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Why Do Dentists Check Your Tongue?

Have you ever noticed your dentist asks you to move your tongue around during a dental examination?

You may have thought it’s only to inspect your teeth, but it’s also to check your tongue.

Why?

Short answer:

Your tongue plays an essential role in tasting, chewing, swallowing, and speaking. You don’t want that impaired, right? Of course not!

But your tongue also tells the story of what’s going on in your oral and overall health.

Keep reading as we break down tongue health and what you need to know.

What exactly is the tongue?

A tongue is an important digestive organ located in your mouth. It forms the major part of the mouth floor between the lower arch of teeth located in the lower jaw or mandible.

A tongue consists of eight separate muscles and is covered with a mucous membrane and taste buds.

Its primary function is to facilitate the movement of food while chewing and swallowing.

But it’s also essential for taste and speech.

What happens when a tongue is unhealthy?

An unhealthy tongue can have a variety of problems associated with it.

Many tongue problems include:

Lumps, sores, or ulcerated areas

Burning sensation or tender feeling

General color changes of various types from white to black

Texture changes that are bumpy, smooth, or have grooves

Hairy or fuzzy appearance

Itching, scaling, or bleeding

Irregular movement or control problems

Pain or soreness

Patches or spots with color changes that can be red or white

Bumps, patches, or spots with texture changes that are smooth, raised, or irregular

Swollen, enlarged, or bloated tongue

Taste problems

Tremors or twitching occurrences

What causes tongue problems?

Many causes lead to problems, disorders, and diseases of the tongue. Among these causes are infections, inflammation, allergies, family genetics, metabolic problems, and nutritional deficiencies.

Problems of the tongue can be short term or chronic in nature.

Since any tongue symptom can be a sign of a serious disease or condition, you should seek prompt medical care.

Why dentists check your tongue

The primary reason:

Cancer!

Even though tongue cancer is rare compared to other types of cancer, it’s steadily on the rise… This text opens a new tab to a page on tongue cancer…!

Other reasons include infections and disease.

What causes tongue cancer?

Tongue cancer happens when cells in the tongue grow abnormally and form a cancerous growth, tumor, or lesion.

If the cancer forms in the front 2/3 of the tongue (the part you can stick out), it’s considered a type of oral cavity cancer. Whereas if the cancer forms in the back, it’s a type of oropharyngeal or throat cancer.

What’s the survival rate of tongue cancer?

The prognosis for tongue cancer treatment is related to the tumor’s size at the time of detection.

The 5-year relative survival rate is 67.1%.

But as it worsens, so does the survival rate.

For example, if the cancer spreads and metastasizes, that survival rate drops to 39.8%.

Prompt treatment is important because tongue cancer can spread rapidly to nearby areas, such as the mouth, throat, neck, jaws, and lymph nodes.

(10/29/2021)
by Brookside Dental

More Information: https://www.brooksidedental.com/blog/bellevue-dentists-have-healthy-tongue-information/

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