Dentists and midwives across the US are increasingly slicing away tissue around babies’ tongues to make breastfeeding easier — but some critics claim the surgery is nothing more than a dangerous “money grab.”
The practice, known as “tongue-tie surgery,” involves using a laser to burn away excess tissue under the tongue or the webbing that connects the lips and cheeks.
It was originally supposed to be used only when babies had a genuine defect that prevented them from breastfeeding properly. But it has become increasingly popular over the past 20 years, with some doctors claiming it can prevent a litany of future problems including sleep apnea and speech disorders.
Now other members of the medical community — and mothers — say the trend is alarming, leaving some babies unable to eat for so long that they become malnourished.
“It’s being touted as this miracle cure,” Tess Merrell, a Boise mother, recently told The New York Times.
“We felt really stupid afterwards because we paid to hurt our baby,” she said of herself and her husband, Allan.
She said an Idaho-based lactation consultant recommended in a Facebook message that she get the procedure for her daughter, Eleanor, despite never seeing the baby in person and despite pediatricians, physical therapists and other lactation consultants insisting that tongue-tie is not the cause of Disability. Eleanor to breastfeed comfortably.
The baby soon became dehydrated and malnourished.
Tongue-tie surgery involves using a laser to burn excess tissue under the organ or to reduce the webbing that connects the lips and cheeks. david bonaldo – stock.adobe.com
Some other babies who have undergone the procedure even had to be connected to a feeding tube when they started having difficulty sucking or swallowing, critics said.
Some doctors think that a newly released floppy tongue can even block a baby’s airway, the Times said.
Between 1997 and 2012, the rate of these surgeries increased by 800%, from about 1,280 surgeries to more than 12,000, a 2017 study found.
Google searches for “tongue tie” hit a record in June, more than doubling over the past five years.
This trend toward surgery appears to have begun after a 2004 article in the newsletter of the American Academy of Pediatrics suggested that a wide range of babies may benefit from surgery, although they are not between 4% and 11% of babies born. with an abnormally short, thick or tight band of tissue that anchors the tongue to the floor of the mouth.
Some babies who underwent surgery were malnourished and had to be connected to a feeding tube. Sincerely Tess Merrell
Most doctors say the condition is harmless, but in the article, a pediatric surgeon and lactation consultant wrote that some small patients have a finer tether on the back of their tongue or have tissue that tightly connects their lips to their gums. Any of these issues can prevent breastfeeding, experts say.
Since then, lactation consultant Alison Hazelbaker says rates of tongue-tied, cheek-tied and lip-tied diagnoses have increased.
“Everything started going to hell in a handbasket,” he said.
By 2020, a panel of 16 leading ear, nose and throat specialists published guidelines warning that tongue-tie is overdiagnosed and that cheek-tie relief “should not be done”.
Even one of the authors of the original 2004 article, Catherine Watson Genna – a lactation consultant in New York – admitted she was starting to “have major concerns.”
Tess Merrell said lactation consultant Melanie Henstrom recommended she get the procedure for her daughter, Eleanor, in a Facebook message, Facebook/Allan Merrell
He said more recent research has proven that some babies diagnosed with tongue-tie have other conditions that restrict tongue movement.
“Everything looks like nails because everyone now has a hammer,” he told the Times.
Dentists who perform surgeries can earn $600 to $900 a pop, with the Times reporting that a “prominent dentist in Manhattan” makes millions of dollars a year from surgeries.
In April, Biolase – which sells the $80,000 machine – hosted a conference for more than 100 dentists and pediatric colleagues at a resort in Scottsdale, Ariz., titled “Tequila and Tongue Ties.”
Merrell said a pediatrician, a physical therapist and another lactation consultant had told her that tongue-tie was not the cause of her inability to get Eleanor to breastfeed comfortably. Facebook/Allan Merrell
Attendees were trained on how to use the machines and how to use social media to build their businesses – before they indulged in rounds of tequila and margaritas, the Times reported.
Company CEO John Beaver reportedly boasts that his firm’s financing plan for the machine purchase means doctors only need to perform three surgeries a month to break even and can generate a “huge” return on their investment.
Kentucky-based Pediatric Associate Dr. Charles Cavallo said he finally decided to speak out in response to what he saw as a “money grab.”
He warned last year on his website about the increasing number of dentists offering the surgery “at a very high price,” and claimed, “We have seen babies in severe pain after this procedure sometimes refuse in oral reluctance (refusal to eat ).”
A mother in Montana who signed her baby up for the procedure in November 2022 said her son lost the ability to suck after that and dropped from the 97th percentile to the 15th percentile in just three months.
A pediatric ENT in Delaware says he recently treated an 11-day-old child who was hospitalized for severe weight loss after surgery.
She said that after that, she and her husband, Allan, Facebook/Allan Merrell
Some parents say their guilt over seeing their babies suffer after surgery has left them depressed, while others have revealed they spent thousands of dollars on speech therapists whose services were needed for their child’s recovery.
In Idaho, former lactation consulting clients on Facebook said she made their babies’ pain worse by rooting in their mouths and increasing pressure on various points.
Consultants often refer patients exclusively to the same dentist and hold the baby while he performs the surgery, the Times said.
The lactation expert also reportedly urged parents to be careful that without surgery, their baby would never breastfeed again or eat solid food. He also reportedly warned that untreated tongue tie can cause learning disabilities, scoliosis and sleep apnea.
Since 2020, the International Board of Examiners of Lactation Consultants has received at least three complaints about the consultant, including one from pediatric physical therapist Kelly Strickland, who said she was “being referred to parents who were uncomfortable, who went to [a] followed up and said it was traumatic, that he pushed hard on their baby’s mouth.”
Between 1997 and 2012, the rate of these surgeries increased by 800%, from around 1,280 surgeries to more than 12,000. kittyfly – stock.adobe.com
But the lactation board took no disciplinary action against the employee, with a spokesperson telling the Times, “Some complaints take longer than others due to the nature of the allegations and related investigations.”
The lactation consultant has insisted she pays close attention to each client.
“I have thousands of people who are excited about what I’m doing,” he told the Times.
At least one mother also filed a complaint against the dentist who worked with the consultant to the Idaho dental board, which later informed her that it “did not feel that further investigation was warranted” and that the dentist was innocent.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
