If you are researching oral tie revision for your baby, read this:…read more
I recently had my 7 month old son's 4 oral ties released after months of research and prep (tongue, two cheek and lip) and I feel like I can give a very detailed and hopefully helpful account of the process and preparation.
First and foremost, Dr. Jude Crutchfield and his team were absolutely fantastic. I feel strongly that he is the local pediatric dental expert on oral ties and all the mechanics of the revision. I used a different provider for my 3.5 year old daughter before I knew about Dr. Jude, and the experience was very different.
However, before you decide to do an oral tie release, I truly feel like it is critical to understand that a full care team really should to be in place to help maximize healing and ensure oral motor function progress, especially if your goal is to preserve or move to breastfeeding.
I put off doing the revision out of fear that my son would struggle to breastfeed after the release. It's unfortunately something that can happen if baby has oral motor dysfunction and/or a lot of body tension, so I really took my time researching and understanding the process.
Dr. Jude is just 1/3 of the puzzle piece.
Shanee with Faithful Lactation (IBCLC), and Dr. Maria of Bee Well Chiropractic for Craniosacral therapy and myofacial bodywork all played a vital and integral role in my son's successful post release.
When the body is restricted in the mouth, it overcompensates in other areas, including with latch, which was a big reason my baby struggled with weight gain. Before my milk supply regulated around 12 weeks, my oversupply was doing a lot of the work for my baby, but after I regulated, it became clear that he had quite a bit of latch dysfunction and was just not transferring milk well. Body tension can cause breathing / posture issues, sleep issues, feeding issues, palate development, and just general comfortability issues for baby (colic).
Shanee was really the leader of the group, and Dr. Jude referred to her assessment much of the journey, which also made sense to us. Shanee is a brilliant IBCLC with tremendous healthcare experience and tons of oral motor expertise.
Following Dr. Jude and Shanee's advice, we did several appointments of pre-bodywork before the release, followed by many appointments between Shanee and Dr. Maria post release.
I credit my son's progress to working with all three providers.
I DO NOT think it is wise to do an oral tie release without also consulting Shanee and Dr. Maria. Without proper oversight from a knowledgeable and tie-savvy IBCLC like Shanee, and without a physical overview from Dr. Maria, I believe you run the risk of oral motor dysfunction and feeding / latching issues with breastfeeding post release.
Unfortunately, that can make the process costly as only the release is mostly covered by dental insurance. The bodywork portion is out-of-pocket, and the lactation visits can sometimes be super billed to your health insurance for partial or full reimbursement.
Regardless, I truly believe it is a long-term investment that has so many benefits if you can commit to treating the full picture.
If nothing else, you at least need to work with a qualified IBCLC if you're breastfeeding and want to make sure baby can latch after the release.
Thankfully, my son immediately took to latching again right after the release and we never had any challenges resuming breastfeeding. His latch did immediately improve and he started taking in more milk. (We learned that during a before and after weighted feed at the Lactation Consultation office).
It is also so so critical to make sure that you commit to six weeks of follow up oral stretches and wound care, even at night, round the clock, or else you risk reattachment. Take this part very seriously too.
I would absolutely do it again and I believe wholeheartedly that it made a huge difference for my baby. I am so glad we are on the other side now after months of research and prep. We are well into post release and have had no issues, though I was very prepared for the journey not to be a linear as that's what we were prepped for by Shanee, Dr. Maria and Dr. Jude.
