Intern Sun Yangzi Evening News/Journalist Yang Yan
● Cut the tongue tendon. Take a knife before the child has teeth.
The so-called "tongue cutting", that is, "tongue lacing correction", is a kind of operation used to treat too short tongue lacing. Tongue frenum is commonly known as "tongue tendon", that is, a thin tissue between the tongue and the bottom of the mouth when the child opens his mouth and sticks his tongue. Tongue frenulum is too short, commonly known as "Lickitung", which is a congenital developmental abnormality. The main manifestation is that the attachment point between the lingual frenulum and the mucosa on the ventral side of the tongue or the floor of the mouth moves forward, which restricts the tongue from stretching forward, lifting up or swinging left and right, and barely stretches forward in a W shape.
If the child is found to be unable to speak neatly, the elderly at home may give advice on "cutting the tongue" according to experience. Some worries come early, and the children haven't spoken yet. By observing the shape of the child's tongue tendon and even the tongue, some parents will take their children to the hospital to "cut the tongue tendon" to prevent possible speech problems.
● The doctor said
Isn't it all the fault of the "tongue muscle" that you can't speak fluently?
It is a long process for children to learn a language. In this process, they will continue to listen, speak, imitate and correct their mistakes until they finally form a correct pronunciation. In this process, due to various factors, they may not be able to learn normal pronunciation. At this time, it is necessary to help them pronounce correctly through later professional treatment.
Dr. Jiang stressed that the situation of unclear speech varies from person to person, and how to deal with it needs to be handed over to a professional doctor for judgment. Doctors should not only look at the shape of the tongue, but also look at the motor function of the tongue in order to get a diagnosis. Dr. Jiang said that as soon as the summer vacation, the number of outpatients in Jiangsu Stomatological Hospital will double, with at least a dozen a day, and at least two or three hundred patients will come to see slurred speech in a summer vacation, but only a few children, only 1%, will have to undergo lingual frenulum surgery after the final diagnosis. Many children's unclear pronunciation is caused by other reasons, not short tongue muscles. There is no need to let the child get this knife for nothing at this time.
Parents should pay attention to these problems.
Dr. Jiang said that although most children's slurred speech has nothing to do with the length of the lingual frenum, parents should not take it lightly. Generally speaking, if a child is two or three years old and still has a lot of unclear pronunciation, or feels that his voice is very nasal and sounds buzzing, then he should go to the hospital as soon as possible and let a professional doctor diagnose the child.
If you are four years old and still can't speak clearly, you must go to the hospital. At the same time, it should be noted that whether a child speaks clearly cannot be judged by family alone.
Dr. Jiang reminded that if your child is often said by outsiders to be "unclear", then the child's pronunciation is likely to have problems and needs to see a doctor as soon as possible.