Effects of lingual frenotomy on breastfeeding and electrical activity of the masseter and suprahyoid muscles.
Hellen Kalina Medeiros Porto de Souza Santos, Daniele Andrade da Cunha, Rodrigo Alves de Andrade and 4 others
PMID 37098939WHAT IT FOUND
Seven days after surgical release of the tongue tie, infants showed fewer signs of difficulty with latch and positioning.
Electrical activity in the jaw muscle dropped, but muscle activity in the floor of the mouth did not change.
Key findings
01Seven days after frenotomy, fewer signs suggestive of difficulty were observed in general observation of the mother, baby position, latch, and sucking.
02Electrical activity of the masseter muscle decreased significantly after surgery, but suprahyoid muscle activity did not change.
03The type of feeding (exclusive versus mixed) had no effect on muscle activity or breastfeeding observation scores.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample size was small (20 infants), which limits the certainty of the findings. Half of the initially diagnosed infants (20 of 40) were lost to follow-up, which may introduce bias. The follow-up period was only seven days, which may be too short to observe full changes in sucking patterns or muscle adaptation. There was no control group of infants with ankyloglossia who did not undergo surgery, so natural improvement or placebo effects cannot be ruled out.
Declared interests
The study was funded by CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior), a Brazilian government agency. No commercial conflicts of interest were declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that surgical release immediately normalizes all muscle function. While observable latch and positioning improved, the electrical activity of the suprahyoid muscles did not change significantly, suggesting that underlying tongue mechanics may not have fully adapted within the seven-day window.