Doctor Stewart, Otorhinolaryngologist-in-chief at New York Presbyterian Hospital, explains how tongue tie gets diagnosed by pediatricians, speech therapists, parents, and the patients themselves if they're old enough.

Doctor Stewart: Once this is discovered, you're better off treating it sooner rather than later. Children are always going to go to their pediatrician and many times the pediatrician will notice something on exam and will say that, you know, they think there may be something abnormal and send them to a specialist just to be evaluated. Many times the pediatrician will make the diagnosis and they'll say this is tongue tie, you need to go have that taken care of. Billy: You made me... Sometimes there's articulation or speech or swallowing or eating problems and they're sent to a therapist, like a speech therapist, for evaluation and they do the evaluation and so it sort of could come from one of the different ways. And sometimes actually the parents notice it. Doctor Stewart: Say lollipop. Billy: Lollipop. They'll point it out either to the pediatrician, or they'll come directly to a specialist. Doctor Stewart: Say lollipop again. Billy: Lollipop. Doctor Stewart: In kids with more mild tongue tie who actually don't have major problems with articulation, they will oftentimes in an older age notice that they can't protrude their tongue. For example, they can't lick an ice cream cone. They then will realize it themselves. "There's something wrong, I can't do this and my friends can." And then when you get, of course, into adolescence there's the whole issue of kissing and sometimes that's a problem with tongue tie as well. So sometimes ones that are a little bit more mild and are well compensated will actually be noticed by the child, the patient themselves. But I think, basically, once this is discovered you're better off treating it sooner rather than later to allow it to heal and to allow the child to then go on and develop with a totally normal tongue function.