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Hi everyone, and welcome to the

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Airway First, the podcast from the Children's Airway First Foundation. I'm your host, Rebecca St. James.

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My guest today is Dr. Lawrence Kotlow, a board-certified pediatric dentist and a specialist dedicated to treating

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children from birth, infants, and toddlers since 1974. His practice specializes in preventative

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dentistry, newborn and infant care, and the use of lasers for restoring decayed teeth and oral

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surgery. His work with mother and infants when it comes to breastfeeding and tethered oral tissues,

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tongue ties or lip ties, is respected worldwide. From his practice based in Albany, New York,

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he is a recognized international expert and lecturer on the use of lasers in treating children and

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pediatric dental care. Over the course of his career, Dr. Kotlow has written more than 35 articles and

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authored chapters on pediatric dentistry and lasers for three laser textbooks. He's also the author

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of the book SOS for Tots, exposing the myths about breastfeeding and healing the heartbreak to

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make breastfeeding a joy. You can find out more about Dr. Kotlow at kidsteeth.com. And now let's jump

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into my interview with Dr. Lawrence Kotlow. All right, good morning, Dr. Kotlow. Thank you so much

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for being on the show. My pleasure. I appreciate the invitation. Absolutely, absolutely. And I'm

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just gonna let all of our listeners know you're gonna be on with Airway Health Solutions and

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we'll put a link to that webinar series in our show notes. So if anybody wants to register and

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catch that as well, it's gonna be, I'm sure, a phenomenal webinar. And we're gonna do a little bit

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of both today for anyone listening. You can also watch this episode on YouTube. We're gonna be doing

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some slides as well as some questions. So with that, if you would like to take it away, sir.

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Well, again, thank you for the invitation. Trying to condense everything into an hour,

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which is really a seven hour lecture is it's gonna be a challenge, but we'll get through it.

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If you're interested in the entire presentation on Friday, I think it's February 7th, whatever

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that first Friday is, we'll be doing the SOS for TOTS course. You can go to my Facebook page and

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register for it or send me an email at kidstkiddsteth.com. So to start with, we've been dealing with

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pandemics with COVID for the last four or five years, but the reality is the tongue-tie is also a

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pandemic. I have lectured all over the world, the Middle East, Europe, Canada, the United States,

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South America, and it's a problem in every country that I go to. It's not just United States or

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Albany, New York. It's a global health emergency and it's not a fad. We have more women today,

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breastfeeding than ever before, and it crosses all socioeconomic barriers. We've pretty much shown

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that formula is not the best source and that breastfeeding not only is important for nourishment,

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but for a variety of other reasons which I'll try to touch on. Medicine is our biggest problem

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because they really don't understand what we do or why we do it. They think it's a fad. They think

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it's used to pay for our lasers. Therefore, so many infants are being told there's nothing wrong

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by lactation people as well as ENTs as well as physicians. So when they say it takes a village,

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everybody in the village to do something well, you need an educated village. Hopefully today,

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I'll give you as parents some understanding. But if we look at the barriers we deal with,

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the biggest one is evidence-based medicine. And with children, toddlers, and infants,

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it's almost an ethical to have control studies because we have enough articles and enough research

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to show that when we do release the tongue and the lip, it improves in most cases almost immediately.

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As long as the parent follows the directions and that means they utilize the entire breastfeeding

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team, which is the lactation person, the chiropractor, the body worker, and older kids,

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the malfunction of therapy. But if we look at scientific method, what that says is if I do

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something and you do it, that person does it, we get similar results, it's no longer anecdotal.

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That's what we have to fight. The benefits of correcting our tots are restricted to other

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oral tissues. What I kind of get upset about when people lecture is they talk about tots.

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Every one of us has a tethered oral tissue. We have cheek printout, we have tongue printout,

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we have lip print. We need to be concerned when it becomes a problem. What can it cause? Well,

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obviously, to start with, when that baby is born and put on mom's chest, the baby crawls up to the

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breast and tries to latch. Maternal bonding is important because if that doesn't occur,

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their mothers can go into postpartum depression. We wear many hats. This is where the medical

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community kind of rejects what we do because they're rather put a mother on drugs than say,

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are you having nursing problems? Proper mother-child bonding will benefit from good nursing.

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They don't go into postpartum depression unless there are other insinuating circumstances.

