Pregnancy was not an easy journey for my body, so when my back pain became unbearable, I was referred by my midwives to Dr. Chrissy for chiropractic work. Going to her was the best decision I could have made, and not just because she helped me so much with my pain and ability to move while pregnant. She also was a Godsend when it came to handling my son’s tongue and lip ties.
When I was about 5 months pregnant, I went in for my dental cleaning with my new dentist at Stamm Dental Wellness, Dr. Stamm, and she told me that I had a tongue tie (undiagnosed up until that point). I began doing research and found that ties are sometimes hereditary. So, when Quinn was born, I asked the pediatrician in the hospital to check for ties as I had seen in my research that getting them revised early on can help avoid problems with breastfeeding. At that time, I didn’t know about all of the other issues tongue and lip ties could cause even into adulthood. The pediatrician said that he had a slight tongue tie but that it wasn’t enough to need revision. We had no issues with breastfeeding, or so I thought, and weight gain was good at his two week appointment, so I figured we were in the clear. Fast forward to his 2 month appointment where the pediatrician said that his weight was very low and we were going to need to begin supplementing. Thankfully, I was able to use breast milk I had collected and frozen up until that point, but I immediately went and saw my lactation consultant who recommended I get Quinn assessed for a tongue and lip tie as she thought they were impacting his breastfeeding which was causing his low weight gain.
I emailed Quinn’s pediatrician and told her what I had learned. She submitted a referral to the Kaiser ENT to have the revision. When we went to the appointment, we saw a PA in the ENT’s office who came in and quickly clipped his tongue tie. She said that she was not able to do the lip tie release and we’d have to see someone else that is qualified for that. We did not receive any follow up information such as exercises or recommended body work.
I had already booked an appointment to see Dr. Chrissy an hour after that appointment as she had told me of the importance of body work and exercises after tongue and lip tie releases. When we went in for our appointment, it did not take her long to see that the release was incomplete and the clip had been very shallow and not given him any relief. She did teach me the exercises and did body work to try to help in the meantime.
Over the next several weeks, I struggled with the Kaiser system to get a referral to have his tongue and lip tie revised by a dentist that was trained in using laser for release (Dr. Stamm). At the end of all of that, they still refused my request for reimbursement, but I received the referral.
When we were finally able to go to Stamm Dental Wellness for the release, I was so thankful to have such an amazing team surrounding us for the procedure. Dr. Stamm was so efficient and made sure that she fully released the tongue as there were ties in the very back that we couldn’t see until the front was fully released. Dr. Chrissy was my angel. She helped prepare me for what to expect during the procedure, talked me through it while it was happening, and helped Quinn’s little body as he was being released. After it was over, we went into her office and she did some body work to help him relax and give us both a place to recover before heading home. I don’t know of any other office that has the full service approach in one place. I cannot imagine having to go somewhere else after the release for the body work or not having someone knowledgeable in that part of the procedure in the room as they did the release. Also, continuing to go to the same office for the post procedure body work gave me peace of mind that if there were any issues, they would be handled seamlessly.
Since having his tongue and lip ties released and continued body work, Quinn’s mouth shape has opened up and relaxed, he nurses better, and his height range during tummy time has dramatically increased.
I’ve always heard that raising a child takes a village, but I had no idea how important the medical team part of my village would be. I’m so thankful for Dr. Chrissy and the team at Stamm Dental Wellness.
