Newborn tongue-tie: Always this difficult to diagnose?
In honor of National Breastfeeding Month this August, Barbara Tritz, the Queen of Dental Hygiene, turned over the authoring of a recent post on her blog to her daughter, Alexa, who recently gave birth and breastfed. Alexa was one of so many new parents who experienced less-than-ideal conditions when she brought her son home. But getting solutions proved to be a lot harder than she could have imagined.
It was obvious from the get-go that not all was well with Alexa's newborn son. But the medical professionals kept assuring her that everything was on track. She tried to believe them, but her breaking point came when she was trying to breastfeed for the thousandth time, and the pain became unbearable.
When she called her mother, Barbara quickly put the wheels into motion. The diagnosis? Tongue-tie.
"I’m writing this and sharing this to create awareness," Alexa writes in the post. "Awareness that ties are commonly missed. Awareness that your average provider isn’t adequately educated about ties. Awareness that you may have a tie!"
Alexa's journey to figuring out the problem took much longer than she would have liked, with her and her baby both in pain. She didn't learn that her son was in pain until seeing the proper specialist, thanks to her RDH mother.
Read Alexa's entire journey here, and know that no one is ever alone
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About the Author
Barbara Tritz, MSB, BSDATE, BRDH, HIAOMTBarbara Tritz, MSB, BSDATE, BRDH, HIAOMT
Barbara is a biological dental hygienist, oral microbiome specialist, international speaker, and author with more than 40 years of clinical experience. She practices at Green City Dental in Edmonds, Washington. Barbara serves on the IAOMT Board and is chair of the IAOMT Dental Hygiene Committee. Her biological dental hygiene work focuses on microscopy, salivary diagnostics, oxygen-ozone therapy, airway health, host response, and root-cause approaches to oral-systemic health. Visit QueenofDentalHygiene.net.
