Laser Frenectomy

In your mouth, the “frenum” refers to the flap of connective tissue located beneath the upper lip or under the tongue. A Frenectomy is a common procedure that involves releasing the tissue on the frenum to resolve a tongue tie or lip tie.

Lingual Frenum

If you touch your tongue to the roof of your mouth, you can most likely feel the lingual frenum stretching beneath your tongue. Each person is unique so the length of the lingual frenum varies from person to person. Some people are born with a short lingual frenum which restricts movement of the tongue. This condition is known as Ankyloglossia, or “tongue tie” and can interfere with breastfeeding as an infant and speech development as a child matures. A frenectomy, or more specifically, a lingual frenectomy, can give the tongue a greater range of motion and immediately provide relief for successful breastfeeding.

Maxillary Frenum

If you reach your tongue to the front of your teeth to feel the inside of your upper lip, you can probably feel the attachment known as the labial or maxillary frenum which connects your top lip to the gum area right above your front teeth. If this frenum is shorter than average, it can cause difficulty in speech development or dental spacing issues during a child’s development. It can also make it hard to fully clean the gums and the front teeth which can raise the risk of gum disease. A frenectomy, or more specifically, a maxillary frenectomy, can give the upper lip more mobility.

A frenectomy is often recommended when the frenum attachment is too tight or too short and restricts the range of motion within the mouth. It can also interfere with breastfeeding, swallowing, speech development or dental spacing. The procedure, a laser frenectomy, can generally correct the issues associated with the excess tissue.

Traditionally, the tight frenum attachment is cut with a pair of surgical scissors or a scalpel. While the process is quick, it usually requires the use of a local anesthetic to numb the area and in more complicated cases may require stitches to close the incision. On the other hand, a laser frenectomy is most often performed without the need for local anesthetics as the laser causes very minimal pain. Sometimes a short-lived topical anesthetic is applied to the area to provide any pain relief that may be present. Dr. Barker uses a prescription strength topical anesthetic gel which numbs the area for just a few minutes which is usually the duration of the procedure itself. Using a laser offers a way to prevent excess bleeding, infections post-surgery and high-risk complications. The use of a laser also offers a level of precision that cannot be matched with the use of traditional dental tools.

Frenectomies are successfully performed on people of all ages. It is common to identify a lip or tongue tie in a newborn that is having trouble breastfeeding. An infant may have trouble latching and the mom may experience more pain that what is considered “normal.” As a toddler, speech development issues may raise awareness of the need for a Frenectomy to release a tongue or lip tie. As we grow older, the oral cavity changes significantly. As an adult, a tongue tie or lip tie can lead to gum recession or restricted mobility of the tongue or lips. 

The recovery from an oral frenectomy is generally straightforward. You can find our after-care instructions for infants/children and adults here. For infants/children, we include a link to Dr. Bobby Ghaheri’s website for aftercare video demonstrations. Please note that a frenectomy performed on an adult way require a slightly longer recovery time than an infant frenectomy.

Releasing a lip tie or tongue tie using a laser carries very small risk of infection or complications and makes the healing period a breeze. An oral frenectomy is a simple in-office procedure that usually takes less than 15 minutes to complete. Please feel free to reach out to us at (410) 647-6453 if you have questions about our laser frenectomy procedure.