Lip & Tongue Tie Visits for Babies Boulder
What You Can Expect During Your Baby’s Appointment
Below, we’ve included some helpful information about what you can expect from your baby’s lip and tongue tie appointment here in Boulder, including our fees and insurance information. This information is tailored for children who are under the age of 18 months old. For information on visits and procedures for other ages, please click on the alternate choices. Please continue reading and contact our office if you have any questions.
Why Choose Dr. Witkoff for Lip & Tongue-Tie Treatment?
Dr. Jesse Witkoff is a Board-Certified Pediatric Dentist who has over a decade of experience with Restricted Oral Tissue (ROT), and he’s excellent when it comes to working with children. He has been on the forefront of tongue/lip tie release since he began working in this specialty over 10 years ago.
He has taken hundreds of hours of education on this topic, lectures nationally at conferences about tongue and lip tie treatment, and educates other providers on this specialty. He has also dedicated the entire practice to tongue and lip tie release in order to ensure he can give each patient the time needed to fully understand the issue. As such, you can rest assured that you are receiving the highest level of knowledge and assessment in your journey and research.
The Initial Examination & Procedure
Our initial exam appointment is close to one hour long. This allows us plenty of time to explain everything, get a thorough understanding of your case, answer all of your questions, and do a thorough exam. If you and Dr. Jesse come to the conclusion that it makes sense to move forward with a tongue or lip tie release, we can do it at that same appointment if you wish to. There is no pressure to, we just want you to know that it is an option so you don’t have to schedule again separately if you don’t want to. The reason we can do this is because we use a device called a ‘cold CO2 laser’ that’s extremely quick, easy, painless, and only takes about 30 seconds to do the actual procedure.
Our measured success rate is about 90 to 95% in resolving the functional issues associated with lip and tongue ties. Our CO2 laser, combined with our years of experience and large network of referring specialists, allow us to achieve incredibly high success rates compared to other practices.
Symptoms to Look Out For
Below is a list of symptoms we commonly see in tongue tied babies (for you to compare to your experience):
Common Symptoms of Lip & Tongue Ties in Infants:
- Shallow latch at breast or bottle; slides or pops on/off the nipple; baby is frustrated at the breast or bottle
- Reflux symptoms; spits up often; gassy; gagging choking when eating; hiccups often; clicking or smacking noises while eating; Colic symptoms/cries a lot
- Supplementing; weight loss
- Lip curls under when nursing or taking bottle; lip callus
- Short sleeping requiring feedings every 1-2 hours; falls asleep while eating; feels like a full-time job to feed baby; cluster feedings
- Pacifier falls out easily/won’t stay in; Milk dribbles out of mouth when nursing/bottle-feeding
- Gumming/chewing nipple when nursing
- Snoring, noisy breathing or mouth breathing; nose is congested often
Common Symptoms Moms Experience When Trying to Nurse a Baby with a Tongue Tie:
- Creased, flattened, blanched, lipstick shaped, blistered, cut, or bleeding nipples
- Poor or incomplete drainage; Plugged ducts/engorgement/mastitis
- Infected nipples or breasts; nipple thrush
- Using a nipple shield
- Baby prefers one side over the other
- Pain while nursing
Cost of Lip & Tongue-Tie Treatment
Our initial exam is $75.00 so that you can be sure the procedure is actually needed and make an educated decision about moving forward if necessary. The fee for the procedure itself is $775.00. Commonly, to get the full function we are looking for, we need to do both a tongue and lip tie release. At times, buccal (cheek) releases are needed as well. However, we just charge the one fee no matter how many sites need to be released to make sure we are taking care of everything to achieve full functionality.
As far as insurance goes, we print out the dental and/or medical claim forms for you with the procedure codes already filled out. We show you how to fill out a couple of questions on the top of the form, and then you mail it in for reimbursement. Hence, you would pay us the day of the visit and then seek reimbursement from the insurance company.
We are finding that about 85-90% of our patients who have dental insurance are getting covered and reimbursed. The success with medical insurance is not as high only because there is usually a significant “Out-of-Network” medical deductible that needs to be met. So, although the medical insurance is covering the cost, most patients don’t end up with actual reimbursement, just payment towards their “Out-of-Network” deductible.
Feel free to call us with any questions or to schedule an appointment, call us at (720)743-3340.
Once we confirm an appointment spot for you, you will receive an automated email with instructions to complete our patient forms online. You will not need to print anything. We ask that you fill out the forms no later than three business days prior your appointment.