Complications of tongue-tie surgery

The reason why the human tongue is so flexible is that there are many frenulum connected to it. These frenulum control the movement of the tongue. To stir the food. If the frenulum connected to the human tongue is broken, it will have a great impact on the tongue and will also be very painful. At this time, surgery is needed for treatment. So what are the sequelae of tongue tie surgery? Let’s find out below.

Under normal circumstances, the tongue tie of a newborn baby extends to the tip of the tongue or close to the tip of the tongue, so it looks like the tongue tie is short. During the development of the tongue, the frenulum will gradually retract toward the root of the tongue. As age increases and the teeth erupt, the frenulum will gradually loosen, and the front attachment will gradually decrease and move to the bottom of the mouth. The short frenulum will no longer exist.

Common symptoms of tongue tie:

(1) The tongue cannot protrude from the mouth.

(2) When opening the mouth, the tip of the tongue cannot curl up, lick the upper gums, or extend over the upper lip.

(3) When the tongue is extended forward, the tip of the tongue becomes concave and "W" shaped due to being pulled by the frenulum. In a normal person, the tip of the tongue is in a "V" shape when it is extended.

(4) Sucking and chewing disorders: This is caused by a short frenulum that affects tongue movement.

(5) Unclear pronunciation.

In normal children, the tip of the tongue gradually moves away from the frenulum after the age of 2. Only a small number of children with abnormal development have a short frenulum. Therefore, a short tongue tie in infants and young children should not be considered abnormal, and it is best to observe it after the age of 2.

Unnecessary tongue-tie surgery has no benefits either physically or psychologically. Some parents worry that a tongue-tie that is too short will affect their child’s pronunciation and speaking, and insist on asking the doctor to perform surgery early. Early surgery (2 to 6 months) brings many disadvantages:

(1) It can easily lead to scar formation on the surgical wound, so some children need to undergo a second operation.

(2) Children are often unable to cooperate well with doctors and may be easily injured or infected if not treated with caution.

(3) The psychological impact of forced surgery on children may be greater than the physical harm they suffer. Therefore, the earlier the tongue-tie is performed, the better.