Prevalence of tongue lesions in 1013 Jordanian dental outpatients.

Over a period of 10 months, 1013 consecutive dental outpatients attending the Screening Clinic in Faculty of Dentistry, Jordan University of Science and Technology, in the city of Irbid were investigated for the presence of tongue lesions. All subjects were seeking treatment for caries and periodontal diseases and none was complaining of oral mucosal disorder. The results showed that 240 subjects (23.7%) had one or more tongue lesions. Geographic tongue and fissured tongue were detected in 6.8% and 11.4% of the examined population respectively, and an association of the two conditions was observed in 2.9% of the subjects. Hairy tongue was diagnosed in 3.4% of the subjects with significantly higher prevalence in males (P < 0.0005). A strong correlation was found between hairy tongue and smoking.