Tongue hook

Sir, we would like to present the case of a 15-year-old girl who presented in the outpatient clinic of the oral and maxillofacial surgery department with her tongue hooked palatally to the orthodontic appliance in the region of the upper left six (Fig. 1). She had been in this painful condition for almost two and a half hours and she was not able to release her tongue from the orthodontic appliance. We were able to release her tongue from the hook after injecting some local anaesthetic (Ultracain D-S forte) into it. The palatally impacted upper right canine was surgically exposed earlier.

Figure 1

Patient with tongue hooked on orthodontic appliance

Orthodontists should be aware of the potential traps of orthodontic appliances, especially those narrowing the tongue space. If the tongue space is narrowed, orthodontic appliances should be simply covered by small pieces of orthodontic wax. That way the patient may be spared painful eventualities.