According to your dentist, your tongue, if it
is average, is about four inches long. Your tongue is divided up into two
parts, the posterior, and the anterior. The posterior is located near the back
of your throat measuring a third while the anterior is the visible part of your
tongue and is two thirds of the total length.
Your tongue helps clean your mouth and
assists with digestion by transferring the food when you chew before swallowing.
Your tongue is attached to the bottom of your mouth and is called the frenulum.
The tip of your tongue, or the apex, is not directly attached to the floor of
your mouth so that your tongue can reach the upper part of your mouth for
talking and cleaning.
3,000 to 10,000 individual taste buds playing
an essential role in how you taste food and drink help your sense of taste
along. Your taste buds are full of taste receptors that actually tell you the
different flavors in the food that you eat.
According to your dentist, there are five
different taste categories. Savory, salty, bitter, sour, and sweet. Saliva is
used to wet your food before the receptors recognize the flavor.
If you do not brush your tongue regularly,
you will have bad breath, as that taste will not always go away, especially
when you are sleeping. The American Dental Association explains that over 60
million people in the U.S. suffer from halitosis, or chronic bad breath. Bad
breath can develop from food and bacteria that collects on your tongue. To
avoid the accumulation, your dentist recommends that you brush your tongue with
a tongue cleaner or a soft bristled toothbrush.
Tongues have eight muscles with four that are
not attached to any of your bones. This allows your tongue to change shape. The
muscles that are attached to your bones allow your tongue to change its
position. When your tongue muscles work together they allow it to facilitate
speech and move in different directions.
Your tongue is extremely agile giving you the
flexibility to speak, and when it works in conjunction with your teeth and lips,
can produce over 90 words in 60 seconds.
Brushing your tongue and
teeth, flossing, a good healthy diet and regular checkups with your dentist can
help prevent chronic bad breath. Call and schedule an appointment with your
dentist today.
