Giant tongue means Chinese man hasn't closed his mouth in 21 years

A 34-year-old man in China hasn’t been able to close his mouth for the past 21 years because a his huge tongue. Wang Youping’s tongue measures 25cm long, 10cm wide and 7cm thick. The enormous muscle has even forced his teeth to be squeezed horizontally, causing severe facial deformity.

When Mr Youping, from Shaanxi Province, was born his lips were swollen and dark and his left ear also appeared to bulge. From the age of six his tongue and face began to swell and by the time he was 13, Mr Youping’s tongue had expanded so much that he was unable to close his mouth properly.



Since then he has also been unable to speak clearly, eat normally or breathe comfortably. There is also a high risk that the vessels in his tongue could rupture and lead to a potentially fatal haemorrhage.

Over the years Mr Youping has visited many renowned hospitals in the country but each time was told that his condition was too complex to treat. Now, after exploratory tests last year at a military hospital, Mr Youping is set to go under the knife again. The hospital plans to take three years to perform a series of five different surgeries.