Southlake, TX | Tongue Tie Release | Integrative Pain and Wellness

Dr. Matthew Barker: I'm Dr. Barker. And this is Dr. Sprinkle. We are here with Mr. Dawson here and he's here for a tongue-tie release. I'm an osteopathic physician, Dr. Sprinkle is a dentist, and we're going to be kind of working together to do a tongue and lip tie release for Dawson. So Dawson was initially referred to me for neck tightness and problems with his cranial bone motion. And after I met with him, I diagnosed him with a tongue-tie and a lip tie. He does have a lot of neck restriction in his upper cervical, even after I treat them and get them back into alignment, it doesn't seem to hold. And so each time I'm treating him, I'm having to go back and put his neck back into alignment. He does have a lot of tenderness when I'm working on his neck and in his head, things that just to light palpation is tender for him. I also noted that he had some issue to sleep. So he snored and mouth breathed, which are common things found in patients with tongue-tie.

Dr. Matthew Barker: So, we did finally get him into a facility to do a sleep study, which showed mild obstructive sleep apnea, which means he was stopping breathing through the night, which stops him from getting into the deep sleep and stops the normal sleep pattern. So, Dr. Sprinkle can kind of talk on what he has found from it from a dental perspective.

Dr. Sprinkle: From a dental perspective, if your tongue can't get up into your palate properly, if the frenum, the little attachment under your tongue is too tight, you can't get your tongue up into your palate. And that sucking and swallowing motion that you develop in utero, obviously follows through in life. The tongue needs to get up into the palate, press against the palate, and this creates pressure that causes the palate to get wide and give that big, broad Farrah Fawcett type smile. The tongue can't get up there, you're more restricted in the palate, you're more prone to crooked teeth and more prone to have an airway issue that causes you to breathe through your mouth, which can cause you to have irritation of your tonsils and adenoids, which then swell and really just magnify the airway problems.

Dr. Sprinkle: And so what we're looking at today, is to see if we can release his tongue by doing a partial frenuloplasty and genioglossectomy and see how dr. Barker senses the changes that go through that. But he's also got tight labial frenum, this is called a mandibular labial ligament down here, and that's relatively tight. He also has, as you can see from here, he's got crowded anterior teeth, and he's got a fairly thick maxillary frenum that goes through here. He also has some tight buccal frenum, then we're going to do some releasing with those also, but we'll do those in steps. We'll do the tongue first to see what kind of release we get from that before we do any more anesthetic that might change his cranial motion, doing those, so we're trying to just trying to take it step by step, so that we kind of get a grade on how he's improving as far as its cranial function goes.

Dr. Matthew Barker: So, the tongue muscles are actually multiple different attachments. And so the tongue muscles attach to bone to three different bones. One, is to the jaw bone. The second one is to the hyoid, which is a U shaped bone in the front of the neck. And the third is to the base of the skull. So every time you're moving your tongue, thousands of times throughout the day, it's causing this abnormal tension on all of these bones, which causes a typical forward head posture, causes that tightness, forward shoulders and the fascia, which is the connective tissue from the tongue actually has connections all the way down to the foot. So, it can cause so much fascial strain. So, one of the things we're going to do is to see, what tethered oral tissues are connected to what fascial strains, that we're palpating in Dawson's body to help guide what we're going to release today.

Dr. Sprinkle: And this just shows you the fascia from the tongue,

Speaker 3: Wow.

Dr. Sprinkle: goes through the airway, through the diaphragm, through the muscles of the low back, through the groin area, through the back of the legs, the adductor muscles, all the way to the bottom of your feet. And when you have an airway restriction, usually this fascia tightens and brings the shoulders forward, the head posture forward, or it can cause scoliosis, all different types of things. And if we can get all this to release, this relaxes pain changes, posture changes, sleep habits change, it is quite remarkable. Autonomic nervous system just calms down, once you can get that airway open.

Dr. Matthew Barker: So, do you want to test out some of these tethered oral tissues now?

Dr. Sprinkle: Yeah. Okay. So you're going to go...

Dr. Matthew Barker: So, that is related to tension right at the base of the skull.

Dr. Sprinkle: Okay. What we're doing is we're just pulling his lip out and literally just kind of strumming.

Dr. Matthew Barker: It's also pulling at his sternum.

