Want to find out just how much you use your tongue? Try eating
an ice-cream cone or singing your favorite song without it. You
need your tongue to chew, swallow, and sing. And don't
forget talking and tasting!
Tongue Twister
Has anyone ever told you that the tongue is a muscle? Well,
that's only partly true: The tongue is really made up of many
groups
of muscles. These muscles run in different directions to carry out
all the tongue's jobs.
The front part of the tongue is very flexible and can move
around a lot, working with the teeth to create different types of
words. This part also helps you eat by helping to move food around
your mouth while you chew. Your tongue pushes the food to your back
teeth
so the teeth can grind it up.
The
muscles
in the back of your tongue help you make certain sounds, like the
letters "k" and hard "g" (like in the word
"go"). Try saying these letters slowly, and you'll
feel how the back of your tongue moves against the top of your
mouth to create the sounds.
The back of your tongue is important for eating as well. Once
the food is all ground up and mixed with
saliva
(say: suh-
lye
-vuh), or spit, the back muscles start to work. They move and push
a small bit of food along with saliva into your
esophagus
(say: ih-
sah
-fuh-gus), which is a food pipe that leads from your throat to your
stomach.
Tongue Held Down Tight
Have you ever wondered what keeps you from swallowing your
tongue? Look in the mirror at what's under your tongue and
you'll see your
frenulum
(say:
fren
-yuh-lum). This is a membrane (a thin layer of tissue) that
connects your tongue to the bottom of your mouth. In fact, the
whole base of your tongue is firmly anchored to the bottom of your
mouth, so you could never swallow your tongue even if you
tried!
Tasty Tidbits
Don't put that mirror away yet! Look at your tongue again,
but this time look closely at the top of it. Notice how it's
rough and bumpy - not like the underside, which is very smooth.
That's because the top of your tongue is covered with a layer
of bumps called
papillae
(say: puh-
pih
-luh).
Papillae help grip food and move it around while you chew. And
they contain your
taste buds
, so you can taste everything from apples to zucchini! People are
born with about 10,000 taste buds. But as a person ages, some of
his or her taste buds die. (An old person may only have 5,000 taste
buds!) That's why some foods may taste stronger to you than
they do to an adult. Taste buds can detect sweet, sour, bitter, and
salty flavors.
Traveling Tastes
So how do you know how something tastes? Each taste bud is made
up of taste cells, which have sensitive, microscopic hairs called
microvilli
(say: mye-kro-
vih
-lye). Those tiny hairs send messages to the brain, which
interprets the signals and identifies the taste for you.
Identifying tastes is your brain's way of telling you about
what's going into your mouth, and in some cases, keeping you
safe.
Have you ever taken a drink of milk that tasted funny? When the
milk hit the taste buds, they sent nerve impulses to your brain:
"Milk coming in - and it tastes funny!" Once your brain
unscrambled the nerve impulses, it recognized the taste as a
dangerous one, and you knew not to drink the milk.
Some things can make your taste bud receptors less sensitive,
like cold foods or drinks. An ice pop made from your favorite
juice won't taste as sweet as plain juice. If you suck on an
ice cube before you eat a food you don't like, you won't
notice the bad taste.
Friend of the Tongue
Last time you had a cold and your nose felt stuffed up, did you
notice that foods didn't taste as strong as they usually do?
Well, that's because your tongue can't take all of the
credit for tasting different flavors - it has help from your
nose
. Your nose helps you taste foods by smelling them before they go
in your mouth and as you chew and swallow them. Strong smells can
even confuse your taste buds: Try holding an onion slice under your
nose while eating an apple. What do you taste?
Your tongue also gets help from your teeth, lips, and mouth.
Your teeth help your tongue grind food as the tongue mixes the food
around your mouth. And without your teeth, lips, and the roof of
your mouth, your tongue wouldn't be able to form sounds to make
words. Saliva is also a friend of the tongue. A dry tongue
can't taste a thing, so saliva helps the tongue by keeping it
wet. Saliva moistens food and helps to break it down, which makes
it easier for the tongue to push the food back to swallow it.
Fighting Germs
If all that wasn't enough, your tongue even helps keep you
from getting sick. The back section of your tongue contains
something called the lingual tonsil (say:
lin
-gwul
tahn
-sul). Lingual is a medical word that means having to do with the
tongue, and tonsils are small masses of tissue that contain cells
that help filter out harmful germs that could cause an infection in
the body.
But when you have
tonsillitis
, it's not your lingual tonsil that's infected. Tonsilitis
affects the
palatine
(say:
pah
-luh-tyne) tonsils, which are two balls of tissue on either side of
the tongue. The lingual tonsil, the palatine tonsils, and the
adenoids
are part of a bigger system that fights infections throughout
your body.
The Tongue Is One Tough Worker
With all that talking, mixing food, swallowing, tasting, and
germ fighting, does your tongue ever get a rest?
No. Even when you are sleeping, your tongue is busy pushing
saliva into the throat to be swallowed. It's a good thing, too,
or we'd be drooling all over our pillows. Keep your tongue in
tip-top shape by brushing it along with your teeth and avoiding
super-hot foods. A burned tongue is no fun!
Updated and reviewed by:
Steven Dowshen, MD
Date reviewed: March 2007
Note: All information is for educational purposes only. For specific medical advice,
diagnoses, and treatment, consult your doctor.
© 1995-2009 The Nemours Foundation/KidsHealth. All rights reserved.