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Babies prefer home cooked meals. It has better food in it and manufacturers

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cannot reproduce the milk because the mother's milk is different in the morning,

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the afternoon, and the evening. So if you do pump, make sure that you identify what part of the day

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that saved milk is so you can give it at the appropriate time. So we want successful breast

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feeding. Another big one is air-induced reflux where physicians are treating again with drugs

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rather than looking at the source. So reflux in an adult is a disease. Reflux in a child is due

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to the fact that the restricted tether oral tissues are causing the baby to click on the

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breast and swallow a lot of air. They get distended bellies. They arch their back and a whole bunch

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of other problems which we'll talk about. In addition to that, we have obstructive airway

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disease. So when that baby's tongue is blocking the airway, we're actually reducing the oxygen

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flow to the brain and long-term effects go into adulthood with cardiac disease, strokes, etc.

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Short-term effects, kids tearing apart the schools. You know, when I was in school years and years

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ago, in a practice 52 years, we had kids that were kind of funny kids in the class. We didn't know

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anything about sleep apnea and how it could cause problems, ADD, ADHD, or the Asperger's

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and the other parts of the spectrum. Today we do. Mother's hormones, okay? When that baby is born,

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the brain says produce milk. When the baby starts to cry, the mother brings the baby to the breast

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and the milk is ejaculated. It's not compressed, okay? But that endocrine system is messed up

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and they go into postpartum depression and increased story production. That will,

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in effect, studies show reduce milk supply. Speech, growth and development of the jaws,

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these all are important. So ignoring these restricted to the oral tissues can last a lifetime.

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Okay? And you don't want to do this in adulthood. So we wear many hats when we release that tongue

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and lip and cheek if necessary. So why are we here today? What do we want to know? Well, first of all,

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we want our infants to grow up healthy with good oral, facial, and physical development.

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Plus, equally important, we want- It's amazing the difference that makes immediately. No, no

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way that you just spread away. It's amazing. So that occurs most of the time after surgery. There

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are some examples where it can take a week or so. But again, if you process what we're doing

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and go to the appropriate members of the team, it can be fixed quickly.

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And she was referring to just for clarification, the milk flow and the latching or just the latching?

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She had just released her child and she put her right on the child, right on the breast.

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And she had complained of pain and discomfort. We get her off the nipple onto the areola and

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it was instant for her. And this is the usual taste. This is an adult. It was just a huge relief when

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you did it. Okay. And she had brought, I don't do adults, but she brought two children in and she

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was having all sorts of problems. And that's a slide that can take five minutes for me to go through.

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Okay. Do you see it a lot in families just to kind of touch on that? It's hereditary, yes. Okay.

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At least 50-50, I would say. Okay. For me, there's nothing I'm going to do in dentistry that's going

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to provide me and my staff more satisfaction than helping families because we help the mother,

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the baby, and the father in long-term society. And it's amazing. That's what parents will say

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every time. So this is an example. And I want you to listen to all the failures of the medical

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community, the healthcare community, by this parent who sent me this letter after we released it.

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So listen carefully and pick out. If I was to give you all an exam, I would just put this up there

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and say, tell me what's wrong with this. I first heard about Dr. Colo in October 2017,

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when my nearly three-year-old has significant speech delays. I was doing research on how I could

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help her improve her speech after being dismissed by my pediatrician, speech therapist, and occupational

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therapist, that there was not a thing wrong with her. They claimed her speech was delayed because

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her two older sisters probably did all the talking for her. After learning about Dr. Colo and tongue

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ties, I went to our pediatrician and dentist and asked them to check her. Both said she was fine.

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After additional research, I determined she had a posterior tongue tie and made an appointment

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with Dr. Colo to confirm. Sure enough, she had a posterior tie. We had it revised in the office

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that day. On the way home, my daughter was moving her tongue around, and in two days, she was saying

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words she had never said before and was clearer. Her face looked more relaxed and her disposition

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changed. Prior to being revised, whenever my daughter had a pediatric appointment, I asked them how

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I would know if she had an underlying problem and her crankiness was just personality.

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After she was revised, she was a happier kid, and I think it was frustrating with nobody able

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to talk and now able to communicate. I visited my family out of town in August, prior to her

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revision and again in December, after the revision. I purposely did not tell them anything about the

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tongue tie to see if they noticed a difference. Within two hours of arriving, I started getting

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comments about how my daughter was totally different kids since she saw them in the summer.

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They commented how much better she was talking and how much happier and personable she was.

