Articles

Often professionals think of tongue-tie as a simple condition; it’s a string under the tongue, and you just snip it and you’re done. “What’s the big deal?” they say. Well, the concept of a string is much simplified (and we use the word in the title of our book as a metaphor) but it’s actually a webbing of fascia or connective tissue that is folded up into a gathering under the tongue that has a variable thickness, elasticity, and location of attachment. In a nutshell, it’s complicated and can have many different appearances from a to-the-tip tie (anterior tongue-tie), to a virtually invisible band of restrictive tissue (posterior tongue-tie). The difficulty in treating this condition is because any variation of appearance can cause any range of symptoms. A to-the-tip tie can sometimes cause relatively few issues, and a hidden thick webbing that many healthcare providers would dismiss or say there is “no tie” can cause terrible symptoms that greatly affect a family’s quality of life. Symptoms and function are more important than appearance. The picture below is of a baby who was a failure to thrive and no one could figure out why. He had a hidden tongue restriction, and […]