Services for 0-12 week olds
The service we offer for 0-12 week olds comprises of a medical consultation, including release of the tongue, lip and or buccal tie(s) if indicated, feeding support and aftercare.
Consultation
We will go through your baby’s history with you, examine your baby and then discuss the findings of both. If a release of an oral tie(s) is necessary this can usually be offered at the same appointment once consent has been obtained.
Procedure
One of our Healthcare Assistants will bring your baby through to the procedure room. Due to laser safety guidelines and for the best care of your baby, parents remain in their consultation room. Your baby will be swaddled and laser safety goggles put on them. The doctor will use some local anaesthetic gel to numb the area to be treated and then the tie(s) will be released using a CO2 laser. Babies sometimes dislike being swaddled or are hungry, but are usually then settled when they return to you, around 10 minutes after they were taken for their procedure.
Feeding
Your baby can feed after the procedure and we will assist you with this. If you are breastfeeding you will have an IBCLC help you. If you are bottle feeding we may suggest trying a different bottle and we have a range here in the clinic to find the one that is going to work best for your baby to optimise their oral function.
Aftercare
To achieve the best result from a tongue tie release we need to follow an aftercare programme. In order to optimise the healing of the surgical site, as well as change how your baby sucks, we need to teach an optimal resting posture of the tongue and teach you some massage to ensure we don’t have any reattachment of the released tissues. A member of our team will go through all this with you, including some bodywork exercises, so that you are confident in the care you are providing at home over the coming weeks.
Follow-up
We invite all parents to bring back their baby during the week following surgery for a member of the team to check the surgical site (Diamond check).
We also ask that you email us photos or videos of the diamond every 48hrs for two weeks following the procedure so we can monitor this healing process for you.
Should you wish for any further feeding support or therapy you are very welcome to make an appointment at any time.
Are There Any Side Effects?
With the use of a CO2 laser, there is usually little to no bleeding.
Rarely, because of an aberrant blood vessel near the frenulum, we can get a more significant bleed. If this occurs we control the bleeding with one or two absorbable sutures which do not affect the healing of the surgical site. We do not use silver nitrate to control bleeding, which is often the first line of choice, as this can cause a chemical burn.
The greatest complication is reattachment or sub-optimal healing which is why we have an aftercare program in place.