Possible tongue tie in 4 year old- gp and dentist never heard of it

[craziedaisy]

DD was born with tongue tie that was snipped at 10 days. I knew to look out for it as I was tongue tied too. Feeding issues remained and seemed to have silent reflux as a baby. I thought it must just the way she was as she had the tongue tie sorted and could stick out her tongue. Now at 4 she is unable to lift her tongue to the roof of her mouth at all and her speech is quite unclear and cannot say her C OR G sounds. She has a great vocabulary and it is clear that she is frustrated that she cannot be understood. She sees a speech therapist due to a stammer and when I mentioned it to her she had never heard of a posterior tongue tie and said well she can stick her tongue out ok. I have now taken her to dentist again he had never heard of posterior but acknowledged that she couldn't lift her tongue up.

This morning I took her the GP and he admitted that he had never heard of posterior tongue tie. He tried to get her lift her tongue up but she just can't at all. He then got a tissue and inserted it under her tongue and tried her to lift her tongue up. He said that basically if the speech therapist thought there was a problem she would refer her. I am going around in circles as the speech therapist said that she will probably be able to say these sounds when she starts doing phonics at school. I find this insulting as I have been practicing these letter sounds at home and fail to see how school will make a difference.

Where do I go from here as the GP wont refer us. Sorry for the long thread!

[mawbroon]

I have a long story about undiagnosed tongue and lip tie in DS1 when he was 6yo, but I won't bore you with it.

My advice? It would be to go private, straight to somebody who knows what they are talking about.

[craziedaisy]

Thanks Mawbroon. Who is best to see for a referral? ENT specialist?

[mawbroon]

There are a couple of facebook groups for tongue tie support. Personally, I would go to one of the dentists who do laser revision. There are a couple who trained with Dr Kotlow, but I think only one of them is doing kids your DSs age. His name is Malcolm Levinkind and he is in north London.

If you got anywhere with the NHS, they would want to do it under GA which is neither necessary or desirable.