ABSTRACT
Purpose:
to characterize and compare speech alterations related to the lingual frenulum alterations in schoolchildren from 8;6 to 10;11 years old among the control and research group.
Methods:
52 school children were evaluated (8;6 to 10;11 years old) both genders, regularly enrolled in private institutes divided into two groups: control group (without lingual frenulum alterations) and research group (with lingual frenulum alterations). These children were initially evaluated through the Assessment in OrofacialMotricity Protocol MBGR in a school clinic, through pictures used in this assessment. The tests used for the statistical analysis were "Fisher Test", "Qui Square" and "Anova", as significant level 5% (p<0.05).
Results:
from the 52 children, 26 (50%) presented lingual frenulum alteration. From these 26 children, 21 (80.8%) presented diminished lingual tonus, 20 (76.9%) presented low tongue in the oral cavity and 16 (61.5%) presented articulation alteration. Regarding the other evaluated items, there were no statistically significant differences among the groups.
Conclusion:
the short frenulum prevailed over the other lingual frenulum alterations classifications. The research group presented statistically significant alterations when compared with the group control, in the following items: tongue tonus, low tongue posture in the oral cavity and articulation. In the other items, although there is no statistically significant difference among the groups, there was a tendency of major alteration in the research group. It was not possible to determine if alterations in phonetics speech are the same regarding the different lingual frenulum alterations.
Keywords:
Tongue; Muscle Tonus; Lingual Frenulum; Child
