Tongue-Tie Release for Children in Winnipeg

Laser tongue-tie release (frenectomy) for children ages 5 to 12, with the LightScalpel CO₂ laser: no stitches, and simple exercises before and after so the release holds. Every child starts with an assessment. A release is recommended if indicated based on tongue movement.

Dr. John Weselake, DMD · The Breathe Institute (Dr. Soroush Zaghi) · Tongue-Tied Academy

Now offering LightScalpel CO₂ laser releases — every release begins with a myofunctional assessment.

Book Online
Call to Book

What is a tongue-tie?

Everyone has a small band of tissue under the tongue, and another inside each lip. When that band is short or tight enough to hold the tongue back, it's called a tongue-tie (the medical term is ankyloglossia). A lip tie is the same thing in the lip.

A tongue that can't move freely finds ways to work around it, and those workarounds show up far from the mouth: in how a child speaks, chews, swallows, breathes, and sleeps, and in how the face and jaws grow.

What matters is how the tongue works, not how the band looks. Some obvious ones cause no trouble at all, and some subtle ones cause a lot. That's why the first visit is an assessment, not a release.

Signs a tie may be restricting your child's function

  • Speech sounds that don't correct, especially R, L, and S, even after speech therapy

  • Trouble sticking the tongue out, lifting it to the roof of the mouth, clearing food off the teeth, or licking an ice cream cone

  • Gagging on certain textures, or slow, messy eating

  • A tongue that sits low in the mouth, with the lips apart during the day or in sleep

Each of these can have more than one cause, and the assessment sorts out which apply to your child. Snoring, mouth breathing, and the other sleep and growth signs are covered on our functional dentistry page.

How we decide

The first visit is a myofunctional assessment. We measure how far your child's tongue can move, how well it lifts, how they swallow, where the tongue rests, and how they breathe. Then we explain what we found and what it means. If the tongue is working within normal limits, we tell you so, and nothing further is booked. If a release would help, you'll understand why before you decide anything.

We also look at readiness. A release holds because of the exercises around it, and those take a child who can take part. By about age five, most children can learn the exercises and follow the stretches, and through the growing years their patterns still change quickly. That's why the program is built for ages 5 to 12. If your child isn't ready yet, we send practice work home and book the release when the timing is right.

For babies and toddlers with feeding concerns, start with your lactation consultant and physician. Call us and we'll point you toward the right support.

The three visits

Muscles that grew around a restriction keep their old habits after it's gone, and a healing wound naturally tightens back toward where it started. Exercises timed around the release take care of both, which is why every release at Biosmiles is three visits.

1. Assessment. The measurements above, explained plainly. If a release is indicated, your child goes home with a few simple exercises that build tongue strength and awareness, so the tongue is ready to use its new range from the first day of healing.

2. The release. Dr. Weselake numbs the area and performs the release with the LightScalpel CO₂ laser. The release itself takes minutes. There are no stitches, because the laser seals the tissue as it works. Before you leave, we go over the aftercare with you and your child, unhurried.

3. Follow-up. We check the site, fine-tune the stretches, and begin the retraining in earnest, during the healing window when it matters most. This is the visit that turns a good release into a lasting one.

After the release

The site heals open, from the inside out. A white or yellow patch in the first few days is what a healing laser wound looks like, not an infection. A few simple stretches keep the site mobile while it heals: we show them to your child, send them home in writing, and check them at the follow-up. Most children are comfortable with regular children's pain relief for a few days.

About the laser

A CO₂ laser is absorbed by the water in soft tissue, so it works only where it touches, seals small blood vessels as it goes, and leaves very little heat in the tissue around it. The diode lasers common in dental offices work differently: they heat a fibre tip, which burns rather than cuts and sends more heat into the surrounding tissue.

For your child, the difference is a shorter procedure, very little bleeding, no stitches, and an easier recovery. The LightScalpel is the laser used every day at dedicated tongue-tie centres across North America.

Why families choose Biosmiles

One team, under one roof. The hygienists who assess your child, the dentist who performs the release, and the follow-up that connects them are all here, on one chart. You aren't carrying a plan between offices.

Dr. Weselake performs every release. He trained in airway and tongue-tie care through The Breathe Institute and the Tongue-Tied Academy, and screens airway and growth at every dental exam.

The exercises are built in, not referred out. Our registered dental hygienists are trained myofunctional therapists, and they see your child for cleanings too, so the retraining continues at visits you're already making.

Driving in? Families from outside the city can book the assessment on the same day as the rest of the family's cleanings, so one trip covers everyone.

For referring providers

We work alongside speech-language pathologists, myofunctional therapists, bodyworkers, physicians, and lactation consultants. Referred patients receive a functional assessment with documented findings before any release is recommended, documentation after, and a clear return path to your care. Referrals: 204.975.7575.

Investment

Fees are quoted in writing at the assessment, before any release is booked

We're fee-for-service: you pay us directly, and we submit to your private insurance as a courtesy so reimbursement comes to you

The exercises before and after are part of every release — see myofunctional therapy.

Book Online
Call to Book

  • You don't have to know — that is the assessment's job. We measure function, not appearance, and if function is within normal limits we tell you so. Nothing on this page books a release; it books an assessment.

  • For our program, ages 5 to 12 — old enough to participate in the exercises that make a release hold, and young in a window where patterns and growth still respond. Within that range, the better question is readiness, which is exactly what the first visit measures.

  • No. The CO₂ laser seals the site as it releases, so it heals open, from the inside out — protected by simple guided stretches rather than sutures. The white or yellow patch that appears over the first days is the normal look of a healing laser site.

  • The area is numbed with local anesthetic and the release takes minutes. Most children describe pressure rather than pain during the procedure, followed by a few days of soreness managed with routine analgesics.

  • Because the release only changes what the tongue can do. Muscles keep the patterns they learned around the restriction, and healing tissue naturally contracts. Preparation before the release and retraining after it are how the new range becomes the new normal — and how re-tightening is kept in check.

  • No. Frenectomy at Biosmiles is a three-visit program — consultation, release, follow-up — optimized for outcome.

  • Your investment depends on what the assessment finds, and it is reviewed with you in full at the first visit — before anything further is booked. Frenectomy is a standard procedure code on most dental plans. We are a non-assignment practice: you pay at the time of treatment, and we provide everything needed to submit your claim for reimbursement.

  • Our release program is built for children ages 5 to 12. Younger children are assessed, prepared, and scheduled when they're ready. For infants, start with your lactation consultant and physician. If your situation falls outside this range, call us — we'll tell you plainly whether we're the right fit, or who is.

  • Every healing wound contracts — that is biology, not a complication. The stretches, the timing of therapy, and the built-in follow-up visit exist specifically to manage it. If tissue begins to tighten, we see it early and adjust.

  • A release removes a physical restriction; it doesn't perform the retraining. Improvement depends on therapy, consistency, and the individual child — which is why all three visits are built into the program rather than promised from the procedure alone.

Start with the assessment.

Every release at Biosmiles begins the same way — a measured look at how your child's tongue actually functions.

Serving Winnipeg and communities across Manitoba, including Steinbach, Winkler, Morden, Niverville, Headingley, Portage la Prairie, and Brandon.