Dr. Sprinkle: Okay. I'm going to go back here on the lateral side of his mandible and let that feel much there?

Dr. Matthew Barker: No.

Dr. Sprinkle: We're here.

Dr. Matthew Barker: No.

Dr. Matthew Barker: Are you feeling anything that feels tight? And it's not too bad? No?

Dr. Sprinkle: Okay. And up here, we going to go through the maxillary.

Dr. Matthew Barker: Yeah. And that's really just pulling right on is mastoid.

Dr. Sprinkle: Okay.

Dr. Sprinkle: That's pulling right in midline.

Dr. Matthew Barker: Frightening to see too.

Dr. Sprinkle: Here, he's got a fairly tight little buckle.

Dr. Matthew Barker: Yeah. That one's also pulling into the left mastoid.

Dr. Sprinkle: And then over here on the right side...

Dr. Matthew Barker: Do you feel some tension increasing as well?

Dr. Sprinkle: Tongue out!

Dr. Matthew Barker: Here as well.

Dr. Matthew Barker: Does this feel better than your neck? Less painful when I push on it? I wonder how much of what-

Dr. Sprinkle: This is called the mandibular labial kendon, Did you ever read that article? Of Backer?

Dr. Matthew Barker: I'm not sure.

Dr. Sprinkle: talked about all the things that this affected.

Dr. Matthew Barker: I don't think, I haven't read that one.

Dr. Matthew Barker: But it worked, the outcome was good for her. I assume.

Dr. Sprinkle: Yeah.

Dr. Sprinkle: The interesting thing was I asked her what was the most surprising benefit? And she said, well, that was when I pulled out of your driveway. What do you mean when I left? After you did the procedure, I backed down the driveway and realized I had turned my head to the left and I hadn't been able to do that in over 30 years.

Speaker 3: Wow.

Dr. Sprinkle: That's when I realized, there was something really important going on here.

Dr. Matthew Barker: And that was how many years ago?

Dr. Sprinkle: Almost three years ago.

Dr. Matthew Barker: And then you did the doctor's course after that?

Dr. Sprinkle: Well, I did a couple more patients. I had a lady that had been a chronic pain patient since she was eight years old, she was a professional viola player and she had a very curved upper back. She found us on the internet and she had a friend that had, he lived out of shape and she got all these benefits from it. And so she wanted this patient to see if she had a so she found me on the internet and... we did it, and she stood as soon as she finished the procedure.

Dr. Sprinkle: Okay, if this right side is any better. I feel a little bit of tension so.

Dr. Matthew Barker: Yeah, that did improve.

Dr. Matthew Barker: His neck is far softer. I think he needs C2 C3. I think you can get some of this with the uppers.

Dr. Sprinkle: Yeah?

Dr. Matthew Barker: Feel good so far.

Speaker 3: You can push that bag. It's getting in your way.

Speaker 3: You want me to hold his upper lip?

Dr. Sprinkle: Yeah.

Speaker 3: You okay? Cause I'm blocking your nose, I know.

Speaker 4: Do I start doing his massage or whatever it is today.

Speaker 3: and send me some stuff you need to go with her.

Dr. Sprinkle: Exercising...

Dr. Sprinkle: She's got stuff to start today.

Speaker 3: She does. Okay, good. I need to look at it then.

Speaker 4: I think we got the same sheet as her too. And I'll give it to you.

Speaker 3: Excellent. One last thing to go together.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Speaker 3: You okay?

Speaker 4: Just keep thinking about that ice cream Dawson. That's going to be so yummy.

Dr. Sprinkle:
I don't know if you are, but I sure am.

Speaker 3: Now dr. Sprinkle is going to have to get a smoothie on his lunch break.

Dr. Sprinkle: Lunch break is coming.

Speaker 4: It's crazy how much is in there. Deep in there like muscles.

Dr. Sprinkle: Yeah. I'm just trying to send this stuff all the way back here to just

Speaker 3: Are you okay?

Speaker 3: Are you okay Dawson?

Dr. Sprinkle: All right?

Speaker 3: Do you want to do it with scissors or?

Dr. Sprinkle: I have a...

Dr. Matthew Barker: How are you feeling

Dr. Matthew Barker: Yep, symmetric all the tissues around the listeria, your neck are soft. Shoulders I can compress down the table.

Dr. Sprinkle:
Cool. All right.