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I know some of this could have been natural age development, but the night and day difference

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I saw prior to revision and a week later was confirmed by my family. And we go to the second,

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but baby. My second success story is with my now seven-year-old who was five years old at the time

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of the revision. She has sleep apnea, which I only figured out when I was doing research on my younger

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daughter's sleep delay. I kept coming across how tone ties can cost sleep issues and signs of sleep

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apnea. The signs fit my five-year-old to a T. Since my daughter was one and a half, I would mention

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to the pediatrician at her annual checkups about her odd sleeping behavior. I was told it was night

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terrors. Now learning three and a half years later that this is actually sleep apnea. Seeing the

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success with the tongue ties revision of my three-year-old had, I scheduled an appointment for

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my five-year-old. One of the issues which was most embarrassing to my five-year-old was nightly bed

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wedding. We tried all the tricks to stop her from wedding her bed and nothing worked. Within one week

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of the revision, my daughter stopped wedding her bed. In the first year, she might have wet her bed

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only five times in the second year, one time. She now gets up during the night if she has to go to

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the bathroom. Her journey with sleep apnea still isn't over. Last year, her tonsils and adenoids

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were removed. These two successes led us to have our new baby revised. At six weeks, I noticed her

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exhibiting the same nursing behaviors as her older sisters. Their tongue ties, like the baby, went

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undiagnosed because their waking was good because I have a strong letdown so they did nothing,

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did not have to suck for milk. I am being proactive and I am thankful that my baby will

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avoid the speech and sleep apnea issues the older sisters experienced. Thank you, Dr. Kotlow.

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So you can see all of the missed diagnoses. Here's another one. Thank you a million times for the

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assessment and treatment of my twin baby's lip and tongue ties this past July. We immediately

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noticed change in their ability to transfer milk after surgery. I truly believe that we'd still

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struggling if we had not sought out your expertise. I am now able to tandem breastfeed, which means I

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no longer have to pump and bottle feed. You see better and are generally happier babies these days.

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Can I tell you how much stress has been lifted? The bond we've created through my ability to feed

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them is profound. You're an integral part of saving this breastfeeding journey. Thank you again.

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And this is typical of the emails I get and comments I get a week later. What does this occur?

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In utero, it's normal. It's a normal process, pre-program. We don't know why it doesn't happen,

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but basically we're supposed to take on our fingers, our toes, and other areas of the body.

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These frenem are supposed to resorb and disappear. Apoptosis is a funny word meaning to fall off

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like a leaf falls off a tree and a leaf falls off a tree when it's dead. And apoptosis refers to a

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process of what's called programmed cell death, where the cell is actually in a funny kind of way

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committing suicide. And when this happens, there's a whole scripted choreography of pathways and

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proteins within a cell that get activated to actually kill the cell and without making too much of a

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mess. And this happens normally during development, for instance, in the development of the hate,

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and that normally to begin with the hand looks very much like a duck paddle foot and the webs

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between the fingers, those cells apoptose giving you the fingers. And there are human conditions

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where that ceases to where apoptosis doesn't happen and people are born with web feet.

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So it's a normal process that may not happen. If you go to my website, kittst.com, again,

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k-i-d-d-s-t-e-e-t-h, there are all sorts of symptoms or what are really called comorbidities.

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And you can see on the mother's side, I'm not going to read it to you, you can download it,

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you can look at it, and on the infant side. So when the parent comes in, they've already filled

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this out. So before I see that child, I have a good idea that there's some kind of ties going in

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there because it's rare for anything to cause all of these symptoms in a normal healthy child.

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Okay. And parents are led to suffer because they don't go after the causes. So one of the most

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important things for you as a parent, download this from my website and bring it to your doctor.

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If he's intelligent and understands, he will be able to make a decision to refer you, not pick

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up a pair of scissors and try to take care. You can also bring it to your lactation person,

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who you should have seen before me, but she may not or she may have sent you to me because she

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also has the form available. The tongue itself is not a simple muscle. It's complicated. Okay.

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It has five cranial nerves. These are nerves that come from our brain and impact the tongue.

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It has eight different muscles for intrinsic and for extrinsic. It's attached to

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a couple of bones and a high-oared bone by itself. And throughout our body, we have body

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fasion. And that's why the tongue, even though it's coming out of the mouth, is pulling on the

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spinal cord and can cause T and J headaches, back pain, plantar fasciitis, all sorts of things,

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which in the short time, we don't have time to get into. But the tongue is important as part of

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the differential diagnosis when you're looking at systemic problems. It's a complex order.

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How it affects our body? Now, I'm going to show you this. Again, there's physical effects,

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and there are systemic effects. Development of the hard jaw, hard palate, maxillary arch,

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mandibular arch, occlusion, our sinuses, the size of the tongue, breathing, orthodontic problems,

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speech, posture, T and J, facial development, dysfunctional breathing, SIDS possibly,

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and toe walkers. These are just 15 possible adverse physical. We talk about systemic.

