Saturday, June 11, 2011

Tongue Tied

At our dental cleanings on Monday, Dr. R discovered that Kay was literally tongue tied. Her tongue was attached right behind her bottom teeth. She couldn't even touch her tongue to her top teeth. She hasn't been a big talker, and we attributed it to being a third child, but there were other warning signs too. She was a terrible nurser as a baby and she mumbles on the rare occasion she does talk.
She loved the "elephant nose." She got sillier and sillier with the goofy gas, and was making faces at the assistant and Dr. R. Plus, she got to watch The Little Mermaid. Who wouldn't enjoy that?!

She was so good and held very still ("like a statue") during her frenectomy. The dentist used a laser to cut back the membrane that attached her tongue to the bottom of her mouth. I wasn't prepared for the bad smell.


Not as happy after the first go. The stick in her mouth has numbing stuff on it, but she couldn't keep it under her tongue and kept flipping it out of her mouth. The dentist removed a good portion of the membrane, then gave her a minute with more goofy gas after he checked it and realized she needed more removed. They all got to wear cool glasses because of the laser.



She has done really, really well. The pain killers made her extremely silly. Trent and I took her with us to Key Scouters Meeting that night and she was bouncing off the walls. Kaylee is usually pretty shy around adults she doesn't know really well, but she wasn't shy that night! It was quite the personality change! She will have a follow up visit later, but she has so much more movement with her tongue now. We've already noticed a difference in her speech. We're so grateful she did so well and is recovering so quickly! Ask her to stick her tongue out; she can actually accommodate now!

No comments: