‘Lip Tie’ is Natural in Most Newborns and Doesn’t Have to Be Treated,” Assert Beersheba Experts

‘Lip Tie’ is Natural in Most Newborns and Doesn’t Have to Be Treated,” Assert Beersheba Experts

Unscrupulous medical practitioners – physicians and dentists – around the world, including Israel, have for years advised inexperienced parents to needless put their newborns though a surgical procedure. Now, a new study from Ben-Gurion University (BGU) proves what has been known by pediatricians treating young infants but unknown to most parents that this surgery is unnecessary. 

A connection between the upper lip and upper gums is known as the “maxillary frenulum” or “lip tie” is found in almost all newborn babies. Unfortunately, despite its common presentation, gullible parents are duped by “experts” who claim to have a “solution” for a “potential problem” in feeding, speech or dental hygiene. They then offer any of a number of procedures to release this naturally occurring adhesion by laser or manual cutting of the tissue. Little do the parents know that in time the whole condition will subside without any intervention whatsoever.

However, a previous study conducted in an Israeli hospital’s newborn unit found that virtually all 141 infants that were carried to full-term presented to a certain extent with both labial and lingual frenula. Those offering the procedure have practically no evidence to support their enthusiasm towards “helping” such children aside from what seems like pure profit incentives, the BGU team wrote in the just-published study.

“This study follows a group of children with the ‘advanced tight adhesion’ and shows they were free of any developmental or feeding difficulties within five years of follow up. This [prospective] study serves to disseminate the knowledge that such a finding is typically normal and no intervention or anxiety provocation should be aroused with its diagnosis,” wrote Dr. Sody Naimer at the family medicine department of BGU’s Faculty of Health Sciences and colleagues at Clalit Health Services and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the journal Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics.

“Labial frenal attachments are thin folds of mucous membrane with enclosed muscle fibers that originate from the orbicularis oris muscle of the upper lip attached at the lips to the alveolar mucosa and underlying periosteum,” they wrote.  “Both the labial and lingual frenula have been implicated in issues regarding breastfeeding difficulty… and with improper latching of the newborn to the mother’s breast, thereby leading to painful nipples and increased infant reflux. To date, no prospective study has followed over time neonates with the most severe degree of frenulum tethering in order to determine whether it is correlated with the development of breastfeeding difficulty, dental hygiene, or functional problems.” 

The team expected an increase of breastfeeding difficulties beyond the normally accepted rate (15% to 20%), while also anticipating that an elevated predominance of oral hygiene and function issues would appear only if these were greatly increased. Therefore, if there were complications more common than threefold (40%–50%), it would be enough to show that the surgical treatment needed to be performed. But the BGU study showed that this did not occur, thus the surgical procedure is superfluous. 

So, the researchers concluded, if someone in the hospital or elsewhere recommends this procedure for your newborn, either ignore him or consult with an independent pediatric expert.