What is a Lip Tie? How to Diagnose and Treat.

by Jennie on January 22, 2013

I am SOOOOO sorry it has taken me this long to update you on Grayson’s lip tie. WEEKS upon WEEKS ago, I wrote about coming home from New York after Grayson’s lip tie procedure. Let me rewind and talk about how we got there.

I was reading a newsletter from a lactation consultant and for whatever reason my eye was drawn to an article on something called a Lip Tie. I started reading and immediately knew that what I was reading on my computer screen is what my little guy Grayson had.

When Grayson started getting teeth I noticed that I couldn’t see his top teeth when he smiled. I kept bringing it up to Steve and he would just laugh and say he inherited his big juicy lips :) But I thought it was odd, big lips or not, why couldn’t I see his teeth?! Either way, I really didn’t think too much about it, until I read the article. I was baffled, but obviously, as you see below, he certainly was Lip Tied!!

Lip Tie

 

What symptoms may your baby experience if they are Lip Tied?

  • Poor latching/ Difficulty breastfeeding
  • Gassy (because of the latch, they are bringing in a lot of air)
  • Reflux
  • Poor Weight Gain
  • Difficulty holding the pacifier or bottle
  • Gap between teeth
  • Tooth decay
  • Irregular sleep patterns

The breastfeeding mama also suffers from painful nursing, sore breasts etc.

You can click here for a full list of symptoms.

Now what was so interesting for me is as I was reading through these, Grayson had NONE of them, but the gap in his teeth and poor weight gain and even that was up in the air. He nursed like a champ from the get go, I never had any issues nursing him, no pain, no problems. I could count on one hand the amount of times he cried in his first year of life. He just never fussed, he slept well early on and I just didn’t have any problems with him. He was a “fast nurser”, meaning he nursed quickly, but my doctor and the lactation consultant said he was probably just very efficient. I had two different lactation consultants and a nurse check his latch and that was never an issue. He gained weight, but slowly and it wasn’t a huge issue because he stayed on that same curve, never dipping off. It wasn’t until just recently that they wanted to test him for anemia because of his weight. Looking back, I do think that the Lip Tie probably inhibited him from nursing for longer periods of time, leading to a slow weight gain.

So once you suspect that your child is Lip Tied, what next? I recommend starting with pictures on the web in comparison to your little ones mouth. If there is any question, you can head to your local pediatrician, dentist or lactation consultant to confirm. Unfortunately, a lot of practitioners are not familiar with Lip Ties so you also have the option of emailing Dr Kotlow, the leading pediatric dentist in the country who fixes Lip Ties. He got back with me the very next day and I had a phone consult with him just a few days after that. He is AMAZING! You can send him pics of your little one and he can recommend a plan of action for you. Below is a diagnostic criteria per Dr. Kotlow.

how to diagnose tongue and lip ties

Once you have diagnosed the lip tie, you need to decide whether or not it needs to be fixed. Since I have found Grayson’s, I have had almost 5 people I know who have found that their baby is Lip Tied. Some of them have gotten it fixed and some haven’t. It all depends on the severity, your comfort and the advice of your doctor. I knew I had to get Grayson’s fixed right away. There was even a dark spot on his tooth which was the start of tooth decay. Mind you, he had only had his top teeth at that point for a month! He was getting decay from the Lip Tie quickly so I had to act fast.

There is a doctor close to me in Dayton who has been fixing Lip Ties on babies for over 20 years. Unfortunately, Dr. Notestein would not take Grayson as a patient because of his severity and that he had teeth. His frenulum actually wrapped all the way through the front teeth and around to his palate!!! **UPDATE: Dr Notestein now takes all kids! Kids of all ages and ones with teeth!** The only person left, that I knew of at the time, was Dr. Kotlow. They got me in right away and the entire staff is AMAZING to work with. They answered all my “what in the world is going to happen to my baby” mom questions with sweetness and confidence. Two weeks later, I was on a plane headed to NY! VERY LONG STORY, but the plane ride was awful and we ended up missing our surgery time. Dr. Kotlow gave me his cell and told me to call him when we landed and that he would meet me at his practice to do the surgery. Yeah, this is one amazing doc! We arrived at 6pm (after leaving cincy at 4:30… yeah it was a total nightmare!) and he met us there with his assistant.