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It infers with successful breastfeeding, reduced milk production, postpartum depression,

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air-induced reflux, enlarged T tonsils and adenoids. Let's talk about tonsils and nods

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through a little bit. When my kids were going, we're taking out left and right. Then the physicians

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and the insurance companies decided it was coming up too often. They stopped doing them. All of a

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sudden, we had kids with ADD, which they never saw before with the number. They blame on everything

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from injections of vaccines. But really, is it go back to ENT and pediatricians and insurance

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companies who stopped doing the TNAs? Today, other than infected stuff, most of the TNAs,

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or a great deal of them are done because of air blockage. Sleep disorder, breathing. I could

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hit another 30 symptoms of comorbidities, behavior, GI problems, failure to thrive,

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social and sexual difficulties, dental decay, bedwetting, grinding of teeth, thumb sucking,

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knife ears. Look at, there's over 30 different potential problems if you don't get that tongue

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released. Before we go off, can we go back for a moment? There's a couple that we haven't touched,

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but one, I want to just touch on really quickly because we're talking about childhood development

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and the new section of our website. Why is toe walking on here? Well, I had a couple of chiropractors

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send me their patients who could never walk on their heels. If you go back to body fascia again,

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if I had to slide in here, the fascia is attached to the tip of your tongue, to your toes, and to

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the top of your head. When I release the tongue, it released the stress on that body fascia,

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and immediately that child walked on her heels. Wow. Now, this is from the chiropractor referring,

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you've seen this a couple of times with patients. Is it anecdotal? I don't believe so, but I don't

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see enough patients to do a whole study on. So we're talking about ankle oglossia or tongue

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tide, lip ties or a tight maxillary phlegm, and chica buckle ties. So these are the ones primarily

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that I treat. The mandibular, the lower one and the mandibular buckles, if I've treated it's rare

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in children and toddlers. I will treat it in older kids because it can lead to gum disease and

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periodontal problems. Okay, so that's what all the fuss is about. Family dynamics, okay. We've talked

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about mother baby bonding. We've talked about mother's exhaustion, but we haven't addressed the fact

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in this culture today, fathers are involved. So the concept of breastfeeding and being a dyad

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needs to be changed. It's a triad, especially in this day and age. I don't go along with all of this

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walk stuff myself, but in this particular area, parents come in all the time and I'm treating

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three people, the baby, the mother, and the father. So we should call it a triad. The window of

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opportunity here is not weeks to play around with a tie because it affects lots of things. And we

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have different people involved. It starts with the OBGYN or midwife. Then you have your physicians,

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your pediatric dentists, myofunctional therapists, feeding specialists, okay, body workers, lactation

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people, speech. And we only need to work together. And again, if I talk in my seven hour, we go

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deeper into this about the benefits and how it works. Here, I'm just mentioning all the people

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who are part of the team. And each one of these I could talk to for a half an hour. So obviously,

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it works. But if any one of these people get involved until apparently there's nothing

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wrong when there is, it breaks down. So under the idea set of its circumstances, we have a set of

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chain links here, the birth of an infant. Now, this is my philosophy. Those of you, your parents,

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listen to it carefully because you may find people who couldn't disagree with me. I've done over 40,000

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laser surgeries in the last 25 years, and it works. So what happens at the birth of a baby,

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okay, you've got the OBGYN and family doctors, the first ones who really are going to see that newborn.

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And you have our midwives. So this is where the chain can be broken if it's ignored. I find the

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midwives pay much more attention than I find the physicians do. So I have a classification of class

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one, two, three, and four tides. And it's depending upon where this particular attachment to the tongue

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actually is. So when you have a class one or two, it doesn't appear severe. And I don't like to use

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the word posterior tie, because too many people think it's insignificant. So I use class one or two.

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But remember, the evaluation and diagnosis is not just on appearance. So that baby would see the

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hospital based IV CLC if they're allowed to make a judgment. And this is where we have a breakdown

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because the IB CLC can't make a diagnosis. But when they say there's nothing wrong, in effect,

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they've made a diagnosis. So what I would like to see is all IB CLC is licensed by the states that

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they're in and be able to make an assessment, which is a diagnosis to help these children out. But

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that goes back to their organization. The midwife does the same. Now, that IB CLC in the hospital

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may not be able to say anything because of the politics in the hospital. So her job is to say,

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you know, I'm not sure what's going on. I want you to see an IB CLC and refer outside the hospital.

