Arrival

Upon arrival at the office, you will be greeted by our Team. We will have verified that the patient portal intake forms were completed and have reviewed any uploaded media files. Dr. Sacker will then take you to our consultation room. We will take payment before you leave the office.

 

Consult

During your consult, Dr. Sacker will review your intake history, discuss areas of concern with you/your family, and examine your mouth and tongue function. If a diagnosis of one or multiple ties is confirmed, she will then go over the significance of the ties, the laser procedure for treatment, and review the aftercare exercises and instructions. You will sit with topical anesthetic gel on the sites for 10 minutes then Dr. Sacker will take you into the procedure room. Typically, you will be in the procedure room for about 10 minutes.  We will relax to your favorite music on Spotify.

Procedure

In the procedure room, we will take pre-procedure pictures for our medical records and use our Cold (Low level infrared light therapy) laser for anesthesia.  Our Light Scalpel CO2 laser will then be used to treat any tongue, lip, and buccal ties. A repeat of the Cold laser treatment will then be used to stimulate healing and help with pain control. Finally, post-procedure pictures will be taken for charting. These photos are also available on our secure patient portal under the shared files folder tab You can use these photos to make sure healing is going slowly and that you are keeping the diamond healing vertically and not horizontally.  (Printing the before and after pictures for your physician/dentist and also submitting them to your dental and medical insurance is very helpful and educational.)  After the procedure, Dr. Sacker will show you what the sites look like, perform your exercises and teach you how to do them yourself.  You will still be numb when you practice so remember that the stretches should be done firmly.

 

Aftercare and Initial Recheck

It is very important to stretch and massage the sites at least every 4 hours.  It may feel more comfortable to stretch every 1-2 hours especially if you are feeling tension in the tongue site.  Use your index finger to push the lower diamond down into the floor of the mouth with firm pressure like pushing your finger into cold peanut butter then turn towards your throat and pull the tongue muscle up to the palate to stretch the center area of the diamond.  Push into all 4 corners of the diamond to keep them as open as possible.  You cannot push too hard.  Smooth out the healing tissue and break any vertical strings or fibers that form as that is the tongue trying to reattach.  The lip and cheek sites just push with the pad of your finger to keep those sites as open and flat as possible.  Use the childrens benadryl on the sites to help with discomfort.  The coconut oil can be used on the gums and also on the tongue site also after you stretch first.   You will be scheduled to be seen again in 2 to 4 days for an initial recheck visit to stretch and check the sites.  The goal is that your stretches feel like our stretches.  All follow-up procedure visits are included.  We encourage you to also follow up with a Chiropractor to reset your anatomy and work on muscle tension.

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Post-Procedure 2 Week Re-Check

We will also want to see you back in the office 2 weeks after the procedure.  We will take photos, check the sites to assess to make sure you are healing properly, and decide if you are ready to transition from stretches to firm massage of the sites 3 times per day for the next 3 months. This is important to prevent scarring and recurrence and will increase your chances of long-term success.

 

We will be available directly by text.  You can also email or phone for questions or concerns. Every person is unique has a different pain threshold, muscle sensitivity and tightness, and rate of healing. We are here for you and will help you through the healing process.