Variations in Shape of Tongue among Students attending Chitwan Medical College

Abstract

Introduction: The need for a new biometric system is gaining importance. Tongue print is also getting acceptance as a system for biometric authentication. The tongue is an extremely muscular organ used for communication, taste, and deglutition. Studies have shown variations in the morphology of the tongue. Studies pertaining to the morphology of the tongue is lagging in Nepal. Hence this study was carried out to assess the various morphological variations of the tongue such as shapes, borders, and color among the bachelor level students in a tertiary care center in Nepal Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 312 bachelor-level students of Chitwan Medical College. The convenience sampling method was used to collect the data. All the data was recorded in a proforma. The sociodemographic details of the participants were recorded. The borders, colors, fissures, and shapes of the tongue’s morphology were documented. The collected data were entered into Microsoft excel 2019 and transported into Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 16. The data was then analyzed using descriptive statistical methods. The data was also calculated in form of frequency and percentage and later on, they were presented in form of a table. Results: Among 312 students who took part in the study, 126 (40.4 %) of the participants were male and 186 (59.6 %) of them were female. The mean age of participants was 22.38 ±2.008 years. U-shaped tongue was prevalent followed by V-Shape tongue and bifid tongue. More than half of the participants 180 (57.7 %) had partially scalloped tongues. While comparing gender wise U-shaped tongue was more common in both males and females. The bifid tongue was observed more in males 11 (8.7 %) while the V-shaped tongue was more in females 52 (28 %). Conclusions: