Anquiloglosia y sus consecuencias en la fonación, en escolares de San Eduardo, Guayaquil - Ecuador 2023.

Abstract

Introduction: Ankyloglossia is defined as a small strip of tissue that links the lower part of the tongue together with the base of the mouth. The short lingual frenulum can sometimes hinder the normal ability to raise the tip of the tongue for the articulation of sounds such as t/d/n/l/z/r/rr, thus causing problems with phonation. Objective: Demonstrate the prevalence of ankyloglossia and its effects on phonation in the population of San Eduardo. Materials and methods: The present study is a prospective, cross-sectional, analytical, observational - descriptive investigation, 80 students between 4 to 7 years old, from the town of San Eduardo, were selected, where it was identified if there was presence of ankyloglossia in each one. of them through sound evaluations and speech tests, they were classified by type and complementary tests were also carried out to measure the oral hygiene index. Results: Of the 80 students evaluated, 11% have ankyloglossia, of which 67% suffer from phonetic disorders. Among the sounds that cannot be made because of ankyloglossia, the most affected is the letter RR at 67%, followed by the letter R with 44%, and the letter T at 33%. And distortion as the problem is prevalent in speech production, represented with 59%, followed by substitution with 49% and finally omission with 13%. Conclusion: The schoolchildren of the community of San Eduardo, according to the Chi-square statistical test, accept the null hypothesis, that is, the presence of phonetic problems does not depend on the presence of ankyloglossia, being independent variables.