Hi Andrew, As a dental hygienist, the TCM tongue diagnosis (as a modality to pinpoint imbalances) fascinates me. Thank you for your great images and explanations. In practice, my general inspection of the tongue focuses on screening for oral cancer. During this screening, I also note if the patient has ankyloglossia, or is “tongue-tied”. My question lies within the anterior/heart portion of the tongue. When someone has ankylosglossia, they naturally have a “butt” tongue upon extension. This is due to the lingual frenum pulling the tongue downward in the center. Does this mean that everyone with this condition also has a TCM heart imbalance? Or, do we just ignore this genetic anomaly, and inspect the tongue around the tongue tie? I hope I’ve made sense! Thanks again for everything you do Respectfully, Valerie

Andrew said: This may or may not be a relevant tongue symptom. The Chinese explanation would be that those born with this feature might be "genetically" prone to have a Chinese heart issue. However, please also remember that things like this cannot be taken out of context of the clinical picture. Tongue confirmation (not diagnosis) is the more appropriate terminology. There must be clinical symptoms of a Chinese heart imbalance for the tongue to mean something. For example, in the case of insomnia I might use a tongue finding to differentiate between liver-type and heart-type insomnia. This tongue finding may point me toward the heart.