They have you watch a short video on how to care for the area post surgery. By the time I was done, Grayson was back in my arms!! Dr. Kotlow doesn’t allow for parents to be in the room, but from what I was told, they have a swaddler in which they restrain them and they do numb the area prior to the procedure. Within that short time, he lasered off Grayson’s Lip Tie (which was a stage 4 severity) and he fixed his tongue tie (H-E-L-L-O, didn’t even know of that) and that was a stage 3 severity. How did this guy even nurse for a year, you got me?! He also had a severe cavity in his front tooth that he fixed. Basically, he explained that depending on the severity, the lip tie can create pockets in the upper gum and regardless of how good you are about brushing, it can still create cavities! If I would have waited, he would have probably developed cavities in all of his top teeth :(

Post surgery, you do have to stretch the area twice a day for 10 days or the area could re-attach. I then had to rub on vitamin E on both areas. It was hard, but I knew it was better than hopping back on a plane :) We had NO problems post surgery. Using a laser, there is NO chance of infection because it cauterizes (SP?) the area and there is no bleeding because of this. Grayson was extremely upset for about 10 minutes in my arms and then he was as good as new. He didn’t eat a ton for about two days, but was back to normal after that.

post lip tie

This was Grayson about 30 minutes after the procedure! Happy as can be :) After over 16 hours of traveling with a toddler, followed by a lip tie procedure,
we were both READY for BED!!!

Few things to think about:

  • If you have diagnosed your child with a Lip Tie, how do you know if you should get it fixed? Are they having a lot of the symptoms mentioned above? Are they eating well, is breastfeeding going well, are they crying a lot, are they losing weight? If they are older, do they have tooth decay starting? If they aren’t having any of these issues you may be able to wait until they get older. Most docs are comfortable taking on kids once they are 4 or older. A lot of what I read said that if they lip tie is minimal, most parents don’t do anything and you can have the gap fixed when the child gets braces. I say this because not always does a child need to have their lip tie fixed.
  • If you are having issues breastfeeding, PLEASE check this FIRST! Tongue tie and Lip tie can cause major issues in breastfeeding. It is NOT your fault. Once these issues are fixed, most moms notice an IMMEDIATE difference!
  • I have NOT done the research on this, but one of the symptoms of lip or tongue ties is delayed or problems with speech. My pediatrician said there was a study done at Children’s that if a child nurses o.k. with a lip tie they won’t have any speech delays. I was reading on the internet on forums from grown adults who have lip ties saying that they still have a lisp and wish their lip tie would have been fixed when they were young.

I don’t think there is a right answer here. I was thankful that there was NO question with Grayson. His had to be fixed ASAP. I had no choice in waiting, not doing etc. It just had to be done. Since all of this, I have found two more doctors in the Cincinnati area who take kids (yeah, I traveled all the way to the big city for fun lol :) )!

  • Dr. Everheart: 513-424-1834 (dentist. not sure on how he does the procedures)
  • Dr. Johnson at the Liberty Childrens (I think this is an ENT so he may have to put the child under).

Other resources:

  • Dr. Kotlow: endless amounts of articles on this topic
  • Mommypotamus: GREAT site with tons of great info. Also, read the comments on her post!

Feel free to email me (jennie@motherhoodsupport.com) or leave a comment with questions or sharing your experience!

{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }

Ladan Zinati November 18, 2013 at 11:06 pm

Distance and expenses is not a hindrance for a loving mom who really loves her child so much. This is a very rare case for a young one with a lip tie. This type of oral health disturbance needs special attention and treatment from the expert dentist. I deeply appreciate the effort of this article's author who is also a good mother for sharing her experience on the oral health case of her young baby boy which ended up into a successful surgery. All of your efforts for loved ones are really worth it!

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MomSupport November 19, 2013 at 10:19 am

Thanks for the kind words :)Jenniehttp://www.motherhoodsupport.com/From: notifications@intensedebatemail.comTo: jenniewestrich@hotmail.comSubject: Surviving Motherhood – New comment requires moderation on: What is a Lip Tie? How to Diagnose and Treat.

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xnxx August 28, 2015 at 3:08 pm

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Elizabeth Warner September 14, 2015 at 12:23 pm

Thank you for the information. I'm 99.9 % certain my 8 1/2 month old has a lip tie. How young is too young to get this corrected? I'm having a hard time finding a pediatric dentist or oral surgeon that handles babies. I suspected a lip tie when my daughter was much younger and asked my pediatrician about it. His response was "what's that"? Really? I called our pediatric dentist and they don't handle it there either. I'm going to get a picture tonight and send it to the Dr mentioned above. My daughter has 4 teeth on top and a big gap between her two front teeth on the top due to the lip tie. We live in the Dallas, TX area. Please let me know if you know of anyone here!

