Tongue Tie-Adult Edition

I don’t mean it’s rated R, I mean this tie release was done on my adult daughter.

As a midwife, I’ve referred many babies for a tie assessment and release. Note: I just learned that the first time a tie is treated (with laser or scalpel) it’s called a release. If it has to happen again then it’s a revision. I’ve been saying revision for all tie treatments.

Clearly I’m not an expert on ties yet, but I’m working on it. At the beginning of quarantine, I took an online class on ties. It was a great start to understanding this big world of tethered lips and tongues. I read “Tongued Tied” by Richard Baxter and began to understand the magnitude of the effects a tethered mouth can have on the body. I suspected my oldest had a tie, but at the time she was 23 and had no speech issues and had a mostly uneventful breastfeeding experience as a newborn (2 years of breastfeeding at that). The seminar I’d taken said there can be horrible looking ties but as long as the mouth was functional, the appearance was irrelevant. So I assumed she was functioning fine. No big deal.

Meanwhile, after putting off our dental checkup due to lock-down, we were seen in October of 2020 by our family dentist. Ashlyn had ten cavities. Everyone was shocked. Our dentist paced the halls of the office and tried to talk through why she’d have so many. He knew she had good dental hygiene so he tested her mouth ph-it was off so he suggested using baking soda when brushing to equalize it. She left very defeated. 

One of those teeth erupted into a volcano of pain earlier this year. When she saw our dentist, he recommended a root canal. 

We’ve not had much experience with root canals but I knew they were rejected by the natural community. I did some digging-actually I had Ashlyn do her digging because it’s her body and her decision. We both found information stating that the technology doesn’t exist to truly clean out the decay from the tiny tubes in the tooth, so it gets sequestered off. That isn’t enough, according to some theories. This decay can leech into the body and cause a myriad of  health problems. 

We told the dental assistant at our mainstream dentist we’d be considering another route instead of a root canal and she looked at us like we had two heads-thankfully the rest of the staff was very supportive. 

An appointment was made for a second opinion with Dr. Preetha Thomas, a holistic dentist in Southlake. She evaluated the infected tooth but immediately said, “I know why you had so many cavities-you have a tongue tie and can’t sweep the food from your mouth as you should be able to.” 

As far as the root canal went, Dr. Thomas was very much pro-bodily autonomy and said she didn’t want to influence Ashlyn and she didn’t want me to influence her either. She laid out all the cons of a root canal and Ashlyn felt like she and Dr. Thomas were on the same page. Plus, an extraction is much cheaper. Then Dr. Thomas changed tack and gave all the pros of a root canal in Ashlyn’s case. Her main fear was that there were two more teeth that looked like they could need a root canal in the near future. If that were the case, Ashlyn could lose several teeth.

The option of a root canal with ozone therapy was explained-if you have to have a root canal, it’s the holistic way to go. In Ashlyn’s case, she could choose the root canal for this tooth while waiting to see what the other teeth do. If they stay stable for the next few years, she could have it removed. If they erupt in an infection, she would have saved at least one tooth. 

We walked out of the office and Ashlyn said, “I think Dr. Thomas wants me to have an extraction.” I said, “I think she wants you to have a root canal.” Clearly Dr. Thomas had done her job well. Ashlyn chose the ozone treated root canal and on our drive home, we called Dr Lee’s office (before she could change her mind). We were shocked to hear they could get her in two days later. 

Root canals have a horrible reputation. We knew that it was not the ideal option, but maybe the most ideal for Ashlyn. Ashlyn had used up all of her dental coverage for the year so we were paying out of pocket for a choice we didn’t love. She tends to need a lot of anesthetic to get numb (like her dad, whose vasectomy was really not fun since he metabolizes anesthetic so fast it’s fairly worthless-MTHFR? Maybe…). The endodontist’s office reassured me they could handle her numbing issues and even put anesthetic on the nerve itself once the tooth was opened up. She’d be the last patient of the day and he could take his time on her case. 

The root canal day was not a good day.

…to be continued.