NEW YORK — Tongue-tie, a condition in infants that can affect breastfeeding, may be overdiagnosed in the U.S. and too often treated with unnecessary surgery, a prominent doctors’ group said.
This combination of photos shows a baby with ankyloglossia where the tongue does not extend beyond the gums, left, and a baby with an indentation at the tip of a tongue that may be a sign of ankyloglossia.
The American Academy of Pediatrics is the latest, and largest, medical society to sound an alarm about the increasing use of scissors or lasers to cut away some infants’ tongue tissue when breastfeeding is difficult.