Abstract
The mobility of the tongue was investigated in normal subjects (10 males and 10 females) and 32 patients with carcinoma of the tongue. Of these patients, 12 were treated with laser surgery and, on the other hand, 20 were treated with extensive surgical treatment. The utterance intelligibility test was also performed and the relationship between the mobility of the tongue and the utterance intelligibity was investigated. In normal subjects, there was significant difference in the tongue mobility neither between males and females nor among individuals. The mobility was found to be high in normals, moderate in laser group, and low in the extensive surgery group. The lateral movement of the tongue to the treated side showed no difference from that to the opposite in laser group, but, in contrast, it did show a significant difference in the extensive surgery group. It was revealed that the utterance intelligibility was rather high in laser group than in the extensive surgery group. In the latter, it was found that the poor mobility of treated tongue disturbed the articulation and the utterance intelligibility varied depending upon the place and extent of the surgery.
