Prevalence of tongue lesions in Hungarian children.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of tongue lesions in Hungarian children in relation to age, sex, systemic diseases and allergies. A total of 1017 preschool and school children aged 1-14 years were examined. The age, sex and tongue lesions diagnosed were recorded together with any history of systemic diseases and allergies. Tongue lesions were found in 35.11% of all the children examined. Fissured tongue was the most frequent lesion (29.2%), apparently associated with age and sex. It occurred more commonly in boys, and in older children, than in girls and younger children. Geographic tongue was found in 5.7%, occurred more often in boys, and a relationship existed between fissured and geographic tongue. Among the children with geographic tongue 44.82% also had fissured tongue. These findings agree in general with the epidemiological data reported on population samples elsewhere in the world. Crenated tongue occurred in 0.68%, central papillary atrophy in 0.78%, and partial ankyloglossia in 0.88% of the children examined: confirming the rarity of these lesions. Although there was no obvious correlation with systemic diseases, geographic tongue appeared to be coincident with a history of allergic diathesis in some cases. In some cases early recognition of tongue lesions may provide useful diagnostic markers for some diseases.