Tongue tie is the bond between the lower part of the tongue and the floor of the mouth. It may be thicker or shorter in some people. Not every tongue tie causes a problem. In some babies, sucking may cause feeding and speech problems. In a more attached tongue tie, it manifests itself in the form of insufficient nutrition and weight loss. Again, constant drooling from the mouth due to insufficient swallowing of saliva, excessive sweating while sucking and non-healing sores on the mother's nipple may be the symptoms of tongue tie. Since the movement of the tongue in the mouth may be limited, they may have difficulty in rolling solid foods in the mouth and nutritional problems may be observed. Since their tongue movements may be limited, they may have difficulty in making some sounds, but this does not cause late speech. Only in the period after the age of 3, there may be difficulty in making sounds such as "l, r, s, t, z" in which the front part of the tongue is actively used.
Tongue tie. However, there are countless people who have never had a problem. Therefore, there is no need to interfere with every tongue tie. Babies and young children who have tongue-tie but no feeding, swallowing or speech problems may not need treatment. Regular follow-up is sufficient for tongue tie, which does not cause any problems in the first months of life. After excluding other possible conditions that may cause nutritional problems, surgical intervention can be performed in cases where various complaints occur.
If the baby has sucking problems and signs of weight loss due to an attached tongue tie, cutting the tongue tie with local anesthesia in the first days of life is the best approach. The sublingual tie operation takes 1-2 minutes in the outpatient clinic conditions for small babies, and 10-15 minutes in the operating room for older children.
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