The Important Difference Between a Frenectomy and a Frenotomy to Treat Lip and Tongue-Ties

You can’t figure it out: your newborn is perfect, and you couldn’t love them more. Why can’t they breastfeed? What are you doing wrong? Fortunately, you bring your baby to a pediatric dentist for evaluation, and they inform you that your infant needs a frenectomy to take care of their tongue-tie. Now, that may feel like a lot of jargon thrown at you all at once, but understanding the problem and the difference between your two options, frenectomy and frenotomy, can help you know how to improve this situation for you and your baby!

Why Is a Lip or Tongue-Tie Important to Treat?

Commonly called a lip or tongue-tie, a thick or tight piece of connective tissue with the lip or tongue to the mouth floor may seem like an insignificant problem, but for your little baby, it can have a huge impact on their well-being. Newborns with a tie may not latch onto their mother’s breast properly, preventing them from being able to eat efficiently. It can slow their growth and development or even cause failure to thrive as well as cause pain for their nursing mom. Later in life, an untreated lip or tongue-tie can make eating solid food, speaking clearly, and other common functions more difficult.

When this problem is treated while they’re an infant under two months old, your baby can easily overcome these challenges as they develop. In fact, many babies can immediately nurse properly following the procedures to fix a lip or tongue-tie.

What Is the Difference Between a Frenectomy and a Frenotomy?

To get rid of a lip or tongue-tie, your pediatric dentist may recommend either a frenectomy or frenotomy. Both of these fancy words come from the word “frenulum,” which is the name of this tie or connective tissue.

Procedures ending in “-ectomy” often describe removing something completely, such as an appendectomy. In the case of a lip or tongue-tie, the entire frenulum is severed in a frenectomy with a soft tissue laser. A frenotomy, however, involves removing just some of the connective tissue with precision.

Does My Baby Need a Frenectomy or Frenotomy?

A frenotomy may be favored over a frenectomy if the lip or tongue-tie is particularly thick or if blood vessels are located nearby. Your pediatric dentist may simply wish to free their lip or tongue enough to restore function without having to remove the whole thing. However, neither procedure is necessarily superior to the other, although you can ask which one suits your child’s needs better. Ultimately, you would simply need to know which treatment your child needs so that you can ensure they heal completely and properly afterward.

Complicated jargon aside, it is extremely useful to know your struggles are tied to frenulum issues and that treatment can resolve the problem. If you find your baby has trouble with oral functions like breastfeeding or has a thick or restrictive frenulum, bring them to your pediatric dentist to see if a frenectomy or frenotomy can help!

About the Practice

At Coastal Pediatric Dentistry, our team is specifically qualified to help patients as young as newborns all the way up until high school graduation. Our board-certified pediatric dentists, Dr. James Forester and Dr. Natalie Vander Kam, have undergone years of extra training and experience. They are also parents of their respective families, so they understand your concerns as a parent and how to work with little ones. For frenectomies and frenotomies, we use a soft tissue laser, which is much gentler and more precise than traditional methods, so if you would like to have your newborn under two months of age evaluated for a lip or tongue-tie, call our San Luis Obispo practice at 805-592-2020 or visit our website here.