Quantitative Characterization of the Lingual Frenulum of Infants Assisted by the Phonoaudiology Service from Centro de Referência em Saúde Auditiva—CRESA of Phonoaudiology Department from the Pontifical Catholic University of Goiás

Introduction: The lingual frenulum allows free movement of the anterior part of the tongue. When altered, may cause difficulties in the feed and communication processes. Few studies evaluate the lingual frenulum with quantitative measures. Frenulum’s quantitative assessment methods associated with existing qualitative ones promote reliable diagnostics, in order to guide therapeutic procedures.

Objective: It was proposed to perform a quantitative analysis of the subject’s lingual frenulum assisted by the phonoaudiology service from Centro de Referência em Saúde Auditiva—CRESA of Phonoaudiology Department from the Pontifical Catholic University of Goiás.

Methods: It was included subjects that were submitted to the phonoaudiological evaluation of the lingual frenulum without anatomical, functional, and/or neurological alterations that compromise their feeding or communication. Data collection lasted for 4 months. It was applied the “Assessment protocol of the lingual frenulum with scores for infants,” proposed by Martinelli et al (2012). A descriptive analysis of data was performed.

Results: In this study, 56 infants were evaluated. Alterations were found in 22% of frenulum. The higher frequency of alterations was observed in children aged 0 to 6 months old. From the subjects with abnormal frenulum, 83.3% were referred to the frenectomy.

Conclusion: It is believed that the earlier diagnosis of the lingual frenulum is done, the greater are the benefits related to the intervention possibility, in order to prevent possible feeding and communication alterations.

Keywords: Quantitative assessment, lingual frenulum, phonoaudiology.