Tongue and Lip Tie Revisions

Before and After Silhouette by Diane Newcomer

Poor sleep and Mouth Restrictions

My whole adult life I’ve struggled with being tired and not getting good enough sleep.

I sleep.

I can fall asleep.

I can nap.

I don’t have insomnia.

But I wake up and am still tired.  I never think, “What a beautiful day to get out of bed!”, more like “What a beautiful day to stay in bed.”  In college I could frequently be found napping in my roommates bed.  Scared her to no end, but sure made me giggle.

I’m also a stress sleeper, if that is even a term. When I am stressed, I sleep.  I’ve learned over the years to listen to my body and sleep a little extra when stress creeps up especially when I start to stutter or words are harder to recall.  My body powers down.

I’ve had a sleep study done, which showed no sleep apnea.  I’ve worked to get my hormones balanced alongside my doctors which has given me the ability to make it through the day with no naps.  I’ll take it! But my sleep has never been great.

Family Sleep Problems

Enter kids, husband, and a new dentist.  We found out my husband has sleep apnea a couple of years ago.  He tried a CPAP machine and would take it off in his sleep. The next answer was jaw surgery which was not exciting him.  Our dentist, Dr. Summer Gutzchow, suggested Vivos, an appliance that stretches the jaw and stimulates new bone growth.  In being evaluated we found out he has a very restricted airway because of his mouth anatomy.

Our youngest, as a baby had very strange breathing patterns.  He would stop breathing for 10 to 15 seconds and start back up again.  I remember hearing that babies don’t breathe regularly so don’t be worried.  I worry about everything so tried not to be upset about it. He always slept poorly and we thought he had acid reflux.  He had a scope done at 3 years old and found out he does not have acid reflux.  We were stumped by his sleep and what could be causing it. 

Around this time I started following Lori Hendrickson’s Instagram account. One of my college friends works for her. She is an expert in the area of tongue ties and ip ties for babies. I found her videos and before and after pictures of babies who followed her stretching protocol fascinating. I didn’t have a baby, so I didn’t think it applied but I was hooked on the videos. Then she stared posting pictures of older kids and educating about sleep.

While I was rocking him to sleep one night, he stopped breathing, was gasping for air and coughing.  He always slept with his mouth open and snored very loudly.

It all clicked. 

He had sleep apnea. 

We talked with our dentist who confirmed he had a restricted airway and agreed about sleep apnea.  Then we saw Nancy Wehner an oral myologist at Omaha Oral Myology.  They confirmed he had a tongue tie lip, lip tie and restricted airway.  We started exercises and went to the ENT to find out that he needed surgery for his adenoids and the mouth restricts.  He had his surgery and did awesome.  He had “HUGE” adenoids that the doctor commented on several times post surgery.  Poor guy couldn’t breathe.

Now 3 months post surgery he is breathing remarkably better! He is no longer gasping for air. He still wakes up in the night and we are doing new exercises to help him improve his breathing habits.

While all of this was happening my oldest started reporting waking up in the middle of the night.  We, along with our pediatrician, brushed him off thinking it was normal waking up at night.  Then I took him more seriously considering our family’s mouth history.  Back to the dentist to confirm that he too had a restricted airway and needed an appliance to help open his airway and encourage his teeth to come in correctly.

I have declared it the year of the mouth! 

My life has been spent at dentist and doctors offices trying to figure out the next paths for my boys mouths. Learning so about airways and mouth restrictions I decided I wanted to get evaluated too. 

And you guessed it.

I too had a tongue tie and lip tie, but not as severe as my boys. 

I started doing my mouth exercises and prepared for surgery and got covid.  Then I waited 3 months to reschedule which leads us up to the week of this post.

My Laser Surgery

On Monday Sept.19, 2022 I got my mouth lasered!  I went to yet another dentist, Dr. Bolenparti and had my tongue tie and lip tie taken care of.  My regular dentist, Dr. Summer Gutzchow, came to observe the work done with a laser and my oral myologist Erin came to assist.  I truly have an awesome team who wants to see our family get healthy.

The surgery took longer than I expected.  I guess I was thinking zap, zap, zap and 30 minutes later I’d be on my way.  Instead it was numb, zap, pull with Q-tips, zap, Q-Tip and lots of pulling on my lip.  At one point my lip fully covered my nose because they were getting up as high as they needed to.  I’m sure there are doctor words for this, but I’m not a doctor. They were incredibly thorough, which I want, but at the time, it was long.  The pressure from them working and keeping your mouth open for 1.5 hours was the most challenging part.  Apart from I don’t like needles and getting numb.

The best way to describe the process was like little cobwebs breaking.  You didn’t really feel it happening, but you felt the slightest bit of breaking.  That part was not painful.  Again, if you’ve had any dental work done, keeping your jaw open that long was the biggest challenge.  It was uncomfortable, but not unbearable.

I got a few breaks, which included a head and neck massage.  Again, I had an awesome team especially Erin.  Knowing my 7 year old was signed up for the same surgery the next week, I kept saying he can’t do this.  They assured me he could.

When they decided enough zapping and pulling had happened they put in the sutures, which is another word for stitches.  That was my least favorite part because I felt it. 

Then they were finished and I got to stand up.  I didn’t feel amazing like some of the videos or reports I’d seen online.  I didn’t cry or feel immediate relief from neck tension, but that wasn’t my problem to start with.  What we noticed is I immediately stood up straighter.  My chin always went forward along with my neck no matter how hard I tried to stand up straight. 

Now I was able to stand up straight just like a princess. 

I love feeling even more like a princess now, so that is a win!

Before leaving the office I took ibuprofen, got a card for a free smoothie and went on my way home.  Since it was all done unmedicated that drive home was not fun. The smoothie was nice and cold, but that hour after surgery was the worst of it all.  Not terrible, but not fun.

At home my lip, tongue and gums were swollen.  I stayed on top of my ibuprofen schedule and was able to sleep all night.  For breakfast I had another smoothie.  For lunch I had rice and beans and dinner some chicken nuggets and soup.  The third day I was eating chicken nuggets, tots and other soft foods.  I even tried some corn chips and salsa.  Now on the fifth day I am not needing pain medicine around the clock and am eating like normal.

One week out, I’ve noticed my lips are staying closed much more while at rest and my tongue is resting higher in my mouth.  I’ve had more dreams, and the dark circles under my eyes are looking less dark.  I am still standing up straighter and with my shoulders back.

Looking to the Future

I have another month of therapy planned.  My husband has to get further along with his appliance. He is stage 4 severely restricted with his tongue and will need two releases, along with releasing other mouth restrictions. My youngest needs more therapy to keep learning how to use his new tongue. 

Unfortunately, my oldest surgery was canceled because of his hysterical fear of needles.  We took him to get a flu shot and he absolutely panicked.  My mama heart knew he couldn’t do it, just like I suspected while having the surgery myself.  Back to the drawing board.  We were hoping to avoid surgery with the ENT because of not wanting to use general anesthesia and insurance problems with the first surgery.

There is our path to tongue tie and lip tie revisions for our whole family.  So far I’m happy to report that I believe it will be worth it for me and look forward to seeing how my body responds in the months ahead.  Hopefully with much better quality sleep!

P.S. If you like my silhouettes reach out and I can make a custom one for you.