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Motherhood Support September 14, 2015 at 1:27 pm

I unfortunately do not know anyone in that area. If you contact Dr. Kotlow's office they may have someone that they can recommend for you. They can do them as early as infancy so it's not too early to get it corrected!! Feel free to email me directly if you have any other questions.Good Luck!Sent from my iPhone

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Syze January 23, 2016 at 2:04 am

Nice topic thanks for sharing :)

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Motherhood Support January 23, 2016 at 2:13 pm

Thanks for reading!Sent from my iPhone

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Jessie B. February 9, 2016 at 9:06 am

I live in Cincinnati as well and am on baby # 2. He is just 2 months old and breastfeeding has been so difficult for both of us. He is definitely lip tied and I believe he has a posterior tongue tie. I suffered for a year with my first even after having his tongue tie corrected at 2 weeks old. No one ever mention anything about lip ties. Examining him now as a 7-year-old, he also has a lip tie, but not as bad as my new little one. I have not seen a lactation consultant yet, but when I mentioned my issues with the first to my pediatrician I was told it was due to my inverted nipples, so I blamed myself and felt very guilty about the whole breastfeeding process. I really should have done more research then, as we both could have enjoyed this so important bonding time much more than we did. I am looking to get my baby examined and I really appreciated your article. I really think it is great that you have taken the time to help mothers out there that are dealing with this difficult process. I wish that more practitioners were informed about this very important problem. If you have any other local resources or a lactation consultant you could recommend, I would be very grateful. Thank you so much again for your concern.

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Motherhood Support February 9, 2016 at 1:49 pm

Thanks so much for your comments! It really is an issue that practitioners are not educated about!! I have listed most of the resources I have found. I hope that you find some resolution!Sent from my iPhone

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Kaitlin May 17, 2016 at 9:03 am

I actually deeply appreciate the work of the article’s author who is the good mom for sharing her experience on the oral health case of her young baby boy which wound up into a successful surgery.

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Terry July 28, 2016 at 3:07 am

It looks awkward to see my crooked tooth whenever I see myself in mirror and they have turned yellowish. My mother took me to a dentist who advised us to wait until I cross the right age for performing cosmetic dentistry. I am grown up now, and we are mentally prepared to consult the experts at http://www.sdcosmeticdentists.com/ once again. It will help correcting the structural flaws and make my teeth shiny white.

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Motherhood Support July 28, 2016 at 2:55 pm

Good luck to you!Sent from my iPhone

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Chapped lips August 5, 2016 at 12:11 am

Nice topic thanks for sharing :)

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John C. Martin August 18, 2016 at 9:34 am

Nice Post. Keep it up! Thanks a lot

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Motherhood Support August 18, 2016 at 4:59 pm

Thanks for reading!Motherhood Support <a href="http://www.motherhoodsupport.comwww.motherhoodsupport.com<br />FacebookTwitter You TubeInstagramPinterest 

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Lips January 8, 2017 at 11:11 am

Nice Post. Keep it up! Thanks

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Motherhood Support January 9, 2017 at 10:48 am

Thanks for reading! Motherhood Support <a href="http://www.motherhoodsupport.comwww.motherhoodsupport.com<br />FacebookTwitter You TubeInstagramPinterest 

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Newaj February 19, 2017 at 12:33 pm

Keep it up…

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Family Dental February 21, 2017 at 1:03 am

Yet another post I'm going share with my buddies on facebook. Thanks!

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Motherhood Support February 21, 2017 at 11:41 am

Thanks for reading!Motherhood Support <a href="http://www.motherhoodsupport.comwww.motherhoodsupport.com<br />FacebookTwitter You TubeInstagramPinterest 

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Wen April 12, 2017 at 2:18 am

Shared! Shared! This is AWESOME stuff man! Thank you!

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Motherhood Support April 12, 2017 at 10:02 pm

Thanks for reading :)Motherhood Support <a href="http://www.motherhoodsupport.comwww.motherhoodsupport.com<br />FacebookTwitter You TubeInstagramPinterest 

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Big Panda June 19, 2017 at 4:16 am

Shared! Shared! This is AWESOME stuff man! Thank you!

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Margaret Chumley February 10, 2018 at 7:41 am

would braces help?

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Motherhood Support February 10, 2018 at 3:45 pm

Braces can actually help as long as the lip tie isn’t severe enough to cause cavities in the teeth.Sent from my iPhone

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