What to Expect During Procedure
Our goal is to make your experience at our office as relaxing and comfortable as possible. In order to do so, we find it is helpful to go over what your child’s visit will entail so there are no surprises along the way. Here’s what our pediatric tongue-tie dentist in Okemos, MI, wants you to know.
The treatment of choice for tethered oral tissues is called a tongue-tie release (or ), which is a minor surgical procedure that releases the tension on the frenum, allowing the tongue and lips to move freely.
What Do We Use for the Surgical Procedure?
While some providers use a scalpel or scissors, Dr. Ramaswami uses a state-of-the-art CO2 laser to quickly and nearly painlessly release the tethered tissue. While there are many laser tongue-tie procedures done by other providers, the benefit of a CO2 laser is that it reduces postoperative swelling and bleeding by sealing off the lymphatic and blood vessels.
Studies have also shown that patients treated with a CO2 laser have significantly less postoperative pain, both on day 1 and day 7, as compared to scalpel surgery, and patients who were treated with a laser require less pain medication after treatment than those who were treated with a scalpel. (Patel, et al., 2015)
What to Expect During Lip & Tongue-Tie Release
We ask that parents stay in the waiting room or consult room during the tongue-tie treatment, which usually takes less than 5 minutes. The reason we ask parents to not be in the room is because Dr. Ramaswami needs to focus 100% of her attention on your child and having worried or anxious parents in the corner of the room is distracting. If you would like to be in the room during treatment, please discuss this with the doctor. Exceptions can be made in certain circumstances.
A takes less than a minute to complete. Anesthesia/sedation is generally not used in infants but may be needed in a toddler who may be uncooperative. In this case, we have a pediatric anesthesiologist who will provide sedation in our office and monitor your toddler for 5-10 minutes while Dr. Ramaswami completes the procedure.
Once the baby is comfortably swaddled, we place protective glasses over your baby’s eyes to protect the eyes. (They look like swim googles.) A numbing gel then is applied to the area(s) being treated, if desired, or a local anesthetic injection is given based on the age of the child to ensure a painless procedure. The assistant holds the infant steady while Dr. Ramaswami uses the CO2 laser to quickly release the frenum(s).
Although the actual surgical procedure takes about 5-10 seconds, stabilizing the moving infant for visibility during the procedure takes longer. This is usually the part where babies scream and cry, because they simply don’t like fingers in their mouths! We reassure the parents that any cries they might hear from the treatment room does not mean their baby is in pain. A post-op photo is then taken.