When I help a family prepare for the release, or revision, of an infant’s tongue and/or (usually and) lip tie, we talk about the three pillars. Having ties is something that impacts a person in many ways and as such needs to be treated from many angles for the best outcomes. So to help families have the most successful outcomes and least stressful process we create something of a three legged stool of experts to support the individual and their family. These three pillars are Structure, Function and Revision. We have someone who is an expert in the structure of the body, this is your bodyworker. The most easily accessible are chiropractors, but there are a lot of other modalities, and different things work for different people. Your functional expert is your IBCLC for breastfeeding (or CLC working towards IBCLC, like myself 🙂 ); SLP or COM for solids or bottle feeding. And your expert in revision is someone who REALLY knows ties, not your average ENT, sorry guys. Ideally all of these people have special training and investment in learning about tongue and lip ties as it is not a required to have a really deep knowledge for certification in any of them. Some communities have more resources than others; Columbia has very few but we are fortunate to at least have some, many people find themselves driving hours to a preferred provider. It has become my personal mission to see the Midlands have an increase in tie knowledgeable providers from all three of the pillars.

 

My son’s situation is a little unique, he didn’t have any huge oral function being impaired by his tongue tie. I spoke to my friend Autumn, a very tie savvy SLP in Greenville, and we didn’t see a need for therapy in his particular case. This is pretty uncommon. It helps that I have some background knowledge to work with, even though he’s not breastfeeding. So the functional pillar is basically myself, and Jessica had her older son revised last year, so I can lean on her as well.

 

For structure, we had been seeing a chiropractor pretty regularly a few years ago, so he had a good amount of bodywork done then. We stopped going when I got pregnant and the cost got too high; and I switched to a different chiropractor that was better covered by our insurance for the duration of my pregnancy. So to prepare for the revision I got him in with our new chiropractor, Dr. Mike Jokerst, in December and then he had another adjustment the week of his revision. We were also fortunate enough to have Dr. Max Collins and Dr. Rachel Johnson (if they had a website, I’d link it, but those who know them know, they prefer to fly under the radar, even though they are amazing) at his revision since it was done during a special training. So all in all he had a chiropractic adjustment the week of and some craniosacral therapy immediately prior to the procedure.

 

As I said before, it is my goal to see an increase in tie knowledgeable providers in Columbia. My youngest was revised by Dr. Adam Hahn at 10 days old. We are fortunate to have him available to our community and our whole state really, there are currently only two preferred providers in the entire state of South Carolina, him and Dr. Ann Bynum. It’s always good, though, to have options. So when I met Dr. Matt Rowe I was thrilled when he expressed interest in learning more about tongue tie and possibly becoming a third preferred provider. It took a few months to get it all coordinated but eventually we were able to schedule an inservice with his entire office where Jessica came down and taught his staff the basics of tongue tie support and protocol. She then observed and provided feedback while he performed his first frenectomies on infants and children, my son’s included. (To be clear, he had performed these surgeries before, but on adults, and infants have very specific needs when it comes to releases)

 

The procedure itself was… well… he’s 9. And has some family history of anxiety, especially around dental procedures. He was REALLY excited. Until he sat down in the chair. But Dr. Rowe and his staff were incredibly kind and patient with him. More so than I wanted to be. It took longer than it needed to because his fears, and after all was said and done he complained of a sore throat the night of (from the crying [that’s going to be embarrassing someday, sorry kiddo] – I promise he was totally numb for the procedure, I watched them apply the analgesia, multiple times, I saw the drool.) and a sore jaw the next day (from having to keep his mouth open so long, because he kept stopping them to ask more questions, which were crazy questions from the effects of the nitrous, or to siphon off the spit again, or……. yeah.). Not a word about the site hurting at all. Immediately following the procedure we applied some Tongue Tie Tincture from the South Carolina Center for Integrative Medicine that I had brought chilled since some people have reported discomfort from the radiant heat of the laser. More on the tincture and the rest of my after care kit in my next blog post.