On the matter of lip ties and dental caries, as well as impacting on 
breastfeeding, you might like to search the Journal of Human Lactation for 
two articles by dentist Dr Larry Kotlow. The mot recent was in JHL 2013 
(Nov); 29(4): 458-464. The other article appeared in Aug 2010. If you can 
access these article they may answer some of your questions. Certainly, for 
some children this provides an answer to certain types of dental erosion, 
when for years it has been usual to blame breastfeeding.

A cause of another pattern of dental erosion seems to have been largely 
ignored in infants and toddlers (well, it's easier just to blame 
breastfeeding into toddlerhood and not investigate). I've seen this 
described in adults - erosion of molars in individuals who have acid reflux 
that reaches the mouth. If such erosion occurs in adults who reflux, why not 
in infants who reflux? Some food for thought.

Virginia
in Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Melinda wrote (and Jane before her):

Good point, Jane, about the relationship between lip ties and dental caries.
I wonder about if/when a pediatric dentist or other provider would revise a 
tie that is not inhibiting feeding --do they wait until caries occur, or do 
they clip ties preventatively?
 My experience is in observing Dr O'Hara in Seattle, who mentioned that many 
lip ties (that are not causing problems with breast-feeding) will "revise" 
themselves in the course of typical childhood injuries. She did not (that I 
know of) perform any 'preventative' lip tie revisions.
Melinda Harris Moulton FNP, IBCLC
Olympia, WA

Sent from my iPad

> On Jan 6, 2014, at 8:03 AM,  wrote:
>
> When it comes to lip and tongue ties, we need to have input from dentists 
> who are into preventative care.  I have seen babies who successfully 
> nursed despite lip and tongue-ties turn into babies with "bottle-mouth 
> caries"!  I am wondering in cases where dentists are blaming nighttime 
> breastfeeding for caries, if what is really the problem is lip ties.  This 
> causes excessive pressure on soft tooth enamel of erupting teeth, 
> especially the top ones - and voila! - cavities in the top teeth!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lactation Information and Discussion 
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Melinda
> Sent: Saturday, January 04, 2014 9:51 PM
> Subject: Re: Lip Ties
>
> I am eager to get others opinions. I am on the tongue tie support site on 
> Facebook, and have noted lots of talk about both tongue and lip ties--but 
> I guess that's what one would expect on a site devoted to this issue.
> I believe the interest in 'ties' over the past decade is that many women 
> with very sore nipples, who would've just switched to bottle feeding in 
> previous years, are now seeking out the causes for such pain and ways to 
> correct it.
> I am an advocate of revising lip and tongue ties, but only when they 
> prevent a successful breastfeeding relationship. IBCLC's need to be able 
> to perform an oral exam/ assessment in addition to a feeding evaluation to 
> determine the effect a tie is having.
> Melinda Harris -Moulton FNP IBCLC
>
>

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