Tongue-tie—a condition in infants that can affect breastfeeding—may be overdiagnosed and too often treated with unnecessary surgery, the American Academy of Pediatrics said Monday in sounding an alarm about the increasing use of scissors or lasers to cut away some infants' tongue tissue when breastfeeding is difficult. "It's almost an epidemic," says Dr. Maya Bunik, a co-author of the report, per the AP. Bunik believes the annual tally of those treated with surgery may exceed 100,000. The report encourages pediatricians to consider nonsurgical options to address breastfeeding problems, citing a study that suggests less than half the kids with characteristics of tongue-tie actually have difficulty breastfeeding.
Tongue-tie, also known as ankyloglossia, occurs when an infant is born with a tight or short band of tissue that tethers the bottom of the tongue's tip to the floor of the mouth. The condition can make it hard for the infant to grasp a nipple and draw milk. Doctors say it's critical to get breastfeeding on track in the first three to four weeks, and surveys indicate most parents want to breastfeed, so it's natural that they want a quick solution, Bunik said. Ankyloglossia diagnoses have been increasing worldwide, though there's no uniform diagnostic criteria and no consensus on how to treat it. One common approach is to cut the tissue with scissors, but dentists increasingly are using lasers to vaporize the tissue—for $800 or more.
But the procedures can cause pain and sore mouths, potentially deterring babies from breastfeeding, Bunik said. "The practice got to be very common without a lot of good data," says Wisconsin pediatrician and co-author Jennifer Thomas. The report also recommends lactation experts, pediatricians, surgeons, and other medical professionals work with parents to evaluate possible reasons for breastfeeding challenges. The AAP started working on the report in 2015 after some pediatricians began to notice that an increasing number of patients were going to dentists to get treatment for tongue-tie, Thomas says. Says one mom who got the laser procedure for her son, "I probably should have consulted with my pediatrician before I went straight to the dentist."
(More
American Academy of Pediatrics stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