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Who then can maybe refer to a chiropractor, who then refers to the proper surgeon for evaluation.

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Now, if you have a class three or class four, that's not going to stretch. It's a little wives tale.

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I don't know who started it, but tongue ties and lip ties aren't going to stretch. And unless you

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cut them, they're not going to tear almost a real thin and maybe a fork or something. So these

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should go directly to the hospital, ID CLC, and then go to the surgical revision, which turn

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on send them back to the lactation person, send them to the chiropractor, they come back to me,

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and we rotate around. Okay, we work as a team. I'm going to have to make sure the parent does

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a proper post surgery care so it doesn't heal back together. But reality that doesn't work.

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There's a breakdown. But we have 90 days of that brain development, which is another

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hour of discussion. But within that first 90 days, if that baby is not getting good oxygenation,

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and they have cellular death of the neurons of the brain, they'll never be replaced. And if it goes

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on for one or two years, these are the kids who may be ADD, okay, or misdiagnosed down the lot,

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which you can see parents understand that it takes a team of educated people. That's an important key.

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You're listening to Airway First with today's guest Dr. Lawrence Kotlow.

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You can find out more about the Children's Airway First Foundation and our mission to fix

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Before Six on our website at childrensairwayfirst.org. The CAF website offers tons of great resources

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for both parents and medical professionals. In our Parents Portal and Clinicians Corner,

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you can find educational and informational content, including videos, blogs, our recommended reading

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00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:48,760
list, comprehensive medical research, podcasts, events, parents' support, and educational opportunities.

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Parents are also encouraged to join the Airway Huddle, our Facebook support group, which was

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created for parents of children with airway and sleep-related issues. You can access the Airway

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Huddle support group at facebook.com. Backslash groups. Backslash Airway Huddle.

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Are you a medical professional or a parent that's interested in being a guest on the show? Then shoot

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us a note via the contact page on our website, or send us an email directly at info at Children's

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AirwayFirst.org. As a reminder, this podcast and the opinions expressed here are not a medical

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diagnosis. If you suspect your child might have an airway issue, contact your pediatric airway

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dentist or pediatrician. And now let's jump back into my interview with today's guest, Dr. Lawrence

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Kotlin.

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Um, and I just would like to ask really fast here because one thing we hear a lot from parents

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is they're told the tongue tie will resolve itself. Is that ever the case or is that rarely the case?

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Um, well, I'll give you two answers. I see kids 10, 11, 12, and 18 who were told that

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and it didn't happen. So no, it's not going to disappear. What may disappear is reflux because

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once you're off the breast and the bottle, okay, what happens is it lasts 12 to 18 months of pain

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and discomfort versus a week of surgery. So the answer to the question is no, I don't know where

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that comes from. I've never seen it. And I treat kids from birth all the way up to the

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ages of 18. And then you see some adults. Okay. Okay. So to start with, when you assess it,

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these, there's some complicated assessments out there which people seem to think are wonderful,

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um, to get everybody on the same boat. But in reality, first thing you want to do is you want

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to look at it. You can tell it's tied. Does every tongue tie have to be released? I would say every

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class three and four should be released. We should be proactive, okay, and prevent problems.

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On the other hand, we need to look at function. Can that function? And lastly, the comorbidities.

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And we take a look at what we saw before and we put them all together and that's how we make a

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decision. It all starts here. Proper evaluation. You can't do it on mom's lap. It doesn't work.

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Okay. I'm looking in the mouth. You as a parent can see what I can see. Okay. If you do it the wrong

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way like this, that's why they can't be diagnosed or assessed properly. You have to have a baby in

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the right position and you as a parent can do it. You don't need anybody to tell you. If you do it

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this way, you're going to miss almost 50% of them or more because these are the ones that the studies

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are out there and that's why they show only five or 10% of babies at tongue tie because they don't

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see what goes on between the insertion and the base of the tongue. So they missed all of the

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distal ties. So that's the second thing. First, you fill out the paperwork then you do an exam.

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Okay. Okay. The treatment you wanted to see. Okay. I have a well-trained staff. We always worry

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about airways. We protect the eyes. My staff's been with me to be honest with you for over 40

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years. I've been in practice 52 years and most of my staff's been with me for over 40 to 45 years.

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So they're well-trained. They know how to hold the baby. We know how to avoid leading and nerves.

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And if you go to the appropriate person, okay, we're able to do it and this is what it should

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look like when it's released. Okay. So this is us working four-handed dentistry. It's a surgical

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procedure and we protect the patients. In my office, all babies and mothers and fathers

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are brought in through a separate entrance because in many cases the baby hasn't been immunized from

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COVID or RSV and we use UV lights. So every baby is separated, isolated and the parents are too.

