by Laura Rodríguez-Alcalá, Juan Martín-Lagos Martínez, Carlos O´Connor-Reina, Guillermo Plaza
The study of the muscles of the tongue forms part of a basic evaluation of upper airway function that includes swallowing, speaking and chewing. It is important because the upper airway presents a region of collapse during sleep. Through the action of the dilator muscles, mainly the genioglossus, such collapse can be prevented. In this study, we present a simple tool that can be used to measure the strength of the tongue. This tool may provide an easy way to measure tongue function and allow a simple evaluation of pathologies that affect the tone of the tongue. We have carried out 20 tongue strength measurements using the Tongue Digital Spoon (TDS) in a healthy adult population, using the Iowa Oral Performance Instrument (IOPI) as the gold standard. To validate the procedure, we performed replicate measurements on 20 individuals aged 20–70 years. We found a mean TDS measurement of 115.99 g/cm
2 in young subjects, 98.47 g/cm
2 in middle-aged subjects and 84.23 g/ cm
2 in the elderly. There was a significant difference in the measurements between young and elderly participants. There was also a significant correlation between TDS and IOPI measurements (Pearson correlation coefficient,
r = 0.69,
P
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