Tongue-Tie Prevalence Study
I am doing a tongue-tie prevalence study for my practicum with the University of Utah Public Health Department. I recently completed the CITI training for this school in addition to UMass-Amherst CITI requirements which were completed in Nutrition Assessment class. The IRB process has been interesting and fun to see in action. I am still waiting to hear final approval from the IRB and for the evaluation of newborns for tongue-tie. I won’t be doing the actual evaluation of tongue-tie as lactation consultants had been arranged to do this evaluation prior to my involvement in the study. I will be doing follow up phone calls with parents after diagnoses and discharge from the hospital.
Part of this practicum is to do an extensive literature search on tongue-tie which I have done looking at references from 2010 to present time. I am in the process of reviewing articles I have pulled on this subject and putting them into an evidence-based summary table. Other deliverables for this practicum include developing an educational handout for parents and writing an article to be published! I thought I would share 2 slides from a lecture comparing chocolates and levels of evidence. They are part of a series of lectures on evidence-based research from the University of Utah Nursing Department. The source is Dr. Ellen Fineout-Overholt and Dr. Barbara Wilson.
levels of evidence like chocolate
Ellen-
Great topic and very timely. Looking forward to your presentation!
Hi Ellen – what is tongue-tie? Why does it occur? I am not very familiar with this. I am also looking forward to hearing more soon!
Dr C
Hi Ellen,
This is fascinating! Our younger daughter (now 9) was tongue-tied. Fortunately, she did not have any ill-effects from it, other than frustration at not being able to stick her tongue out at her older sister or friends! 🙂 She had her frenulectomy 2 years ago and is now happy to waggle it whenever necessary.
Dr. C, tongue-tie (or ankyloglossia) occurs when the frenulum (the little piece of tissue that holds our tongues down) is too close to the tip of the tonge. It can interfere with breastfeeding, speech, and eventually kissing ( 🙂 according to at least 1 website), but is generally easily correctable by a “quick” procedure that involves clipping some of the frenulum away from the tongue so that it can grow and function properly.
Julie
Julie,
Thanks for your definitions! Dr. C. there are 4 types of tongue-tie defined by how much distance the frenulum is from the tip of the tongue. Two are anterior and two posterior. Anterior are the most simple and are a quick clip in the doctor’s office. Posterior are more deep and may be clipped in the doctors office or referred to a pediatric dentist or ENT. There are also lip ties that don’t cause as many problems as the tongue. There are many issues associated with tongue tie — breastfeeding of course is one of the issues. Part of this practicum is to identify the issues associated with tongue-tie and put them into an educational handout for parents. I am glad to hear that your daughter had her frenulectomy and has had success with tongue movement. I just came back from a lactation conference where some of the greats in this area spoke — Alison Hazelbaker, James Murphy (a dentist), and Catherine Watson-Genna. My one month meeting with my supervisors is this Friday. I will update the post after that meeting. Thanks. Ellen