Has Anyone Had Their Child's Frenulum Clipped?

Hi J.,
Both of my daughters have the same thing. Our dentist is planning on cutting it, but he is going to wait until they are at least 12 years old. He says it's best to wait until their permanent teeth are in.
I don't know how much it's gonna hurt. (I would think it would hurt a lot!) But he said he'll numb the area, clip it, and it will be fine. Just no salty, spicy foods for a while til it heals. Guess we'll wait and see!
I don't know if this is the norm or just my dentist's way of doing things. I would check with yours and see what he says. Good luck!!

my sister had hers clipped when she was a teenager. it doesnt seem to affect much, you can ask your doctor about it at your next visit, dont feel like you have to make a special visit just for this. however, since your kids are rather young, i would really not worry about it for quite a few years, it could very well change in the future. ive seen lots of kids who looked like theirs was in the way, and they kinda grew into it later. so no worries!

J.,

I had this done when I was a little girl and my daughter also had it done. It is the skin that comes from your upper lip and attaches to your gum by your two front teeth. Mine and my daughters attached almost right between the two front teeth preventing them from coming together. I do no think they will do it until the permanent teeth have come in. I can no remember for sure what age I was but I know I had my permanent teeth and my daughter was 10. It is a very simple procedure and she felt like she had a fat lip for a little while but other than that no pain. Her teeth started to come together almost immediately. She then had braces put on so that helped speed the process. The braces were something she had to have anyway. The braces had nothing to do with this though.

Good luck

S. K

J.
I had mine clipped in 2nd grade. My permanent teeth were in and I had to small braces on my front 2 teeth. At the time it was the most painful thing. The doc put 6 stiches in and it hurt, but after it was done we went and got some ice cream and it was all good. I am glad I did it. I only had two where my 2little braces for like 6 months and didn't need any other types of orthrodontras. That was also 20 years ago. Good luck and get some ice cream when u are done.

I thought the thing under the tongue was called the frenulum and the thing between your lip and gums was called a frenum. Either way, I had mine clipped when I was a teenager. Not on purpose. I went to get my wisdom teeth out and my doctor gave me a "two for one" deal and clipped the thing too. It was mroe painful than the wisdom teeth! My older son had to have his frenulum (under his tongue) clipped when he was 2 weeks old because he was severely tongue tied and couldn't barely move his tongue. My niece did too.

J.,

The sooner the better. I didn't have mine clipped until I was in high school and had it done when my impacted wisdom teeth were removed. I had to have several stitches and lots of painful practice stretching my tongue muscles that hadn't been used correctly for 17 years. I spoke a little funny in elementary school and had to endure teasing. Having it clipped - and all of the tongue exercises - helped, but occassionally people can hear that I don't say certain words quite right. Newborns get this done in their doctors office and it is less tramatic than a hang nail. Get it done when she is little and heals quickly and hasn't established all of her speech patterns yet.

Good luck,

S.

My children have this too (as do I, but I had my space filled in and did not need to have the frenectomy) and I was told both by an orthodontist and dentist that they would not do it until the permanent teeth come in. I was also told by the orthodontist that he would want to do braces first and then the frenectomy because it is harder to move teeth through scar tissue. I did not get a second opinion though (I will worry about that when the time comes - my oldest daughter is only 4) so I'm not sure what other orthos/dentists would say about it. Hope this is helpful!

I had mine done but I was 12 and it was right before I got braces put on. I would think the earlier the better, because that might help the adult teeth grow in better! Hope it all goes smoothly!

My son had his clipped last summer -- well, actually, the dentist he goes to has a dental laser, so they used that to take care of it (the dentist said that this method was less painful than the traditional 'clipping'). Given the choice, he chose dad to take him, but he said it was not a big deal at all, and the recovery/healing was easy -- maybe a couple doses of tylenol/motrin the first day or so. As for age, he was a couple months short of 6 at the time. The dentist had been watching it for a while (he's been going since he was a year and a half), and said it was time to take care of it so that he would not have that gap when his adult teeth started coming in, just as you mentioned. As smooth as it went and if it is going to head off that spacing issue with his teeth, we have no regrets at all about having it taken care of when we did. Incidentally, our dental insurance paid pretty well for the actual procedure, but NOT for the analgesia. Yeah, whatever, I'd like to see THEM or THEIR kid do it with no analgesia. Sheesh. Hope this helps.

The earlier you do it while the child's mouth is still growing the better off you will be down the road. I did mine when I was in my early 20's because I was too chicken to get it done and wound up having to get 2 small braces on my 2 front teeth to bring them together and then had to have some bonding work done to make it look more natural. The dentist said had I would have had this done earlier in life when my mouth was still forming and growing I would not have had to do the braces. But over all it was painless & easy and I am so happy now. Good luck with your decision.

Are you talking about the little thing under the tongue? Tongue Tied? If so I did it when my daughter was about 2 weeks old. Didn't want any problems in her life in the future such as speech, dental, eating etc. I had to convince the ENT doctor to do it, I just used the excuse she wasn't breastfeeding well which was true in a sense. I would do it asap. It was a fast, in out procedure I'd compare it to getting a child's ears pierced. Ya it hurt, she bled but it was over and done with in minutes and now she'll beable to lick an icecream cone, talk normally, eat, you name it.

My daughter was supposed to have her frenulum clipped when she was 7 years old. However, we decided to have her braces put on when she was 8, and when the teeth are pushed together, it cuts off the blood supply to the part of the frenulum that goes between the two front teeth and causes it to "shrink" to a normal appearance. 8 is early to get braces, but in addition to having the gap, she had terrible buck teeth, and the fear was that if she fell, she would break out her front teeth.

As a side note, I contacted both my dental insurance and health insurance to see who would cover the bill when I thought she was going to have her frenulum clipped. Both denied that they would pay it. I appealed both decisions, and, in the end, they were both willing to cover the bill. I'm not sure what your insurance situation is, but you should check to see what is covered, and consider appealing if they deny to pay for it.

Good luck!