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So there's no chance of communication if that baby comes down with a problem. Patients this week,

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they drove in, they had a hotel and they called the morning. They said they have to cancel. The

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entire family came down with COVID. Anyone who thinks that COVID is going away is delusional

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because I'm treating everybody as if they had COVID and older patients would treat. This is

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not so much to worry about but hepatitis and AIDS. So back in the 70s, we were doing this. So this

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is the procedure using extra oral suction to prevent vaporization of any kind of bacteria

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or aerosols. You can see it's very quick and easy. I've just done the lip. Now we're going to do the

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tongue and we gown and we glove and we protect our patients as if they were on our own shoulder.

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And the baby's awake? Oh yeah. They get no sedation. They get sugar water at the most. The whole thing

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takes less than a half a minute. Oh, wow. Okay. You never put a patient. I've not had a sedative

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patient except for older kids with something called a dramine for car sickness. I got rid of my

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nitrous because we can't really sterilize the tubes in the office so I didn't feel comfortable.

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And I don't use any drugs or chemicals on the kids. We use sugar water and that pretty much covers

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it. And if you read the studies, it's a good analgesic and mother's milk, the two that we use.

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Okay. Okay. Reflex. We talked about briefly. I'm just going to mention it. Okay. It could be just a

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simple latch and they put them on drugs and that shouldn't happen. It should be part of the differential

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diagnosis. But this is what the physicians tell patients. All babies have gases spit up. They put

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them on a reflex drug. So put mother on special diets. They go to GI doctors. So put on different

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drugs. They put allergies, colic and reflex. Okay. They still on the hand breastfeed. They say it's

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an allergy to cow's milk. They put them on formula for $97. They put them under general

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friendoscopy. They put NG tubes and stomach tubes or they do a procedure. But nobody looks as the

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tongue as maybe that's the cause. So I would urge every parent who's listened to this before you

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allow a doctor to put your kid on drugs and in the OR make sure that tongue is properly assessed

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and evaluated because all of these comorbidities may be directly related to that tongue type.

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That's another important key. 15 different. Okay. So this is just one study out there.

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This shows and this is in Brazil. Unfortunately, he died recently. But in Brazil, it's required

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every newborn baby have their tongue evaluated. But here again is a study. Short-lingual frenem

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may lead to abnormal oral facial growth, development of sleep disorder, breathing.

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And there's lots of them out there. Here's another one. Okay. So there are plenty of studies.

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If you type them in on the internet and look, but when they tell you it's a fad,

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not anymore, never was, but it's important to understand the risks of watching. This is the

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article. Again, you can download it from the internet. A frequent phenotype for pediatric

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sleep apnea. Short-lingual frenem. And I'll have links to all of these in our show notes.

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No matter what age we treat tots, we need to do a full evaluation. These are the red flags.

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So this is also on my website. And any child over the age of two has to fill out this form.

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And it's not a check off. If you read the directions, it says put a zero, a one, a two, or a three.

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Now, I don't really believe that sleep studies are of value these young kids,

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because they can't really handle it. But this is better than any sleep study as far as I'm concerned,

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because it's showing me this child has problems. And we need to look at the tonsils, the adenoids,

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and the airway, but the tongue has to be part of that differential diagnosis. Because parents

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and teachers have struggled with these kids when they're in school because they're just

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in school because they're disruptive. They don't do well in school. And again, I have a whole series

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of slides just on the airway and brain development. I'm just going to show you one. Okay. But this is

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a patient who was referred to me for Invisalign. She was 18. Okay. Six days post-op. Two years.

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No local, just topical. And this is using carbon dioxide laser because

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aiming being in water to cool. All lasers are not creating egress. You have to be careful.

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Some don't have aiming beams because things are dangerous. If you're just doing soft

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tissue surgery, you're in direct contact. If you're using this laser, which is a CO2 that has

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water in there, an airbion has water in there, but this one has better human space as well.

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It's not. But machines run from 3,000 to 150,000 miles.

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Unreal. That's so weird.

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You can let it extend.

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Yeah, all the time.

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Yeah, we'll get there.

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She's going to go away.

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Wow, to see her move it like that so quickly after you released it, that's wild.

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Okay. So tell me what's the difference with your life?

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I just like my neck. Everything feels so much better. I can finally like lick ice cream.

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It's just so unreal to be able to like stick my tongue on my mouth.

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Before your head hurt though, right?

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Yeah, really.

