Your tongue is an expressive organ and perhaps one of the most complex muscles in the human body. It articulates your words, picks up flavors, and transforms food into sustenance. The tongue also carries significance beyond its anatomy, spanning from dialect to diagnosis. However, we often take our tongue for granted when it comes to caring for and understanding it.
Discover how the tongue is more than a muscle, and how smile care at The Gleamery can enhance your oral health.
What Is the Tongue and How Does It Work?
The tongue is a muscular hydrostat, an incredibly flexible muscle that can move with great precision, similar to an octopus tentacle or elephant trunk. It’s a uniquely agile appendage designed to be configured in endless ways and to never really tire. There are four intrinsic muscles that give it shape and aren’t attached to a bone, and four extrinsic muscles that keep it anchored and offer a range of movement.
The coordination of these muscles enables the tongue to perform complex tasks involving fluid pressure. With the tongue acting as a piston in the mouth and the fluid pressure generated by saliva, water, and food, the tongue can create a seal, propel material to the back of the throat, and draw liquids into the mouth via negative pressure.
How Do Taste Buds Function?
The tongue is a peculiar part of the human body, but it plays a major role in why we take pleasure in umami and why a crispy preparation makes a dish taste more dynamic. Your tongue is covered with pink tissue called mucosa and little bumps called papillae. Your taste buds sit on top of the papillae and relay messages to your brain about what you like, don’t like, or can’t decide quite yet. That’s why the tongue has a rough texture.
Thousands of receptors, along with glands, work together in clusters on the tip, sides, and back of your tongue to engage in the act of tasting, which also changes over time. So if you weren’t a fan of broccoli as a kid but can’t wait to roast a bunch now, it’s because your taste buds have matured to appreciate more complex flavors than just indulging your sweet tooth, or rather, sweet tongue.
Importantly, the sensitivity of your taste buds also acts as a built-in safety system. Your taste buds can detect spoiled food or toxic substances before they can be swallowed and move further into the digestive tract.
What Is Your Tongue Saying About Your Health?
Your tongue is a mirror to your body with biological markers that can signal everything from chronic disease to vitamin deficiencies. A healthy tongue is pale and pink with a thin white film. An unhealthy tongue may have a yellowish film, thick white coating, sores, or a red appearance.
Just as acne on your face can signal gut or hormonal health, the tongue is viewed by Ayurvedic practitioners and healers as a map of the body. Abnormalities or patterns on your tongue can indicate a systemic imbalance in certain organs or types of emotional stress, like grief or depression. This holistic approach to the tongue can be incorporated into your everyday care by monitoring its reactions to certain foods and to your moods.
Is Your Tongue the Key to Fresh Breath?
Other ways to look after your tongue include incorporating a specialized tongue cleaner (brushing your tongue won’t do the trick) into your routine, as well as using a mouth rinse to expel bacteria that may have lingered after brushing. Because good oral hygiene also means good tongue health, and not just to kick out the bad breath.
The rough surface of the tongue is the home of bacteria that cause bad breath. Removing bacteria through thorough cleaning and an antimicrobial rinse improves your breath and eliminates bacteria that cause tooth decay.
How Can Routine Smile Care Support Tongue Health?
A regular cleaning with our experts at The Gleamery is the perfect opportunity to assess your oral health. It’s standard practice to examine the soft tissues of your mouth during a routine cleaning session to spot early signs of periodontal disease or indicators of persistent bad breath.
Don’t Hold Your Tongue! Embrace it.
Our tongue allows us to enjoy the food we eat, mean the words we say, and, of course, to slide across our teeth for any spinach that might have gotten stuck. It lets our personality shine through, so show it the love it deserves.
Book a cleaning session at our LA or Santa Monica location today.
Whole Body Health Mirror: Beyond oral health, the color and texture of the tongue can indicate biological markers for emotional stress, vitamin deficiencies, and other health imbalances.
Specialized Cleaning Is Key: Brushing your tongue with your toothbrush isn’t enough to remove the germs that cause bad breath. A tongue scraper and antimicrobial rinse eliminate bacteria responsible for halitosis and tooth decay.
