Prevalence of geographic and plicated tongue in 6090 Iraqi schoolchildren

Abstract
The prevalence of geographic and plicated tongue among 6090 Iraqi school children was determined according to age and sex. Geographic tongue was observed in 4.3% of the population and plicated tongue in 2.6%. Significant sex differences was found only in children with plicated tongue. The prevalence rates varied irregularly with age in both sexes for both tongue anomalies and, although significant differences were found between the ages, a steady increase or decrease was not clear; this could be due to the short span of age used in this investigation. The only significant association found was between geographic and plicated tongue in males, which may indicate a genetic linkage between the 2 conditions.