The Prevalence of Tongue Abnormalities Among the School Children in Borazjan, Iran

Abstract

Introduction
Tongue is one of the most important organs in the oral cavity which has significant roles in different functions such as speaking, mastication, swallowing, breathing, etc. The tongue may be influenced by internal diseases sooner than other organs and also may be involved in some abnormalities that some are developmental and some of them are genetical and environmental. This study has been performed to measure the relative frequency of tongue anomalies in students in Borazjan city and to determine the relations of age and gender with these anomalies.

Methods and Materials
With randomized stratified clustered sampling, 1540 students were selected from primary, guidance and high school. Then these students were examined. Examination was performed with the natural light in the quiet and relax condition . Lips and cheeks were retracted with abslang and disposable mirror. The results were analysed with chi-square statistic test in SPSS.

Results
The prevalence of all tongue anomalies was 34.3% (geograpic tongue 4.8%, fissured tongue 11.8%, ankyloglossia 5%, median rhomboid glossitis 1.75%, and hairy tongue 0.8%).

Discussion
The prevalence of tongue anomalies in this study is near to the results of some past studies but is defferent with some others. This study showed that tongue anomalies are more prevalent in males than in females but the difference between them was not statistically significant. this study also showed that the rate of tongue anomalies was not related with age.

Key words
Geographic Tongue, Fissured Tongue, Ankyloglossia, Median Rhomboid Glossitis, Hairy tongue.