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You know, a lot of neck and neck pain.

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The worst headaches, everything.

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And we just did it two seconds ago.

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And I just, I don't know. I just feel like my posture is better.

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Everything, nothing with my neck.

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Okay, you were so tight. You should feel 100% better.

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I do.

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Okay, we're going to check you back in the week and we're going to get another report.

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Have you had your first ice cream gone?

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Yeah, I did actually write what I loved here. It was, it was so weird.

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Does it taste better?

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It did.

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So much better. Like I, this whole week I've been sleeping just like,

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like I've never slept that gun ever. And I'm just like, I just feel better.

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And this is not anecdotal because everybody says the same.

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What do you think?

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The changes.

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Yes.

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Yes. Tremendous changes with her, her posture, her neck.

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She's, she's up like this instead of like this and her just like, just everything.

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Just living like that. And just like, can we change to an extent?

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That's crazy.

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Yeah. I just wish I would have did it sooner because I mean, I've noticed and this is no,

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I mean, this has been a life changer for her. It really has.

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No one ever looked at her, said anything to you. No one ever suggested it.

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When she, when I went to the dentist, my, not even the dentist, my dental, my dentist,

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there were, that was cleaning my teeth one day. It was just like, oh, she's top time.

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But that was like only a couple of years ago. Yeah. And she said that, well, if she hadn't

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had any scrunch problems, right? I feel like that. I mean, it's just, you know, whatever.

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So I, we didn't think anything of it. Then I, then it started getting worse as she got,

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you know, within those couple of years. And I'm like, this is not, this is not right.

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What about the medical community? Did you talk about the headache or the cleaning or the cleaning?

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I just thought of this. She's like,

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So this goes on for a long time. I won't keep it going here. But bottom line is the question is,

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it's recommended kids see a dentist by 12 months. But the reality is that first 12 months,

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the pediatrician should have a form in their office that I showed you earlier.

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And if there's evaluation that needs to be done, a pediatric dentist should be educated

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and trained in a pediatrician to evaluate the tongue and refer appropriately. So at 12 months

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is a general team. So this talks about brain development in the first 90 days. Look at the

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difference in that child. The baby's brain is growing by 1% each day right after birth.

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And it's growing fast. That first 90 days, as I said, if that baby's brain is not getting full

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oxygenation, those synapse aren't being corrected. And those areas of the brain where the nerves are

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not getting oxygen, those will die and they can't be replaced. So it's growing by 64% in the first

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90 days and 30% of an adult. That's a lot of growth in 90 days. So basically, this is my website,

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my email. I've tried to keep it for 45 minutes so that we could get everything in here. I think

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I covered all the questions you asked, what you talk about. So I'm open for questions. Let me

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end my screen sharing and we can just talk. Yeah, absolutely. And you did. Thank you so much. You

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covered quite a bit there in 45 minutes. Thank you for letting me ask questions along the way,

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as well. I appreciate that. So I guess, what are the questions I would have? And

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I realize it's an opinion question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Why are we missing this so much?

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And I understand there's a group that thinks it's a fad or thinks that it's not needed. We've all

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read the article in the New York Times a few weeks ago. But why aren't we looking for this

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in infants? Why isn't this part of their birth exam? Well, first of all, the article in the New

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York Times was very biased and it represented the ENT and a mother who didn't get a good result.

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And a lactation person whom I understand had some other things that were fissures.

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I spoke to that woman for over an hour and so did other people. And she'd ignored everything we said

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that is the article misrepresented. Yes, we agree with we go back to when my kids were born 45 to

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50 years ago, 20% of women in the United States were breastfeeding. Now we have close to 90%.

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Also, in the 50s and 60s, it was pushed that formula was the best thing for our babies.

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Then we came into the 60s and 70s with the hippies. They wanted to go everything natural,

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natural childbirth, breastfeeding. And it became more acceptable for women to nurse.

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And as we progressed further, fathers became involved. So we had a combination of bottle and

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breastfeeding. But as more women nursed, and they were no longer at the lower end of our

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financial socioeconomic area, they went and complained. There's a problem here. Now,

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in dental school and medical school, we get nothing other than the tongue is for chewing

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is for chewing taste. Everything I presented today I've learned on my own or with other people who

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are going to be on that webinar. And we've talked to and some many of those have been in my office

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because I started doing this 50 years ago, but not on babies because we didn't have the right

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materials. lasers change it because lasers are not a burn. They don't hurt most of what I do

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in operative dentistry, as well as surgery is without numbing anybody, because it has an anal

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G's effect. And there are other types of lasers called photobiomodulation, but you're good for

