A child with ankyloglossia, often known as tongue-tie, is born with a tongue that is permanently linked to the floor of the mouth. This disease, which can be present at birth in some babies, happens when the little tissue strip that connects the tongue to the mouth’s floor is shorter than normal.
Unfortunately, the small frenulum limits tongue movement, which might interfere with breastfeeding and delay speech. Because of this, parents of tongue-tied infants frequently seek a laser frenectomy operation to address the issue.
The sections below further detail how this procedure is beneficial for children with lip-tie or tongue-tie.
What Does a Laser Frenectomy Entail?
In the past, tongue and lip knots were treated by surgically removing the affected tissue. A soft-tissue laser is used to perform a laser frenectomy, which entails laser excision of the frenulum.
A soft tissue laser does not cut, though. Instead, the procedure more closely resembles the vaporization of tissue, which also uses light energy. Due to the limited discomfort caused by the laser, your kid will basically feel nothing during the procedure.
Additionally, because there is little bleeding after a laser frenectomy, parents frequently enjoy the approach used. Lasers have a low risk of spreading infection and can sterilize immediately upon contact, hastening the healing process.
Benefits of Laser Frenectomy Surgery
It is important to realize that laser frenectomy surgery has a wide range of advantages for your child.
- It only takes a couple of minutes.
- There is hardly any bleeding.
- There are no sutures required.
- No sedation or general anesthesia is required.
- There is rapid recovery and healing.
- There is minimal discomfort or agony.
- There is hardly any chance of reattachment.
- It is a minimally intrusive method.
- The infant can be fed right away following the operation.
- There is an extremely low likelihood of infection.
What to Anticipate Following a Frenectomy
Following their laser frenectomy, your baby should be able to feed right away. For around four weeks following the treatment, you should perform stretching exercises several times each day. These exercises are crucial for infants because they are made to stop open wounds from adhering again.
You must perform an upper lip stretch on your child if they were lip-tied before the treatment. Put your index finger under your child’s lip to do this. Then, raise your finger until you encounter resistance.
Now, move your finger slowly from side to side for a few seconds to maintain a space between the rough sides of your baby’s lip and gum. This practice will assist in preventing the wounds from adhering and reattaching.
Following a tongue-tie laser frenectomy, your child will be advised to perform under-the-tongue stretching exercises for the following three to four weeks. To go deep enough to lift successfully, begin by diving-style positioning both of your index fingers under the tongue.
Next, raise your baby’s tongue as high as it will go toward the palate and hold it there for two to five seconds.
After a tongue-tie frenectomy, your child should perform the following exercise while holding their tongue up with one index finger and their other index finger placed sideways in the middle.
After a brief period of pushing toward the mouth’s floor, maintain the separation of the central fold by sweeping or elevating your mouth’s diamond shape from front to rear.
Insert your index fingers exactly outside the lips of your infant and on either side of the diamond. Rub the diamond’s surrounding region. The tongue and mouth floor muscles will become more flexible after doing this workout.
Conclusion
Laser frenectomy can be a great advantage to your child as it is a minimally invasive, safe, and painless procedure. It can assist in lowering the risk of complications and can be performed within a few minutes in a comfortable office setting.
It is a great option for children who suffer from tongue-tie or lip-tie, providing a safe and easy solution to help improve their quality of life.
If you need a laser frenectomy pediatric dentist near you, Lexington Smile Studio is a dental clinic you can rely on. Established in 1991 by Dr. Fawn Rosenberg, we set the standards for exceptional care.
We have a full range of dental services for your entire family, including cosmetic dentistry, prosthodontics, implant dentistry, periodontics, and laser dentistry. Contact us today to book a dental appointment.
