After Treatment

POST OP FOR A FRENECTOMY PROCEDURE

Caring for Your Child After Frenectomy Procedure

At Texas Pediatric Dentistry, we understand that simple oral restrictions—often called “tongue-tie” or “lip-tie”—can have a big impact on your child’s feeding, speech, dental development, and comfort. A frenectomy is a gentle outpatient procedure that releases tight bands of tissue under the tongue or lip, allowing for improved mobility and function.

Backed by clinical guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, this brief yet highly effective treatment can alleviate breastfeeding difficulties in infants, support clearer speech in toddlers, and help prevent dental issues like spacing or gum recession

To help you better understand what to expect after the procedure—including healing timelines, aftercare instructions, and tips for a smooth recovery—please view our comprehensive post-op guide: Post-Op Guide

Lip Biting After Treatment

Lip Biting
Some dental procedures use anesthetic to reduce pain for your child. As the anesthetic wears off, typically over 2-3 hours, your child will notice a tingling sensation in the mouth, tongue and/or cheek areas. Monitor your child during this time to ensure that he or she does not bite, chew, or scratch at these numbed areas.

Avoid feeding your child solid food until the numbness has subsided. Good choices include soft snacks such as Jell-o, frozen yogurt, milkshakes and/or smoothies. It is best to spoon these snacks instead of using a straw. Also, avoid acidic food and drinks including tomato based foods, sauces, and citric juices while there is an open wound.

If your child bites his or her cheek, tongue or lip, there may be swelling which can worsen for up to five days. This is typically seen in a child under the age of 8. A soft scab may form that looks like a yellowish white plaque or a large traumatic ulcer. This is a normal part of the healing process and this lesion should heal during the next 10-14 days.
Clean the area well, brush teeth as normal, and be gentle around the affected area. You may give your child children’s acetaminophen (Tylenol®) or ibuprofen (Motrin®) for pain and apply Orabase over the swollen areas.

Post Op Instructions

Caring for Your Child After Local Anesthetic

Local anesthetic is used for most dental procedures to numb the area of your child’s mouth that is being treated. He or she will be numb in that area for an average of two hours after the appointment. If the treatment was done on the lower jaw, the tongue, teeth, lower lip and surrounding tissue will be numb. If the treatment was done on the upper jaw, the teeth, upper lip and surrounding tissue will be numb.

Most children do not fully understand the effects of local anesthesia, and they may chew, scratch, suck, or play with the numb areas. These actions can cause serious injuries, so please monitor your child closely for approximately two hours following the appointment. We also recommend that you keep your child on a soft diet until the anesthetic has worn off.

There is a product called OraVerse® that can be used with certain patients to reduce the amount of time they are numb. If you are interested in OraVerse®, tell the operative assistant before your child’s procedure begins to find out if he or she is a good candidate.

Caring for Your Child After Oral Trauma

If your child has knocked out a permanent tooth, he or she needs to be seen by the dentist immediately. You need to locate the tooth and follow these steps precisely:

Gently hold the tooth by the crown, not the root, and rinse it off with plain water. Do not scrub it.
Either re-insert it back into the socket and hold it in place with gauze, or place it in a glass of milk to transport it to our office.
Call us immediately because time is of the essence to save the tooth. If it’s after hours, our voicemail will give you the phone number of the on call doctor.
If you cannot locate the tooth and think your child may have inhaled it, call their pediatrician or go to the emergency room for an x-ray.

Over the counter pain relievers are fine to use, and you can apply ice for any facial swelling. The eventual treatment may include anything from a root canal and temporary splint to a porcelain crown or implant.

Caring for Your Child After Extractions

If your child has had one or more teeth extracted, please review the above information regarding local anesthetic and caring for your child when he or she is numb.

Your child will leave the office with gauze or cotton rolls in his or her mouth, and it needs to stay in place for 30 minutes. This will reduce the amount of bleeding and help prevent your child from accidentally biting himself.

Before the numbness wears off, it’s a good idea to give your child the appropriate dose of children’s acetaminophen or ibuprofen, but do not give them aspirin. Your child should only need pain medication for approximately 12 to 24 hours. If pain persists beyond 48 hours, please call our office.

Your child should eat only soft, bland food for the first day or two, and nothing sharp, crunchy or too hot or cold because the area might be sensitive. Encourage your child to drink plenty of liquids (water, soups, juices, etc.)

Do not allow your child to spit or drink through a straw or sippy cup because the force can start the bleeding again.

Gentle brushing around the extraction site can be started immediately along with warm salt water rinses (1/4 teaspoon to a glass of water) to aid with any discomfort.

Activity may need to be limited depending on how your child is feeling. Sometimes a nap is a good idea.
Swelling in the first 24 hours after an extraction is not uncommon and should not cause alarm. If it occurs, apply an ice pack for 15 minutes on and 15 minutes off as needed.