Times Where a Frenectomy Would Improve Your Oral Health
A frenectomy is a very scaring sounding word, however, it is just a technical term used in oral surgery to describe a very common dental procedure.
A frenectomy could vastly improve your overall oral health and hygiene. However, before you go about undertaking one, it would help to exactly understand just what a frenectomy is and why sometimes it is important to have one.
What Is A Frenectomy?
Before we explain what a frenectomy is, it will probably help to understand what a frenum is, as well as its role as a non-essential organ in your mouth. A frenum is a strip of fleshy tissue that tether the underside of your upper lip as it meets the gums at the front of your jaw.
There is another frenum in your mouth and it tethers the inside of your bottom lip and the lower part of the frontal jaw. The frenum, both the upper and lower lip frenums are easily located. They are both located along the path of an invisible horizontal line that starts at the bottom tip of your nose and ends at the bottom of your chin.
Lift your upper lip and lower lip and inspect the fleshy inside that meets the gums of the frontal jaw. You will easily see the upper and lower jaw frenums that are tethered to the inside of the lips. A third frenum is located in your mouth connecting the underside of your tongue to the floor of your mouth.
A frenectomy is a dental procedure where the frenum is removed. Removal of the lip tethering frenums are known as a labial frenectomy. The removal of the tongue tethering frenum is known as a lingual frenectomy.
Benefits Of A Frenectomy
• A taut frenum can pull on the gums and the spaces between teeth, resulting in gap teeth
• A taut frenum can also limit lip movement, resulting in open-mouth breathing or even a lisp
• Correct speech impediments
• Improves biting and chewing when eating
• Helps with the fitting of dentures in adults
• Eliminate possibility of food particle and bacterial buildup around frenum
If you are experiencing oral problems connected to the frenum, contact us today. Depending on your circumstances, the oral benefits you stand to gain from a frenectomy far outweigh the disadvantages of not getting one.