Tongue Disorders

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Tongue Disorders

Summary

Your tongue helps you taste, swallow, and chew. You also use it to speak. Your tongue is made up of many muscles. The upper surface contains your taste buds.

Problems with the tongue include

Pain
Swelling
Changes in color or texture
Abnormal movement or difficulty moving the tongue
Taste problems

These problems can have many different causes. Treatment depends on the underlying problem.

Start Here

Tongue Disorders (Merck & Co., Inc.)

Related Issues

So You Want to Pierce Your Tongue? (Academy of General Dentistry)

Specifics

Black, Hairy Tongue (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish
Fissured Tongue (American Academy of Oral Medicine) Also in Spanish
Yellow Tongue (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish

Images

Hairy Leukoplakia (National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research)
Hairy Tongue (Logical Images)

Clinical Trials

ClinicalTrials.gov: Glossitis (National Institutes of Health)
ClinicalTrials.gov: Glossitis, Benign Migratory (National Institutes of Health)
ClinicalTrials.gov: Tongue Diseases (National Institutes of Health)

Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)

Reference Desk

Find an ENT (American Academy of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery)

Find an Expert

Children

Your Tongue (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish

Patient Handouts

Geographic tongue (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
Glossitis (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
Leukoplakia (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
Macroglossia (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
Tongue biopsy (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
Tongue problems (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
Tongue tie (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish

Basics

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Research

Resources

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