Frenectomies can happen at any time. We do them on young kids, as young as 0 years old. And we do them on older adults that may need dentures. And a Frenectomy is a very simple, very easy, very quick procedure that we just take a little laser and we cut a little bit of tissue. The tissue, it’s generally not painful or minimally painful. And it’s very fast and easy to do in the office.
It can help things… On the younger kids, it can help with breastfeeding if kids aren’t getting enough nutrients so that they can use their tongue in the right way. We can do lingual frenectomies. Sometimes the frenum, a little piece of tissue, is holding up teeth so that they don’t come together. So we can eliminate that piece of tissue and allow the orthodontist to bring teeth together.
And then sometimes we can use them in older adults for dentures. So some patients have dentures that aren’t fitting very well because of the tissue that’s holding on. And so we can release those frenums and allow people to have a denture that fits better.
One more thing that it can be used for with adults or kids with speech impediments or lisps, we do lingual frenectomies, myofunctional therapy down the road to help with any vowels or any consonants that are difficult for someone to say.