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trauma, etc. So again, that's a long story condensed. But we don't get it in our residencies. We don't

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get it in medical or dental residencies. I had one residency program I lecture to, and they said,

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if you do, if I do everything you just explained to me, I have to learn how to do everything all

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over again, because it's opposite of what I learned when I was going through four years of dental

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school. And again, I can expand upon this, but I don't want to keep you on for two or three more

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hours. The bottom line is, there are blind folders. I went to Stockholm and lectured,

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and there's 530, I think seven pediatricians, not one of them was interested enough to come,

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and they were all invited. So as I say, you can bring a horse to water, but you can't make them

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drink it. I have this course, which I advertise to pediatricians. I've lectured locally, and I

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can't get them to come. They don't want to hear about it. And if when I do go to them,

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I won't even get into the fiasco return, it was trying to set me up and telling me that

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they should be the ones to refer and that kids are getting infected. And when you listen to the

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medical community in ENT's lecture, I've done over 40,000 laser surgeries and never seen one

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infection. Okay, I see mistakes that other people make because they don't know the anatomy. So

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the parents who are listening, I would say, do your homework. Number one, look at the comorbidities

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and insist. Go by your gut feeling. Okay, get a proper evaluation by someone who can assess it

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and refer you or treat it. This is being treated all over the world. You can find someone who's

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local or I've had people flying from Europe in the older days when I was the only one doing it.

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So I hope that answers that question. It absolutely does. And I guess I have a personal

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response to something that you said. First of all, to the it goes against, you know, we have to relearn

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everything we learned in school. Well, come over to the world of technology that happens

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about every 50 seconds for us. And then shouldn't we always be continuing learners? I mean, that's

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one thing we're huge advocates for here. Things change. You know, I have a biology background.

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Things I learned in college, whatever years ago, their discovery weren't true. So it's life. That's

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the beautiful thing about the human mind and the modern world we're learning every day. So

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come on board that bandwagon folks. Oh, I'm gonna say. The mind doesn't grow. It does.

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I'm gonna tell you. Exactly. Exactly. So at the end of every episode, I like to turn the show back

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over to our guest for the final thought, you know, one final thought to leave with our parent

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00:47:47,240 --> 00:47:54,680
audience. Well, I think I just did that, but I'll do it again. Yeah. I appreciate the opportunity

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to talk directly to parents. I want them to open their minds and think that what we're doing is

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what's best for their baby for them and the father, because they will work together. Our goal is not

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to pay for our lasers because mine are all paid for before I pick them up and start using them. My

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goal is to do three things. One, make that baby's life better. Make the breastfeeding experience

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and growth and development of the child for the family better. And to be honest with you,

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my staff and I enjoy doing it because we're helping three people. So it's a positive experience for

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me. And that's why I don't or can't retire as long as my eyes and my hands work and my staff is on

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board. We're going to continue to do what we feel is necessary in spite of the pushback from the

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New York Times and other medical people out there. But I think parents, go buy your gut feeling.

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That's the most important thing I would say. I 100% agree with that. And again, I will put the link

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to the Airway Health Solutions webinar in our show notes for parents and medical professionals

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both. We invite you all to join. They are part of our collaboration group. So please, please, please

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register and attend that. And on a personal note, thank you so much for being on and just your

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open, honest, unfiltered sharing of your knowledge. It's truly appreciated as is the work you do.

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So thank you. My pleasure and appreciate your asking me. If I can be of any further help,

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you know how to reach me. Thank you. Thanks again to today's guest, Dr. Lawrence Kotlow,

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for sharing his medical insight into each of you for listening to today's episode.

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If you're new to our podcast, please don't forget to subscribe. And if you enjoyed today's episode,

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leave us a review or comment telling us about what you enjoyed the most.

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You can stay connected with the Children's Airway First Foundation by following us on Instagram,

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00:50:04,120 --> 00:50:10,840
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Parents Support Group, the Airway Huddle, at facebook.com backslash groups backslash

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00:50:16,280 --> 00:50:21,640
Airway Huddle. You can also find tons of great content for parents and medical professionals

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00:50:21,640 --> 00:50:28,840
alike via the Parents Portal and Clinicians Corner areas of our website. If you'd like to be a

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guest or have an idea for an upcoming episode, shoot us a note via the contact page on our website,

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or send us an email directly at info at childrensairwayfirst.org. And finally, thanks to all the

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parents and medical professionals out there that are working to help make the lives of kids around

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the globe just a little bit better. Take care, stay safe, and happy breathing everyone.