Friedman Tongue position and tongue movements

Abstract

The tongue facilitates the food to travel through the digestive system, it has taste buds so that we can enjoy the flavor of that food, and the tongue is largely responsible for speech. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relation of the Friedman tongue position with tongue movements. 322 volunteers (166 men, 156 women) who were studying at our university participated in this study. Horizontal and vertical lines were used to determine the tongue movements. Horizontal lines passing through the mid points of the upper lip and mandible, and vertical lines passing through the right and left infraorbitale were constituted on each subject. Subjects were asked to protrude tongue maximally and downward, protruding tongue maximally and upward, and protruding tongue maximally and laterally in sitting position. The scores corresponding to the movements of tongue were compared with the Friedman Tongue position.Both protruding tongue maximally and downward and protruding tongue maximally and upward were significantly different between Friedman tongue position (p<0.001, p<0.001 respectively).The descriptions of tongue movements are very important. We conclude that the findings of this study will be a guide for other studies.