The tongue is palatine - a process of small size. It has a conical shape. The tongue is located in the oral cavity, where the edge of the sky (its soft part) is visible, slightly higher than the root of the tongue. The tongue consists of connective and muscle tissue, the mucous membrane covers it from the outside. This process separates the pharynx and throat zones from each other.
Functions of the palatine tongue
The main function of the palatine tongue is to protect the nasopharynx, for example, from food and moisture when a person performs swallowing movements. The tongue regulates the process of input and output of products consumed by a person into the digestive tract, and prevents the possibility of accidentally burping food. Food products relating to the palatine tongue provoke a throat spasm, which does not allow a person to choke.
There are people in the world who do not have a palatine tongue after surgery or because of a congenital malformation. Its absence almost does not affect the quality of life, but increases the risk of drinking or eating in the nasopharynx. During the swallowing process, the simultaneous movements of the muscles of the palatine tongue and soft palate provide the lifting of the hard palate and the unhindered passage of food and moisture from the oral cavity straight into the throat.
Healthy tongue
In a healthy state, the palatine uvula is small in size and pale pink in color, as in the entire oral cavity. Touching a healthy process, of course, can cause a gag reflex. If the uvula is healthy, you can usually also observe a clear palate and the absence of other signs of sore throat and inflammation of the oral cavity. If the tongue is too long, then in general it can be considered healthy.
For diseases
A palatine tongue with a white formation is a common sign of certain diseases, for example, such as tonsillitis or exacerbation of tonsillitis. Usually in this case, a white coating covers not only this organ, but also the tonsils and other parts of the throat. The edge of the sky is usually also covered with a thick layer of white plaque, which, when removed, opens up the reddened mucous membrane. In this case, you will need to cure a sore throat - then the white spots from the whole throat will disappear.
Inflammation of the palatine tongue
If, in general, a person has a clear palate, however, the tongue is still inflamed and reddened, that is, the reason to make the diagnosis is “uvulit”. This disease is characterized by suddenness - pain and swelling can occur during eating or even in a dream.
There may be several reasons for uvulitis:
- Damage to the veins in the organ.
- Exposure to pathogenic microbes or infection.
- Prolonged rhinitis.
- Sinusitis
- Tonsillitis.
- Caries.
- Organ injury.
- Allergic reaction.
- Burn or hypothermia.
- Drinking too much strong alcohol.
- Blastoma
- Taking certain medications.
As you can see, the reasons for which the tongue of the palatine can become inflamed are indeed very many, but most often it is the presence of an infection in one form or another in the oral cavity. In order to avoid the appearance of uvulitis, one should immediately begin treatment for any diseases in the throat and nose, preventing the development of serious complications.
Most often, when the disease begins to progress, the body swells and reddens intensively. On examination, its increase in size is clearly noticeable, and sometimes it is covered with a translucent whitish coating in the form of a film. Those people who have removed adenoids or tonsils are much more prone to this ailment: the infection in this case does not settle on them, but immediately passes on to other organs.
The main symptoms of uvulitis:
- General increase in body temperature.
- Weakness and pain in muscles and joints, general weakness.
- Edema and severe redness throughout the soft palate.
- Constant sensation of a foreign body in the throat.
- Breathing problems, lack of oxygen. It appears only if the tongue is enlarged very much.
- Severe pain while swallowing food or saliva.
- Noticeable swelling of the organ, its sagging directly to the base of the tongue.
- Problems with the pronunciation of a number of sounds, fuzzy speech.
- Significantly increased salivation.
- Sudden, unreasonable urge to vomit, vomiting.
- If the cause of uvulitis is the ingestion of an allergen, then as additional symptoms a skin rash, cough, itching in the throat, severe runny nose, profuse lacrimation, itching all over the body, sometimes even breathing problems can occur.
This disease, as a rule, occurs very suddenly, but at the first symptoms it should be treated so that in the future there will not be more serious complications.
