Maxillary Frenum’s Need Your Attention

Frenectomy laser surgery is a must if your child has tongue-tie. While you might believe it will go away on its own, it can actually get worse. If the skin that is holding the tongue in place on the inside of the lip goes untreated, it can get thicker and begin to separate the front teeth. "While a gap between the teeth seems cute when children are younger, it can be detrimental to older children," suggests Dr. Strutz.

Placing the tongue up against the back of the teeth makes certain sounds. When they begin to develop sounds, it is important that your school age child hears the sounds correctly. However, they need to also be able to say the sounds correctly in order to develop reading fluency. There is a small window when speech sounds are being developed and research shows that students who do not learn to speak correctly by early educational grades may never learn to correctly say the sounds. 

Your child’s self-esteem is important and is developed by being secure in their abilities. Children who struggle to state sounds correctly may become insecure as they begin to talk to peers but are unable to be understood. While they are in school, education is built on their ability to share ideas with their peers while the teacher facilitates the learning, for example your daughter walks through how to solve a math problem by talking. Reading is built on your child’s ability to hear and say the sounds correctly.

If you’re concerned about your student’s frenum contact Dr.Strutz today.

Laser Surgery and Frenums

Laser surgeries are more common in dentistry, and there are a number of procedures that can be completed now. Dr. Judith Strutz now performs laser surgery to correct Lip and/or Tongue-Ties.

There are two types of frenum ties and each one impacts the individual differently depending on the thickness of the skin, the location, and your age.

Tongue-tie, otherwise known as a lingual frenum, is a condition where the muscle inside the mouth and under the tongue is thicker than it is supposed to be. This extra skin may attach between the bottom lower teeth and make it difficult for you to say certain sounds because you are unable to stick or position your tongue correctly to make the right sounds. It may also be painful to eat and you may have difficulty removing food particles from your teeth with your tongue.  

A maxillary frenum is when the thicker skin on the outside of the teeth attaches to the inside of the lips.  An individual that is impacted with this type of frenum may struggle with saying particular speech sounds, eating maybe difficult and, depending on the thickness of the skin, it may push a gap between the two front teeth causing other dental concerns.

The surgery for tongue-tie used to be completed by a midwife that had a sharp nail and would cut the frenum when a baby was born as frenums can prohibit a breastfeeding mother to be successful. However, lucky for us technology has advanced where a special laser can be used to fix either type of frenum easily and quickly. Call Dr. Judith Strtuz today to learn more.