How long does it take for a Laser Tongue-Tie to Heal?
If you think your baby has a tongue-tie or a lip-tie, do not wait and seek immediate care from an expert medical officer. This smart move will help your dentists to check whether your kid is in critical condition or not. However, if the case is severe, your dentist will recommend tongue-tie laser surgery. Moreover, your medical officer will also inform you about the Tongue-tie symptoms, how to deal with them.
What is Tongue Tie?
It is a situation in which a baby is born with a narrow tissue strip attached to their tongue’s tip. The expert dentist of the Olive Tree Dental clinic indicates that this issue dissolves in the womb. However, 10 out of 1000 kids were born with Upper Lip ties. People often wonder about the causes of this problem and ask questions from dentists. There is no exact cause of tongue-tie, but researchers claim that it transfers from parents to children. A genetic problem that might cause problems for some children in the long run.
Does Tongue-Tie Resolves without Treatment?
Tongue-tie cases differ from each other as sometimes tongue-tie problems go away at the age of 3. However, other cases need proper treatment to solve. For example, if you notice that your kid is facing problems breathing or breastfeeding and losing weight, you might go to a pediatric dentist and ask for the solution. Additionally, expert dentists indicate that untreated problems like tongue-tie leads to severe issues such as speaking, breastfeeding and eating solid foods.
What happens when Child Tongue-Tie Diagnosed?
Once the child Tongue-tie is Diagnosed , the medical officer suggests a laser treatment procedure. In which he numbs the area using local anesthesia to ensure your infant does not feel pain. Many experts recommend that local anesthesia be used if kids are more than 6-8 months. In some cases, the dentist advises pain killers for the children to reduce the pain. Moreover, other kids having tongue-ties should be recommended for Surgery, and the dentist must cut a few nerve endings.
In laser surgery treatment, pediatrics uses a laser to cut the frenulum between the tip of the tongue and the bottom of their mouth. The purpose of laser surgery is to free the tongue from these connective tissues and enable your kid to function normally.
What happens after the Tongue-Tie Surgery?
Your dentist will ask you to be available once your child wakes up after the Surgery. Your baby might feel a bit dizzy. It is normal, so you do not need to worry. Many child specialists suggest that parents hold their hands after waking up as it helps speed up recovery. You can also give your baby their favorite toy as soon as he wakes up from the Surgery. It is a good practice to make your child feel happy and reduce stress. After being discharged from the hospital, you must monitor the situation to ensure your baby is recovering. The experts indicate that your kid might feel dizzy during their recovering process because of local anesthesia.
Tongue-Tie Laser Surgery Recovery Time?
The recovery period depends on the health of your baby. However, the available time for recovering from Tongue-tie laser surgery is 14 days. Laser treatment offers quick treatment and enables your child to speed up recovery. Many experts claim that the laser cauterizes the wounds when it cuts. Therefore, the laser helps in quick recovery and heals the wound as well. Regardless of how the Surgery has been performed, it would help if you did some oral exercises and stretches with your little one several times a day.
After-Care:
Laser Surgery is painless and less time-consuming; it enables your kid to heal quickly and requires low after-care maintenance. Your baby will not feel much pain but a little bit of dizziness. In case pain and discomfort are not reducing, talk to your pediatrician to have some over-the-counter medicine.
However, it is your responsibility to do mouth stretching for your kid soon after the laser surgery. It will ensure that frenulum does not reattach during the healing phase. Your medical officer will help you by providing some necessary exercise instruction. You have to make your kid do exercise for weeks to ensure the frenulum does not attach again. A study was done in 2014 in which 15 infants underwent Surgery. After three weeks of regular exercise, their parents reported significant improvement in breastfeeding. After a week, the rest of the parents reported the same.
Problems like upper lip tie and tongue-tie do not cause a problem for the kid in all cases. At the same time, other kids might have speech issues and breastfeeding problems as well. Surgery for the tongue-tie is a seamless procedure that improves breastfeeding in babies. However, new research revealed that Surgery is not the only option to improve breastfeeding function in infants with tongue-tie problems. Parents should visit lactation specialists in case of finding Tongue-tie symptoms and ask for optimal solutions.
A Few years ago, kids were recommended to undergo surgery soon after tongue-tie was diagnosed. As every expert believes, Surgery is the optimal solution to the problem. After 2010, the experts have started looking deep into the surgery option and recommended that therapies are ideal before jumping into Surgery. A study in 2019 has revealed that 63 kids were born having lip-ties, and not everyone required Surgery to heal up. They were taken to a therapist for improvement in breastfeeding and speaking.
Therefore, experts suggest parents work with speech-language therapists before going to the surgery options. It does not mean you do not have to consider the option of Surgery. Research has shown significant improvements in babies after the Surgery. Laser surgery is quick and offers faster results without causing any side effects. Therefore, you should consider both options for the treatment of your baby. First, visit the therapist to see if there are chances of recovering. He might suggest some exercises that you have to follow. If you don’t see any improvement in your baby, you should go for the surgery option.
