What Your Tongue Can Tell You About Your Health
When is the last time you really thought about your tongue? Many people would be hard-pressed to come up with the answer. But our tongues are an incredibly important part of our anatomy – allowing us to eat, taste, speak, and breathe. Tongues are also an important indicator of our health. Therefore, the care of it should be included in a person’s oral health routine.
What can your tongue tell you about your health?
A lot! The colour, texture, moistness, and shape all give clues to what is happening inside a person’s body. The tongues characteristics (and how they change over time) are correlated to organs and the internal systems that keep the body functioning. Healthy tongues (reflecting healthy bodies) are pink, moist, spongy, free of a film or coating, and not too thin or wide.
Let’s break it down to help you understand how your tongue is related to your health.
1. Colour
A healthy tongue is pink in colour. If you notice that your tongue appears another colour, it may indicate an imbalance or illness within the body.
Red: a red tongue can reflect a lot of heat in the body, including fever or hormonal imbalance.
Reddish/purple: this colour may be related to heat within the body as well, but more closely related to an infection or inflammation in the organs, muscles or joints.
Pale pink: a pale hue can be related to deficiencies in the body, including a vitamin deficiency or a weakened immune system.
2. Coating
A healthy tongue is moist with saliva and free of a coating or film. If you notice that your tongue is coated with any of the following characteristics, visit a health care professional.
Thick coating: a coating or film that can be scraped off might reflect a health issue in a persons digestive system and their intestinal health.
Thick white: this colour and viscosity may reflect poor circulation within the body, or possibly a yeast infection.
Yellowish: this colour is associated with infection, and the same is true on the tongue. If the tongue has developed a yellow-ish layer, an infection may be present in the body. In that case, a trip to the doctor is in order.
Grayish or black: if a person’s tongue has turned gray or close to black, it is a clear sign that health is failing and could be linked to a number of more sever illnesses or diseases, and is often connected to a long-term digestive disorder.
3. Shape
Of course people have different shapes of tongues depending on their genetics and body type. However, if the tongue changes from its original shape, it might be a sign that a person’s health is not optimal.
4. Puffy or scalloped
A puffy tongue or a tongue with scalloped edges might indicate that a person is not absorbing nutrients effectively.
Thin: if a person has noticed that their tongue has become thin and longer than usual, it could be a sign that they are dehydrated.
Some health practitioners posit that a person’s tongue is actually a bit like a map of their body. Similar to reflexology where a map of the body corresponds to different areas of the foot. On the tongue, the lungs line up with the front outer edges; the heart, stomach, pancreas, and intestines line up front to back down the middle; the kidneys are found at the back of the tongue; and the liver is mid-outer-right and spleen mid-outer-left.
Of course, if you notice any long-lasting irregularities or changes in the colour, shape, or coating of this extremely important muscular organ, it is important to seek health advice. Your dentist should spend some time noticing the condition of your tongue during your next appointment, observing if there is anything to be concerned about by the condition of your tongue.
As always, bodies are incredible intelligent systems. Interconnected and offering indications of health and well-being (or the opposite) via various modes of delivery. If a system is out of balance or there is a concern somewhere in the body, it will have a domino effect throughout. This is why proper oral health and care is so important.
If you are looking for a dentist in the South Surrey or White Rock area, we would love to hear from you. And until then, we hope you have happy, healthy tongues and teeth!
