Tongue Tie – causes, symptoms and treatments

Tongue Tie is a term used for stumbling words. It is not a term like a cat cutting your tongue, but it can be an oral condition that can impact the tongue’s range of motion.

In Tongue Tie, a short thick and tight band of tissue taters at the bottom of the tongue, which steps to the floor of the mouth.  

When a child has a Tongue Tie, they may experience difficulty sticking out their tongue, which affects the way they eat, speak and swallow.  

Tongue Ties are often classified as  

• Type one  
• Type two
• Type three and
• Type four

The types of classification are based on the place where the tie is attached to the tongue.

Some healthcare professionals classify Tongue Tie as anterior or posterior.  

What are the symptoms of Tongue Tie? 

The most common symptoms of Tongue Tie include:

• Difficulty in lifting the tongue
• Trouble in sticking out the tongue
• The tongue is not regular shaped.

If a person exhibits any of the symptoms mentioned above, it is important to get medical assistance.  

Diagnosing a Tongue Tie 

A paediatrician or a primary care doctor will be able to diagnose a Tongue Tie.  

Usually, the first person who would be able to recognise a Tongue Tie is when the baby encounters breastfeeding issues.  

In such cases, both the mother and the baby are advised to consult a medical professional.  

The objective of the diagnosis is to identify the degree to which the frenula is present in the tongue or on the lips.  

Through proper diagnosis and treatment, a doctor would recommend if surgery is required to treat Tongue Tie, or another form of treatment is prescribed if required.  

The doctors may use various screening tools to examine the medical condition.  

The screening tools help a doctor understand the shape of the tongue and the degree to which it is changed.  

How is Tongue Tie treated?

The treatment for this health condition is controversial.  

Usually, there are two ways in which a doctor can treat Tongue Tie.  

Some of them feel that it should be treated immediately before a newborn baby is discharged from the hospital, while other groups of doctors believe that it can be treated even after a while.  

This is because the lingual frenulum will become loose over time. If this happens, then the Tongue Tie would be cured.  

Tongue Tie can also be present in a baby without causing any problem. This is why doctors wait and check for severity before they treat the condition.  

The treatment is usually based on how severe the condition is for a patient.  

The doctor would then decide if a frenotomy is required.

Frenotomy refers to any procedure where a binding tissue in a part of the body is cut or modified.  

Such procedures are commonly performed on infants.  

The frenotomy involves simple procedures where the muscle tissue has been cut or lasered. Then the tongue needs to be stretched.  

This is done in order to prevent the tissues from re-growing again during the recovery process.  

Stretching is not a complicated procedure, but the babies resist them.  

Various studies found that the surgical release of Tongue Ties is effective for infants. The results of the surgery are seen immediately.  

Complications of this procedure may include,

• Bleeding
• Infection
• Damage to the tongue
• Damage to the salivary glands
• Re-growth of the tissue

Therefore, the decision to remove the Tongue Tie must be a personal choice between a doctor and a parent.  

What happens if the Tongue Tie is left untreated?  

•  It leads to feeding problems and dental occlusions.  
• Oral biomechanics and speech articulation can also be affected when there is a Tongue Tie for a child. Even though their learning ability is not affected by how a child pronounces the words will be.
•  Other than this, there are no long-term side effects of untreated Tongue Tie. As the child grows older, the restrictions of the tongue-tie can be compensated for through their oral functioning.  

To sum up  

Treating Tongue Tie is a safe and relatively easy procedure. If any parent thinks a baby is exhibiting symptoms of Tongue Tie, then it is better to have a medical checkup.  

A doctor will be able to provide proper insight into the condition and determine if the infant requires treatment or not.