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PBL Foundations


  • What is lingual frenotomy, what's the best method, and when might frenotomy help you and your baby breastfeed?
  • What are possible side-effects of frenotomy?
  • Will wound-stretching exercises help after a frenotomy?
  • Will baby's development be affected if you don't treat oral connective tissue tightness?

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  • PBL Foundations
  • S10: Infant tongue-tie and fascial restrictions
  • CH 3: What helps breastfeeding when your baby has oral connective tissue restriction?

Will wound-stretching exercises help after a frenotomy?

Dr Pamela Douglas9th of Nov 202429th of Dec 2024

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Wound stretching exercises after frenotomy don't change the way the oral tissue heals.

If you were advised to have a laser frenotomy performed on your baby, you are likely to be advised to follow up with wound stretching exercises a number of times a day, for a number of weeks, and also bodywork exercises and stretches in or around your baby's mouth and body. You might even be advised to do these exercises if your baby has a scissors frenotomy, too.

But wound stretching exercises won't stop the mucosa and underlying connective tissue healing with a scar, won't stop opposing edges of the wound adhering, or the healed tissues re-forming in the shape similar to the frenulum prior to the frenotomy. The belief that wound stretching exercises alters the way wounds in the mouth heals misunderstands the nature of oral mucosa and oral wound-healing.

Wound-stretching exercises can, however, causes pain or discomfort, and may result in baby developing a conditioned dialling up with breastfeeds. You can find out about this here.

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Next up in What helps breastfeeding when your baby has oral connective tissue restriction?

Will baby's development be affected if you don't treat oral connective tissue tightness?

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A true or classic tongue-tie may require a simple scissors frenotomy, to assist with breastfeeding. Clinicians have accepted for many years, anecdotally and from clinical observations, that children with untreated classic tongue-tie have difficulty licking ice-creams, using their tongue for oral hygiene, and pronouncing syllables which require the tip of the tongue to contact the bony palate.

The research doesn't show a link between tongue-tie and speech difficulties in later childhood, but this could be because the definitions of ankyloglossia are confused in existing studies, and diagnoses of posterior tongue-tie are included alongside classic tongue-ties, obscuring the effects of a true or classic tongue-tie.

Parents are often told that if they…

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Possums acknowledges the traditional owners of the lands upon which The Possums Programs have been created, the Yuggera and Turrbal Peoples. We acknowledge that First Nations have breastfed, slept with, and lovingly raised their children on Australian lands for at least 65,000 years, to become the oldest continuous living culture on Earth. Possums stands with the Uluru Statement from the Heart.