Oral Care Tongue Shape

1. The shape of the tongue The tongue is divided into upper and lower sides. The upper part is called the dorsal part of the tongue. The back part is divided into the front 2/3 of the tongue (boay of tongue) and the back 1/3 of the root of tongue (the root of tongue) by the "eight"-shaped boundary groove (terminal sulcuc). The tip of the tongue is called the apex of tongue. There is a mucosal fold connected to the floor of the mouth on the midline of the tongue, called the lingual frenulum, and there is a small mucosal bulge on both sides of the root, called the sublingual caruncle, which is the submandibular gland and the sublingual The opening of the large duct. The posterior and outer sides of the sublingual caruncle continue as a sublingual fold, with the sublingual gland buried deep.

2. The structure of the tongue The tongue is mainly based on skeletal muscle and covered with mucosa.

The mucosa on the back of the tongue is light red with many small protrusions, called 1ingual papillae. According to the difference of shape and function, there are four types: filiform papillae (filiform papillae) has the largest number, white, with general sensory function; fungi-form papillae is blunt round, bright red; contour papillae (vallate) papillae) is the largest in size, arranged in front of the boundary groove; foliate papillae is a degraded structure in humans; the latter three types of papilla contain taste receptors.

In the mucosa at the base of the tongue, there are small nodules of different sizes composed of lymphoid tissue, called lingual tonsil.

The tongue muscle is a skeletal muscle, divided into intralingual muscles and extralingual muscles. The tongue muscle changes the shape of the tongue when it contracts. Change the position of the tongue when the extralingual muscles contract. The most important of the extralingual muscles is the genioglossus mus-cle. The muscle starts from both sides of the midline of the inner face of the mandible, and the muscle fibers are fan-shaped and stop at the tongue. Both genioglossus muscles simultaneously contract and pull the tongue forward and downward (tongue extension); unilateral contraction can stretch to the opposite side. When one side of the genioglossus muscle is paralyzed, the tip of the tongue is deflected to the paralyzed side.