Tongue volume in human female adults with mandibular prognathism

It has often been hypothesized that a large tongue leads to an enlargement of the mandible and therefore contributes to the development of mandibular prognathism. We examined (1) whether the tongue volume in human subjects with mandibular prognathism was larger than that in subjects with good occlusion and (2) whether the tongue volume and the pharyngeal capacity correlated with the morphological characteristics of dento-skeletal structures. Magnetic resonance images of the tongue and its surrounding structures were recorded for female adult volunteers with good occlusion (control group, n = 10) and patients with mandibular prognathism (test group, n = 16). Lateral cephalograms were obtained for the patients. No significant differences were determined for the tongue volume or the pharyngeal capacity between the two groups. The tongue volume did not correlate with the pharyngeal capacity (r = 0.280, p = 0.166). The tongue volume correlated with the facial angle (r = 0.548, p = 0.028), the Y-axis (r = 0.539, p = 0.031), and the angle nasion-A point-pogonion (r = 0.540, p = 0.031). These results suggest that the tongue volume is accounted for by the combined horizontal and vertical location of the chin and symphysis, but do not support the conventional clinical surmise that large tongue volume is inherent in patients with mandibular prognathism.