Oral and maxillofacial surgery
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Sensory changes after tongue reduction for macroglossia

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We report sensory changes after tongue reduction by the Harada-Enomoto method for macroglossia in a 20-year-old woman with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome. Sensory tests were performed before surgery and 1 week and 2 months after surgery. We assessed the static tactile threshold, vibration sense, static 2-point discrimination, pain threshold, and taste. No sensory loss of any category tested was observed after tongue reduction.

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Patient

A 20-year-old woman presented with macroglossia and anterior open bite and had been diagnosed with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome at birth. Her first tongue reduction surgery was performed at 7 years of age by the Dingman-Grabb method5 after which orthodontic treatment was initiated. However, despite the ongoing orthodontic treatment, orthognathic surgery was required to close the anterior open bite. Further tongue reduction was required before orthognathic surgery could be performed, and on this

Discussion

Several techniques of tongue reduction have been reported. In most of these techniques, however, the tip of the tongue is excised. This should be avoided because the tip is the most mobile and sensitive portion of the tongue.4 Matsune et al. reported that the ability to detect salty and bitter tastes declined after tongue reduction.2 To date, there have been no reports to objectively assess sensory changes, including the static tactile threshold, vibration sense, s2PD, and pain threshold, after

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