Prevalence of ankyloglossia in children aged from 3 to 5 years old in sari

Background and Aim: Ankyloglossia is a developmental anomaly of the tongue that restricts the movement of the tongue. The incidence of ankyloglossia ranging from 0.02% to 4.4% in different communities. The present study was performed to determine the prevalence of ankyloglossia in children aged 3-5 years in Sari. Material and Methods: In this study the prevalence of ankyloglossia in 975 children aged 3 to 5 years was investigated. A simple examination was done and the diagnosis of ankyloglossia was based on the presence of a short lingual frenum and Kotlow criteria. Also, the length of the free tongue was measured by a ruler, and based on the measurements, values of 16 mm and above were considered normal and values less than 3 mm were considered severe. The prevalence and severity of ankyloglossia were compared by sex with chi-square or Fisher exact test and normal distribution of quantitative variables was analyzed by the Shapiro-Wilk test. Result: The results showed that the prevalence of ankyloglossia in children aged 3 to 5 years in Sari was 3.6%, of which the prevalence was 2% in girls and 1.6% in boys, and only 0.7% of them had a severe form of this anomaly. Gender and age of children and also the age of the mother at delivery had no significant relationship with the prevalence of ankyloglossia.(P=0.73) and there is no significant different between mother age and ankyloglossia .(P=0.8) Conclusion: As a result of this study, the prevalence of ankyloglossia in children aged 3 to 5 years in Sari was 3.6%, which was higher among girls than boys.