The most dangerous of these complications is a strong increase in the length of the tongue. If medical care is not provided in a timely manner, the process will simply completely block the airways and provoke asphyxiation. Extremely urgent help will be required here, because in the end it will lead to death.
In addition, it is important to understand that diseases that provoke uvulite are dangerous in themselves. Therefore, if the tongue becomes inflamed, you will need to quickly establish an accurate diagnosis and prescribe a complete treatment that will save you from this ailment.
Treatment of inflammation of the palatine tongue
Uvulitis - the disease is not only quite dangerous, but also difficult to cure, so an approach to its therapy needs a comprehensive.
First of all, before starting treatment for inflammation, it will be necessary to remove its root cause. Self-medication is useless here, since you yourself will not establish the cause. Depending on what exactly caused the inflammation, treatment will be prescribed. For example, if the problem is caries, then it will be necessary first to eliminate it. In diseases of the throat, as a rule, prescribe drug therapy and supplement it with physiotherapy.
Medication includes:
- Antihistamines to quickly relieve swelling.
- Glucocorticosteroids that relieve swelling and inflammation, as well as having analgesic and antitoxic effects.
- Diuretics They eliminate edema, removing excess fluid from the body. It is important to take them along with drugs that restore the right amount of calcium in the body.
- Antimicrobial agents that directly eliminate the infection.
- Antibiotics that significantly slow down the inflammatory process and also eliminate all pathogens.
- Antiseptic agents, mainly sprays, for disinfection.
Physiotherapy is usually applied as follows:
- Phototherapy.
- Ultra high frequency therapy.
- Electric current treatment.
- A variety of inhalations.
- Phytotherapy.
- Special diet.
- Acupuncture.
- Electrophoresis
- Mechanotherapy.
- Treatment with therapeutic mud and electroplating.
- Magnetotherapy.
- Phototherapy with artificial short-wave light of ultraviolet quartz.
All these procedures, of course, are applied in the throat area, where the tongue of the palatine is located.
Tumors
If the palatine tongue is very sore, but the cause cannot be determined, there is a chance that the person’s oral cavity was exposed to the tumor. A malignant or benign neoplasm can develop both in the nasopharynx and in the area of the organ itself, which causes a sensation of a lump in the throat, soreness and discomfort. In this case, you need to visit an oncologist as soon as possible.
Tongue palatine bifurcated
Occasionally, parents encounter a problem such as a bifurcated palatine tongue in a child. This pathology is congenital, but in children it is often noticed far from immediately. The fact is that usually this pathology is completely not dangerous in itself. It does not provoke speech problems in the child and does not appear at all in the future, so you should not be afraid of her.
Sometimes a bifurcated tongue of the palatine can be a sign of partial or complete cleavage of the palate, however, in this case, other symptoms will necessarily be present that doctors recognize even in the hospital.
Long palatine tongue
The palatine tongue of almost any length does not affect the lumen of the pharynx and does not play a significant role in stopping breathing in a dream. However, if the tongue is too long, then it may well begin to provoke snoring, as this organ fluctuates with the passage of air, which will cause characteristic sounds.
If the patient has such a problem, then often only surgical treatment can help him. It will be possible to partially or completely remove an organ, for example, using radio waves. As a result, sky vibrations will decrease, and snoring will disappear.
However, such a positive result will be achieved only if the cause of snoring is precisely in this process. But it can be caused by weight gain, a curve of the nasal septum, polyps, adenoids, and a whole host of other reasons. A small tongue in the throat may not have anything to do with snoring.
In such a situation, operation in the soft palate is not the best solution. In this case, for example, CPAP therapy can help. So before surgery on this body, consult your doctor.
Short or missing palatine tongue
As it was written above, as a result of an operation or from birth, the palatine tongue in a person may be very short or it may not be at all. As a rule, this does not cause any pathologies and problems in life, so you should not worry about this at all.