In this interview, Samantha, a lifelong chronic clencher and grinder, discusses her experience shortly after undergoing a frenectomy (tongue‑tie release). Within half an hour of the procedure she felt a profound sense of release: swallowing became markedly easier, shoulder and jaw tension dissolved, her lips relaxed despite wearing braces, and she experienced a dramatic reduction in pain comparable to taking a strong muscle relaxant. She notes that the surgery alleviated internal tissue pull that had been causing shoulder soreness and neck tension. Samantha also references her ongoing myofunctional therapy, describing how tongue‑placement exercises previously caused headaches but now feel effortless. Even with a swollen tongue and stitches, she reports increased energy while eating, no post‑meal fatigue, and an overall feeling of “melting away” four decades of tension. The testimonial conveys enthusiastic gratitude for the functional and quality‑of‑life improvements following the frenectomy.
Chapters
Samantha is here and she's going to talk to us about her recent experience of having a frenectomy done. Samantha is a world-class clencher-grinder with probably no equal. She's clenched and ground most of her entire life. She's had 4 teeth taken out. We're in the process of reopening the spaces and giving her tongue space back, and that's helped her a lot. Having said that, she's still clenching, and she's just back after having had this frenectomy done, and let's listen to her talk about it.
Profound. I noticed an immediate sense of release and relief. A half an hour after the procedure, I noticed it was so much easier for me to swallow. I had no idea how difficult it was for me to swallow my whole life. And yesterday, with my tongue swollen and stitches, I'm just— I can swallow. And my shoulders are just relaxing and hanging, and there's just no more of this internal tension or grinding. And I can breathe. And my lips are just relaxed. They— I was— I've been coating my braces and the coils with wax because my lips have just been kind of like stuck to them, but there's no wax on my braces. It's just relaxed and nice, and I feel like I've taken the strongest muscle relaxant in the world. And I've taken Flexerols recently due to an auto accident. And I feel like I've taken 10 of
them. That much less pain?
That much relief. And I just— my shoulders are actually kind of sore because they're not held up, and I didn't realize that every time I turned my neck, it was the internal tissue pulling on my shoulders. Because now I can swallow, and I'll get this, every time I stick my tongue out, I want to cry because That used to bring up this internal feeling. I can't explain it, but it's so easy now. I can move my tongue without feeling tense and tight. I'm gonna go like get a massage because I just feel like all droopy and relaxed and like, you know, 40 years of tension is just now kind of like melting away.
Thank you.
I mean, I can swallow, like, and I've been in myofunctional therapy, and the more I was doing tongue exercises with Joy, like the tension— I was getting headaches and all this stuff, and it was like really coming to a head. And she would have me put my tongue on the spot.
Yes.
Grin and swallow back here with the back of my tongue on the roof of my mouth, and I couldn't do it, and it was such an effort. And just putting the tongue, my tongue on the spot was, I could feel the tension in the back of my head, and now it's like—
That's wonderful.
It's no problem. And I've been drinking and eating, and I ate dinner last night and I wasn't tired afterwards. I didn't realize how much energy I was exerting just eating.
Okay. Thank you.
And that's with a swollen tongue and stitches in my mouth. I couldn't be thrilled— more thrilled.
