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 a staggering 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 4th 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.