Southlake, TX | Tongue Tie Release (Frenuloplasty) | Integrative Pain and Wellness

Speaker 1: Okay, we're getting ready to do a frenuloplasty. I'm a good doctor here, and I'm going to have him go over his symptoms and how long he's had him and what he's hoping that the procedure will achieve for him today.

Dr. Barker: So I'm Dr. Barker. I'm 32 years old and ever since I was about 14, I've had intermittent, on-off chronic neck pain, headaches, and low back pain. Growing up, I went to chiropractor, got massage therapy on a regular basis. And those would help alleviate my symptoms for a period of time, but they'd keep coming back. In my adult life, I transitioned into osteopathic manipulative medicine care and was intrigued by that. And then ended up going to osteopathic medical school to learn osteopathic manipulative medicine. And since then I've been treated on a regular basis using the osteopathic manipulative treatment.

Dr. Barker: And even with that, I got more relief, but never seemed to cure the problem. I always needed to get retreated. And so I still suffer from headaches and neck pain and low back pain. They're better than they have been in the past, but they're still there. Something else that I realized is I have some symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea. My wife says I snore at night sometimes. Sometimes she'll notice I clench or grind my teeth. I did just do a home sleep study, but I don't have the results back to see if I do indeed have obstructive sleep apnea. So I'm really hoping that this frenuloplasty will relieve some of this chronic neck tension and the chronic tension headaches that I have and was really introduced to this from a myofunctional therapist I networked with, Coleen Watson, she gave me an article that talked about the effects of a tongue tie in adolescents and adults and the common symptoms that can happen such as teeth crowding, obstructive sleep apnea, snoring, breathing problems, neck pain, back pain, headaches. And I realized I had a number of these symptoms and I always thought that my frenulum was an annoyance, but didn't realize it might be at the root of many of these problems.

Speaker 1: Great, thank you.

Speaker 1: All right.

Speaker 1: Feel that?

Speaker 1: So we just crushed that to where it helps control the bleeding.

Speaker 2: You good?

Speaker 1: I'm good for right now.

Speaker 2: I should put gloves on, I could just...

Speaker 1: Okay, close, relax.

Speaker 2: You okay?

Dr. Barker: Great.

Speaker 1: Okay, open. Okay, do they K for me, suck against your palette.

Speaker 1: Awesome.

Speaker 1: Okay. Close, relax. So I'm trying to do is just separate out the genioglossus muscle so I can see the two heads, there's a right side and the left side and get a good, clear picture of those. And then I'll release those, let him rest, and we'll have him stick his tongue out and see how his is looking. You feel any change in your neck or anything?

Dr. Barker: Yeah, felt some relaxation in my shoulders.

Speaker 1: Okay.

Dr. Barker: More so on the right side.

Speaker 1: Okay, open.

Speaker 1: Okay. Here's the left head, of the

Speaker 1: The right side.

Speaker 1: Okay. Close, relax.

Dr. Barker: I'm more relaxed.

Speaker 1: What's it like to breathe? Take a deep breath through your nose. Does it feel easier, deeper, fuller?

Dr. Barker: Yeah, I feel like I can breathe easier through my nose.

Speaker 1: Cool.

Dr. Barker: Like there's a little bit of tension here and across the front.

Speaker 1: Okay.

Dr. Barker: And maybe a little bit of tension across the back.

Speaker 1: Okay.

Dr. Barker: But the right side feels a lot better. This feels better than it was

Dr. Barker: More than this side.

Speaker 1: Okay.

Speaker 1: All right.

Dr. Barker: My right side is what bothers me more as far as my shoulder and neck tension.

Speaker 2: Mm-hmm (affirmative), and it's better. It's better.

Dr. Barker: It's better than even the left side right now.

Speaker 1: If I push on that, do you feel any tension in your neck or back?

Dr. Barker: On this side, yeah.

Speaker 1: Okay.

Dr. Barker: Yeah, there.

Speaker 1: Oops.

Speaker 1: All right. We just finished Dr. Barker's frenuloplasty and we also wound up doing a lower labial frenectomy and I'll let him describe what he felt during the procedure and how he feels now.

Dr. Barker: So during the frenuloplasty, I actually didn't feel anything. It wasn't painful at all or uncomfortable, but during the procedure, what I noticed was a release of tension across the front of my shoulders, the back of my shoulders, and through my neck. Now I felt a greater deal of relief on the right side, which is typically my more problematic side. I did feel some relief on the left side, but I still felt some tension left. After we did the lip release or the labial plasty, the left side completely released equal to the right side.

Speaker 1: Wow.

Dr. Barker: Also what I noticed is I could actually take a deeper breath through my nose and when I stood up, I felt like I was standing up much straighter and just much more relaxed.

Speaker 1: Wonderful. So you think those were pretty good procedure to do?

Dr. Barker: Yeah, if you have chronic neck pain, or back pain, or headaches, or obstructive sleep apnea, you should definitely have somebody take a look at your tongue that knows what they're doing, and also seek out osteopathic manipulative medicine to go in conjunction with that.

Speaker 1: There you go.

Dr. Barker: Yep.

Speaker 1: functional therapy.

Dr. Barker: That's right.

Speaker 1: There you go.

Dr. Barker: We got the whole team here.

Speaker 1: There you go, thank you, Doctor.

Dr. Barker: Thank you.