Have you ever had surgery or care for a part of your body that you didn't previously know existed?

Oh my goodness – I think I have exactly the same problem!

Not me, but a couple of month ago we had a CT scan of one of our children’s brain…

He frequently tries to prove he doesn’t have one, like on that particular day when he used his head as a landing cushion. Anyways… he is now the only one in our family that has proof of having a brain.

I’m just curious why you took this dentist’s recommendation when no other dentist has ever mentioned it as a problem.

I can’t say I have discovered a new part of my body that I needed to have srugery or take care of, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to learn about a new part of my body, or the human body, even at the age I am now.

I do have some similar examples of what you experienced though. An optomotrist told me I have something in my eyes that they see in many people who develop glaucoma. No other eye doctor had ever mentioned it before (I had only been to two others in my life) and I actually do have glaucoma in my family, which I had not mentioned. My sister, who has had glasses since childhood, and checked regularly (my first time I went to have my eyes checked by someone other than a pediatrician having you read an eye chart was in my 30’s) was told in her later 30’s that she has some sort of cataract that is usually either congenital or from childhood, I don’t remember. She had never been told that she had cataracts before.

I had it done because he was the FIRST dentist to ever listen to me when I said I had the problem all my life and it never got any worse over the years. Other dentists either assumed I was lying or didn’t bother listening to me.

He said I didn’t really need surgery on it at all, but combined with another procedure (flouride varnish) one tooth of mine wouldn’t be as extremely sensitive as it is. It was inexpensive, quick and covered by my insurance so why not try it? If it didn’t work, I would be out 20 bucks for the varnish and my insurance covered the rest and I could get the “real” surgery later.

I also looked online at pictures of frenulums. Mine looked much smaller and tighter than most of them in the images. So I figured I must have had an unusually small and tight one.

The surgery was quicker than a cleaning and I didn’t feel a thing. It only cost 200 bucks and the varnish next week will cost 20 dollars (that varnish isn’t covered by my insurance but 20 bucks? No problem!) The surgery the other dentists wanted me to have was extremely invasive and very expensive. It also had a longer recovery time. Also, the denstists I talked to all seemed to not believe me when I said my gumline was really like this my entire life and despite what they all said, it wasn’t getting worse and didn’t need immediate attention.

And just so you know, my gumline went up to normal looking immediately afterwards. I thought maybe it was due to swelling, but this morning all the swelling was gone and my gums looked like other people’s instead of extremely low and thin. It worked!

That makes sense. I’m thrilled for you. I know exactly what you mean about a medical professional finally taking you seriously! Were the other dentists recommending that gum cleaning antibiotic treatment? That is usually a money grubbing farce! My husband had that suggested to him a year ago and I flipped out. Our Fluther jelly dentist helped reinforce my feelings about it and I convinced my husband to see another dentist. I just learned that my MIL had that very treatment, the gum cleaning, when she first came to America and she paid $10k! I’m so upset about it. No matter what she had done in sure it wasn’t $10k worth of work. They scared her like crazy telling her her teeth would start falling out. Dentists in her country had never said anything close to that about her teeth.

Yeah, they wanted to do that AND a gum graft. They’d take skin off the roof of my mouth and put it over the gums. It wasn’t 10k expensive but it was a couple of thousand dollars.

@keobooks Does it affect the way your mouth feels? I mean, can you tell that something is different?

Right now, I can feel the stitches in my mouth. I’m sure I won’t feel anything special when the stitches are out next week.

That’s cool. Keep us posted, if you will.

I’m glad you had this done, it saved you having to have a tissue graft later when it your root surface became exposed because of the pulling. I’ve done many frenectomies, an easy chair side procedure.

Amazing no one else ever recommended it. Amazing and disappointing.

So my update isn’t too exciting. I had the stitches out yesterday. There’s still very slight swelling so I can kind of feel a little bump but otherwise I feel no different.