What is your "norm"??

With my tongue tie revision coming up tomorrow, I've been doing a lot of thinking. We've been having some good discussions in my tongue tie group about what is "normal" for a child with an unrevised tie to experience and what is not. Here's the thing: If it's something you've experienced all your life and you've never had the opportunity to experience differently, how do you know what's normal and what's not?

All my life, I've had these issues - grinding/clenching my jaw, frequent tension headaches, neck pain, back pain, tension in my whole body, getting tired easily while chewing/sucking/swallowing, mouth breathing, congestion etc. I just shuffled it off as being part of who I was. I never really thought about it, and no one had ever mentioned to me anything that might have made me think that it wasn't a "normal" thing that everyone experienced.

It wasn't until my daughter's ties came to the forefront and I started researching into them that I found out that there is a huge group of adults who have lip and tongue ties and have found relief from all of the symptoms that I listed. This WASN'T normal?? I could likely have some relief from some/much of this?? Why hadn't I been told? Why hadn't my parents been told that I had ties? Why in 41 years of life had not ONE single dr or dentist noticed and mentioned to me that I have ties?

And the biggest question of all: If you don't know what "normal" feels like, how are you supposed to vocalize to anyone that something is wrong? How are you supposed to know what's normal and what's not?? In my adult ties group, I would say that the most common reason why the adults are getting their ties revised is because they want to know what they will (are/have) be putting their child through. They don't get them revised because they know they have issues stemming from it, they just want to know the pain/experience to expect. And you know what? The most common thing I read from people after the revision is "I had NO idea I was holding that much tension before." "I had no idea that swallowing and chewing could be this easy and pain free" "I had no idea that breathing could feel this good and easy."

Something to think about. If you don't know what "normal" is, you don't truly know how something is affecting you.

~ Teri Geurts