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Prevalence of Fissured and Geographic Tongue Abnormalities among University Students in Khartoum State, Sudan

Ayah H Musaad, Amal H Abuaffan and Eman Khier

Background: It is believed that the tongue represents the state of the body’s health and thus individuals need to pay close attention to any changes that may occur such as altered or loss of taste, burning sensations and abnormal texture.

Objective: To determine prevalence of fissured and/or geographic tongue abnormalities in relation to gender and to asses level of awareness of their existing tongue abnormality among a sample of Sudanese university students.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study for 400 university students within 16 to 22 years old who participated was examined and tongue abnormality was identified and photographed. Chi square test was used to analyse data.

Results: Overall incidence was 54.5% (19.5% among males and 35.0% among females). Most frequent tongue abnormality was fissured tongue (24.0%), ankyloglossia (2.5%), geographic tongue (1.2%), fissured and geographic tongue (0.5%), smooth tongue (0.25%) and lingual thyroid (0.25%). Level of awareness was 55.97% (10.26% in males and 45.71% in females).

Conclusion: This study offers information concerning prevalence of tongue abnormalities, gender association, and types of tongue abnormalities with assessment of level of awareness of existing tongue abnormality among a subgroup of the university students of the Sudanese population.