Frenum is a mucous membrane fold that attaches the lips and cheek to the alveolar mucosa, the gum, and the underlying tissues. It basically consists of dense collagenous tissue and elastic muscle fibers. It has different name depending on its location. For example, labial frenum, buccal frenum, and lingual frenum. Under normal circumstances, the frenum is supposed to attached near the oral vestibule. If the frenum attaches to the gum, then it could give rise to some problems such as spacing between teeth, proclined teeth, and receeding gum because it keeps pulling the gum away from the teeth. It could also cause speech issue if it's a high lingual frenum, known as a tongue tie. For those who are doing orthodontic (braces) treatment, frenum can hinder the space closure during treatment. The picture below shows a gap between the front teeth due to frenal attachment on the gum.

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Frenectomy is a dental procedure to cut and remove the frenum. Traditionally, it is done with scalpel and blade. After cutting of the whole muscle fibers, stitches will be placed to prevent the frenum from growing back. The following picture shows the traditional way of doing frenectomy, which is bloody and painful.

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​The modern way of doing frenectomy, would be using laser. Er,Cr;YSGG aser ablates the tissue layer by layer, therefore its fast, minimally invasive, and no bleeding throughout the procedure. No stitches required for laser frenectomy. Below shows immediate post-operative picture of laser frenectomy and the following shows 1 week follow-up picture.

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