[Incidence of tongue diseases based on epidemiologic studies (review of the literature)].

According to the literary data the prevalence of fissured tongue varies between 0.8-60.0%, that of geographic tongue between 0.1-14.3%, that of atrophy tongue between 1.3-9.0% and that of the central papillary atrophy of the tongue between 0.0-3.35%. The wide-ranging diversity concerning the epidemiological data of tongue diseases can be explained by the multiple character of sampling, diagnosis and other methods used in different types of examinations. Disregarding the extremities and considering the average prevalence data, these agree in general with the epidemiological data found in Hungary in 1990: fissured tongue 8.8% geographic tongue 3.0%, atrophic tongue 6.37% and central atrophy of the tongue 0.35% prevalence.