Dr. Stroud talks to Dr. Aaron Light, a dentist specializing in treating tongue ties and lip ties in infants. Dr. Light shares his personal journey into this field, which began when his own daughter experienced severe breastfeeding difficulties due to ties during his dental school years.
Then Dr. Stroud and Dr. Light discuss why tongue and lip ties are often overlooked by healthcare providers. Dr. Light explains that many pediatricians and dentists weren’t trained to examine the mouth and are uncomfortable suggesting treatments they don’t know about. There’s also a cultural resistance in medicine to being an “outlier” – if colleagues aren’t discussing tongue ties, many providers avoid the topic entirely.
Dr. Light next explains the fundamentals of tongue ties and lip ties – restrictive tissue attachments that can significantly impact breastfeeding and cause pain for mothers. He describes the standard treatment which involves a quick laser procedure (10-15 seconds) using a CO2 laser, followed by mandatory stretching exercises for six weeks to prevent reattachment.
They also explore the long-term consequences of untreated tongue ties. Dr. Light explains how restricted tongue function can lead to mouth breathing, which impacts facial development, can make the upper jaw and nasal passages too narrow, and contribute to sleep disorders in children. He shares how research has found connections between tongue ties and seemingly unrelated long-term problems like bedwetting, night terrors, and ADHD-like symptoms, all stemming from disrupted breathing patterns and oxygen saturation during sleep.