TONGUE-TIES/FRENECTOMY

Skilled Care Of Tongue-Tie And Lip-Tie In Marysville, Monroe And Everett

Working to ensure that your baby/child receives the best procedure outcome.

Our pediatric dentists work together with your pediatrician, lactation consultant, oral myofunctional therapist, speech pathologist and other health care providers to ensure that the frenectomy procedure is the best course of treatment for your baby/child. This “team approach” often helps rule out other problems that may be contributing to the difficulties your child may be experiencing as a result of tongue or lip-tie.   If so, a quick procedure called a frenectomy can give the tongue a greater range of motion. We offer this at our Marysville, Monroe and Everett offices only.

What Is A Tongue-Tie?

A tongue-tie is a condition present at birth that limits the tongue’s range of motion because the frenum (connective tissue) located under the tongue is too tight or fails to recede or thin during normal development in utero. A tongue-tie occurs in nearly 5 percent of infants and is more common in boys than in girls. Tongue-tie can interfere with breastfeeding during the infant years and speech development as a child grows older.

What Is A Lip-Tie?

The piece of tissue behind your upper lip is called the frenulum. When these membranes are too thick or too stiff, they can keep the upper lip from moving freely. This condition is called a lip-tie. It can cause difficulty in speech development and can also pose a problem with dental development and make it hard to fully clean the gums and front teeth. This raises the risk of gum disease and other dental complications.

What Problems Can Be Associated With Tongue-Tie And Lip-Tie?

Tongue and lip-tie conditions that may limit or restrict the range of motion of the tongue or lip can cause a  number  of difficulties for infants and children.

Infants – In infants, these conditions may result in the following difficulties: poor latch during nursing, poor weight gain, irritability during or after nursing, reflux or spitting up often, clicking or smacking noises while nursing, pulling away to gasp for air while nursing, dribbles milk while nursing, frequently fussy or has gas, and sleeping difficulties.

Children – In children, these conditions may result in speech disorders, problems with chewing and swallowing, sleep-disordered breathing (apnea), severe bruxism, malocclusion and difficulties related to dental hygiene resulting in tooth decay and gum problems.

Meet Your Frenectomy Specialists

Thanks to our skilled pediatric dental team, we have the advanced technology and experience performing laser frenectomies to successfully and gently treat your child’s lip-tie or tongue-tie. Our pediatric dentists Dr. Carissa Choong and Dr. Payton Laws are able to perform these non-invasive lip-tie and tongue-tie procedures at our Marysville, Monroe and Everett offices.

Carissa Choong, DDS

Payton Laws, DDS

How Can We Help?

Puget Sound  Pediatric Dentistry offers state-of-the-art laser services to infants and children who have conditions commonly referred to as tongue-tie or lip-tie.  Our pediatric dentists uses a soft tissue diode laser to provide precise, minimally- invasive treatment to release the tongue or lip-tie, which can be done at our  Marysville, Monroe and Everett offices. This common dental surgical procedure is known as laser frenectomy. There are many benefits of laser frenectomy, which include the following: promotes healing and reduces post-procedural discomfort, minimizes bleeding, shorter procedure and healing time, reduced risk of infection and is safe for newborns with immediate results.