Cutting Baby Tongues Becomes Hot New Business

The procedure, medically dubbed frenotomy, specifically and technically amounts to cutting the lingual frenulum, a tiny segment of tissue connecting the underside of the tongue to the floor of the mouth. In some specific instances, the procedure can be essential; such cases involve the frenulum restricting tongue movement and hampering breastfeeding. However, cutting baby tongues in our modern era has spurred worries about overuse and potential risks. 

One mother, Tess Merrell of Boise, Idaho, had an experience serving as a case study in the danger of frenotomy. Merell had already breastfed her first three children without issues—but encountered challenges breastfeeding her fourth baby. She consulted an expert in lactation, Melanie Henstrom, who identified a problem: her baby had a tongue tie. Henstrom advised a speedy laser procedure at a dentist’s office. Sadly, the procedure led to complications when the newborn refused to eat, becoming dangerously dehydrated and having to be put on a feeding tube. 

Experts attribute the rising popularity of cutting baby tongues to heightening pressure on new mothers to breastfeed. Enabling this increasing pressure is the similarly enlarging proliferation of lactation consultants and dentists advocating frenotomy—even when such a procedure is unnecessary. Subsequently and unsurprisingly, the procedure has grown into a lucrative, albeit niche industry, generating significant income for practitioners. This, it should be said, despite the evidence supporting the benefits of tongue-tie cutting in infants remaining scant. At the same time, the slight risk of complications–themselves not so slight–cannot be ignored or overstated. 

As expected, many parents and professionals have voiced qualms over the robust promotion of cutting baby tongues. Advocates portray the procedure as a veritable panacea for a range of health issues, including sleep apnea and speech impediments, yet do so without providing solid, empirically derived scientific backing. The aggressive marketing, coupled with the fears, distress, and exhaustion of new mothers, eventuated a steep rise in the number of unnecessary surgeries. This uptick in medical procedures has alarmed physicians nationwide. Medical practices have increasingly taken to warning the public about a procedure that, while not exactly something out of a horror movie, is still recommended to vulnerable parents without minimally sufficient justification. 

Parents, simply put, should know the risks involved in cutting baby tongues–as serious complications, however rare, can include pain so severe that infants refuse to eat. This can mean malnutrition, the above-mentioned dehydration, and sometimes blocked airways suffocated by the newly snipped tongue. Of course, lactation consultants and dentists defend the procedure they respectively advise and perform, citing success stories, positive testimonies, etc. But the stark lack of comprehensive oversight is undoubtedly concerning. Frenotomies usually operate beyond the standard regulatory scope governing most medical practices in America. Ultimately, the controversy surrounding tongue-tie cutting reflects a broader debate in the medical world concerning the appropriateness and necessity of medical interventions. Source: The New York Times