A modified technique of using the tongue tip for closure of large anterior palatal fistula

Anteriorly based dorsal tongue flaps are the most commonly used, flaps for closure of difficult palatal fistulae. The author presents a patient in whom the palatal defect was thought to be too big to be closed by the standard tongue flap. The tongue tip was divided into equal dorsal and ventral flaps, and both flaps were used to reconstruct the palatal defect. Technical considerations, and advantages and disadvantages of the procedure are discussed.