Rehabilitation of Glossectomy Cases with Tongue Prosthesis: A Literature Review

Abstract

Tongue is the only movable muscular organ without any bone in the human body. It has very important role in perception of taste and sensations like touch, pressure, heat and cold. The purpose of the article is to review various types of tongue prosthesis and their clinical applications. This review helps the clinician to choose the appropriate type of tongue prosthesis for different clinical situations, retention of tongue prosthesis and material selection for each type of prosthesis. A broad search of published literature was performed using the keyword glossectomy, glossal prosthesis and tongue prosthesis from 1980 to 2014 in Medline, Google scholar, internet and text book. This review gives basic knowledge of glossal prosthesis and selection of the same for various clinical conditions.

Keywords

• glossal prosthesis
• palatal augmentation prosthesis
• speech appliance