"I think the biggest thing that people are probably concerned about is that somehow changing the anatomy is then going to create another problem." Doctor Stewart, Otorhinolaryngologist-in-chief at New York Presbyterian Hospital, explains how some people believe that surgically fixing tongue tie will create other problems, but notes that this is not mainstream thought.

Doctor Stewart:



I think the biggest thing that people are probably concerned about is that somehow changing the anatomy is going to then create another problem.



There's some controversy about this and you can find some advocates for not surgically dividing the tongue tie. Allowing the child to compensate, waiting to see if the child will sort of grow out of it. So as the facial structure changes as the tongue grows, maybe it'll become less of a problem. I don't think that's the mainstream of belief. I think most people feel like this is an anatomic problem that is fixed surgically and that there's no harm in doing it. I think the biggest thing that people are probably concerned about is that somehow changing the anatomy is going to then create another problem. If you just go in and cut the tongue tie and they've learned all this compensation, then all of a sudden the compensation won't work and they'll actually have a worse problem. That's an interesting theoretical concern, it just turns out you almost never see that. Usually when the tongue tie is released, if there's any problem at all, it's very short lived. They quickly recover completely normal function. Any compensation they were doing goes away quickly. It does not tend to be a problem. But that's a potential concern, that in fact you'll somehow interrupt what was a healthy compensation, it'll take a little bit long period of recovery.