Children’s Tongue-Ties – Chicago, IL

When you think of a tip or tongue-tie, you may think of infants struggling to nurse. But what if you bottle fed your baby? Does the tongue-tie eventually go away? Most of the time, if a tongue-tie has gone unnoticed early on, its effects can be seen when the child is slightly older. At Chicago Tongue-Tie Center, we treat patients of basically all ages for tongue-ties in South Loop and beyond. If you think your child could be experiencing trouble as a result of a tongue-tie, request an appointment now to fix it with a frenectomy and help them as they develop.

How Lip & Tongue-Ties Can Affect Speech

Not only can a tongue-tie impair an infant’s ability to latch properly when breastfeeding, but it can also affect them later in life. A tongue-tie can interfere with your child’s ability to form certain syllables and words in their speech. The tongue plays an essential role in many sounds, including r, l, t, d, th, and more. In addition, the frustration your child faces with creating these sounds can lead to reluctance to speak, lisp or other speech impediments, mumbling or stuttering, or slurred speech. While speech therapy works for many children with other issues, some may not see progress until the tongue-tie is resolved.

How Lip & Tongue-Ties Can Impact Sleep

Interestingly, tethered oral tissues (or TOTs for short) like a tongue-tie can also increase a child’s chances of developing sleep disordered breathing. While at rest during sleep, the tongue is supposed to be held up to the roof of the mouth, allowing the airway to remain open and clear. However, with a tongue-tie, it can stop easy breathing, forcing your child to breathe through their mouth. As a result, they can suffer from various symptoms including chronic snoring, night sweats, sore throat, sleep apnea, bedwetting, and extreme fatigue, and even sleepwalking. Recent research has also found a strong connection between sleep disordered breathing and ADHD!

Benefits of Laser Frenectomies

To enable the tongue to move more freely as it should, we need to remove the thick tissue that is restricting it. At first glance, this may seem like an intimidating procedure for your little child to go through. However, the laser technology our team uses makes the experience much more comfortable and easier to heal afterward. Taking only a few minutes, a laser frenectomy disconnects that tissue gently and cauterizes the area, which prevents bleeding, and often doesn’t require a local anesthetic.

Your child may still need speech therapy to relearn how to form certain sounds, but they should see more rapid progress.