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Late Dx Tongue Tie?

zoeyandsummersmomzoeyandsummersmom member
in Special Needs

DD started speech therapy last week. The therapist thought she may have tongue tie. I talked to our pedi, who had us go to a local oral surgeon. He started off the appointment saying many consults he does for tongue ties he rarely sees one and or he rarely sees one that needs surgery. Once he gets a good look in DD's mouth he then says she does have tongue tie but it is pretty far back and is probably not inhibiting her ability to speak or swallow/eat, but that if she was going in for any surgeries they could perform the frenectomy, but she would require general anesthesia.

My kids doesn't eat and when she does she gags. She is fed 99.5% of the time via g-tube. She has severe oral aversion. Her gagging could most likely be sensory or it could very well be related to her stroke/brain bleed or it could be something else. I am not crazy to:

1. get a second opinion from one of the leading doctors in tongue tie surgeries

2. push for this to get done, because we should exhaust any physical impediments.

Right? I hate to have to put her through surgery, but what if? She talks but cannot say anything that requires use of her tongue (ma's and ba's).  I wanted to sign her up for surgery today if the doctor would have let me and he made me feel like I was surgery happy. 

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Re: Late Dx Tongue Tie?

  • Yellow79Yellow79

    My daughter had a posterior tongue tie and we used this dr...he's a leading dr. lasering tongue ties as opposed to clipping. I'm not sure of the age limit to do this w/out anethesia but maybe its worth looking into? The posterior tongue tie can definitely interfere with using a bottle. My daughter clicked against the bottle nipple, but now drinks fine.

    https://www.kiddsteeth.com/dental_topics.html#evaluate_and_diagnose_a_posterior_tongue_tie 

     

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  • jayro10jayro10 member
    Have you taken your daughter to a speech language pathologist? The reason I ask is because I am a SLP and I've had several kids with tongue ties over the years. What I've experienced in the past is that the pedi or dentist will say "oh, the tongue tie isn't that bad, speech therapy will fix the articulation errors you hear," when in reality, that couldn't be further from the truth! I've done simple speech screenings before and then written a little report for parents to bring to the dr that basically says, no amount of speech therapy will benefit this child at this time, as the speech errors are likely caused by a physical anomaly that requires correction.

    With every child I've done this for, the parents have had success in getting the dr to clip the tongue tie. In only one of those cases was speech therapy still warranted six months post clip [likely unrelated to the tongue].
    Good luck!
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  • ridesbuttonsridesbuttons member

    DS1 had a severe tongue tie that was surgically corrected  at 18 months.  Doctor said it would likely stretch out on its own over time but the kid literally could not extend his tongue past his teeth nor lift his tongue to the roof of his mouth. 

    Surgery took 20 minutes from the time they wheeled him into the OR to the time they wheeled him into recovery.  It was ok, he was sore and sad when he came into recovery but of course now (at age 6) has no recollection of it.  Also, his speech is perfect.  6 months of speech therapy and you'd never, ever guess it was an issue.

    I kind of hate that I didn't insist on it earlier.  So much pain for me (breastfeeding was brutally painful) and frustration for him.

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  • mommytoconnormommytoconnor member
    My son was tongue tied, severely.  He had issues with gagging and it was apparent that he needed it clipped.  It was an incredibly short procedure, I mean it took the doc longer to scrub than the procedure actually takes to do. My doc gave my son gas, no IV, and he was brought out within minutes.  He was groggy but we were on our way home within 30 minutes or so and he was eating that night without gagging.  Virtually no pain, gave tylenol twice, and he was about 10 months old.  I would go to a pediatric ENT not an oral surgeon. While it may be something else, it could also be contributed to tongue tie.  I would definately get second opinion from pediatric ENT.
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  • goldenleavesgoldenleaves member
    My now 3 year old has the tongue tie surgery at 2. I was a wreck, but it was really no big deal and took about 5 minutes. His speech went from nonexistent to right on target pretty quickly.
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  • annibesannibes member

    imagejayro10:
    Have you taken your daughter to a speech language pathologist? The reason I ask is because I am a SLP and I've had several kids with tongue ties over the years. What I've experienced in the past is that the pedi or dentist will say "oh, the tongue tie isn't that bad, speech therapy will fix the articulation errors you hear," when in reality, that couldn't be further from the truth! I've done simple speech screenings before and then written a little report for parents to bring to the dr that basically says, no amount of speech therapy will benefit this child at this time, as the speech errors are likely caused by a physical anomaly that requires correction. With every child I've done this for, the parents have had success in getting the dr to clip the tongue tie. In only one of those cases was speech therapy still warranted six months post clip [likely unrelated to the tongue]. Good luck!

    I am an SLP in early intervention, and I think this is one of the more common questions I get from parents. I tend to shy away from suggesting a clip for speech-only symptoms. The research does not currently support that clipping alone will improve speech. There is evidence that supports clipping for certain feeding issues. 

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  • meldoo2002meldoo2002 member
    I'm also an SLP and I tend to be in the camp that if the tongue tie didn't affect her ability to feed (though that sounds questionable for your daughter) then don't clip it.  If she can stick her tongue out at all, touch the back of her teeth (not that you'd notice that necessarily) than it's probably not affecting her speech and language development.  I am for clipping as an infant for feeding issues... I'm not for clipping as a toddler, preschooler for speech issues.  

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