his tool is actually electro-cautery, and he is fantastic with it! Parents are often surprised at how quick his procedures are. His vast experience makes him a top choice in Arizona. 🙂

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    • I have a daughter with a lip tie. We live in AZ. Where is Dr. Agarwal located? Do you know the name of his practice?

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      • Hi Chelsea,

        Dr. Rajeev Agarwal, MD of Agave Pediatrics
        North Office Location:
        7010 E Chauncey Ln
        Phoenix AZ 85054
        South Office Location:
        7333 E Thomas Rd
        Scottsdale AZ 85251
        Phone to reach both locations is 480-585-5200

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  231. I have never even heard of this until I clicked my way over from your placenta encapsulation post! I’m about to have my 3rd baby and am determined to successfully nurse this time. I checked my 3yo’s mouth and it seems like she has a very tight connection on her lip. Is it something I should have looked at even at 3?

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  232. My son is 2 weeks old today. I have had problems with nursing the last 3 of my 5 babies. This little guy doesn’t latch well and doesn’t get much when he nurses (I have a breastfeeding scale). When he nurses he gets that upper lip callus and also needs to burp frequently. He didn’t receive the vitamin k shot at birth but got the oral at birth and at one week. Is there a risk for bleeding in a situation such as mine following the laser? Thank you

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  233. Hi, Heather.

    I just wanted to let you know of a pediatric dentist that does a lot of laser frenotomys. Dr Julie Martinez office is in a suburb just north of Houston, TX. We are taking my daughter there tomorrow morning to be evaluated.

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  234. NEHA, the Dr we are taking my daughter to charges $100 for evaluation, $350 for each tie, and extra if you need sedation. I don’t remember how much sedation cost because my daughter isn’t old enough to need it. It’s not covered by insurance.

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  235. Does anyone know of anyone in Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, or North Carolina that will evaluate a 2 week old? It appears to me my son may have a lip tie and possibly tongue tie as well. He is not gaining weight and is exclusively breastfed. Among other problems he has a very shallow latch and upper lip callus. I have breastfed all of our children and never had issues.

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  236. Hello…I came across your article and wanted to let you know that I worked for a dentist in Northern Indiana (South Bend IN to be exact) who specializes in laser surgery for tongue and lip ties…he is an awesome Dr. who has performed countless successful surgeries on infants with this problem…laser procedure is quick and healing time is quick…here is his info if anyone should need to contact someone in and around the area…Mahoney Family Dentistry…17901 Turner’s Dr. South Bend IN 46635…the Dr that performs the surgery is Dr. Terrance P. Mahoney and let them know Gloria sent you!… 🙂

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  237. Any doctors in Southern California besides Dr. James Jesse? Also, I noticed he is crossed out on your list. Is there a reason for this? Thanks in advance! Your site is so helpful to us mommies. I believe my son is tongue tied.

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  238. I know it’s been awhile since this post was written but thank you thank you thank you from the bottom of my heart!!! Nobody caught my daughter’s tongue and lip tie. I almost skipped over you’re posts about them because I had been told she didn’t have one. But after I read them I checked her myself and was sure she did. I took her to Dr. Paige Prather in Nashville tn. She has used the laser on her own mouth and her newborn. Please add her if possible. We had a great experience with her. And thank you again! I would have given up on bf the pain was so intolerable.

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  239. Hi, I want to recommend two pediatric dentists in my area that you could add to your list of practitioners. Thanks to an awesome IBCLC, my son was diagnosed with tongue and lip tie around 6 weeks. She recommended Dr. Michael Virts in Mt. Airy, MD and Dr. Robert Marcus in Reisterstown, MD. Dr. Marcus studied under Dr. Kotlow, and has more experience than Dr. Virts, but both are awesome and use laser, as well as educating on stretches and exercises after procedure. Things have improved a lot since his revisions, but he still is a finicky nurser and does not nurse any for pleasure. But at 8.5 mo., he’s still breastfed and very chunky at 21 lbs.!

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  240. As a child I suffered from tongue and lip tie and it was easily discovered by my family doctor. I do vaguely remember a doctor using a scissor like tool to essentially ‘snip’ and fix the issue right away. The pain was extremely pronounced and after a day or two it fully healed. It wasn’t until later when I asked my parents what had happened. Quite traumatizing experience to be honest.

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  241. The link to the article for tongue stretches after scissor treatment is broken or not available can you please update a working link orninfor to see the stretches? Many thanks!

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  242. I am 24, have 2 lip ties and a severe tongue tie. My mom couldn’t nurse me at all and I was failing to thrive. I had a severe speech problem up until I was 7 and since then it’s just the w’s and r’s I have a hard time with. My teeth have always been bad, I can’t whistle, Yawning and licking ice cream hurt because I can’t open my mouth wide enough. I can only stick the tip of my tongue up and out, barely even able to lick my lips. My tongue constantly gets bit and always get some kind of sores on the tip of my tongue from always touching the back of my front teeth. I can only floss 5 teeth and I have to hold down/up my lips when I brush my teeth. I cannot swish anything in my mouth because i can’t move my tongue. Instead I have to shake my head vigorously to get it around my mouth. Dentist visits are living nightmares, they can’t even do much in my mouth because of the ties. I need braces but they can’t even do that. All the times getting a thermometer jabbed into my tongue tie sucked. Get the ties cut ASAP please!!!!

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  243. You should also checkout adding Dr. Preetha Thomas in Southlake, Texas enclavedental.com. She was trained by Dr. Stacy Cole and Dr. Ghareri recommends her! She’s the best ever!!

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