Tongues are in the mouth, so tongue ties and the implications hereof are limited to the mouth alone. Or are they? Everything around the mouth and neck areas is tightly connected, so implications of a tongue tie are not just limited to the mouth but affects the entire neck/mouth area and beyond.

Tongue ties cause tensions

A tongue tie restricts mobility in the tongue. To compensate, your body uses both the tongue, and the surrounding muscles, in ways they were not intended for. This leads to severe tension, not just around the tongue, but in the entire neck/mouth area. If this tension is not relieved, it will spread through the rest of the body.

To read more about tongue tie symptoms, click here.

Tight muscles are uncomfortable or even outright painful and are difficult to use, especially for babies and small children. Naturally, this will limit the way your baby moves. This in turn means that important muscles in the body are not properly trained. This will lead to delayed development of gross motor skills. Symptoms of this can be that your baby:

  • will not be able to lift his head off the floor
  • will not be able to get into a sitting position
  • will not be able to turn his head after sounds
  • will be gassier, suffer from reflux or be generally uneasy

So even though the tongue is just a small muscle in the mouth, it can have profound impact on gross motor skills, and even the development of these in your baby.

The way to treat it

The first step is to consult a bodyworker to be sure that your baby does indeed suffer from tensions in the body. If it does, you should get a practitioner to examine your baby for a tongue tie. Just alleviating symptoms through bodywork will not be a sustainable solution, as the tensions will just keep coming back. Be sure that the practitioner you choose does in fact have enough knowledge about tongue ties. As tongue ties are a recently identified condition, not all ear, nose and throat doctors know enough about it yet.

If the practitioner diagnoses a tongue tie, the next step is to get it revised. This is done by using a laser to separate the bottom of the tongue from the bottom of the mouth. It is not a complicated procedure, and only takes a couple of minutes. You do however need to perform aftercare to ensure proper wound management after.

If you are new to tongue ties and want to know more, click here.

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