Guttikonda Bharat Ram Chowdry, Kadam Sandhya J, Guttikonda Krishna Veni
Dentistry, Family Health Care Network, Visalia, USA.
Pediatrics, Family Health Care Network, Visalia, USA.
Cureus. 2025 Jun 8;17(6):e85574. doi: 10.7759/cureus.85574. eCollection 2025 Jun.
This review aims to study the importance of a healthy tongue along with the care of the teeth to maintain the overall good health of the oral cavity. Oral health is often considered secondary to overall health, and tongue hygiene is typically prioritized after tooth care. Poor tongue hygiene leads to halitosis, dry mouth, cavities, altered taste perception, and oral infections. Scraping the tongue while brushing the teeth using a tongue scraper is recommended, but people do not follow it. Checking the tongue is essential to screening in medical, pediatrics, and dental exams. Any changes in color, shape, size, and texture of the tongue may indicate underlying local or systemic diseases. A healthy tongue is pink with healthy papillae, which helps us enjoy the taste of the food we eat. A simple step of taking an extra few seconds for tongue scraping during daily teeth brushing can help to maintain good tongue health. To write this review, articles from electronic databases such as PubMed/Medline, Google Scholar, and Semantic Scholar are studied. Results found the importance of normal tongue color, texture, shape, and size. The results further found the various tongue pathologies, challenges of maintaining tongue hygiene, and possible future directions to deal with them. This article explores the importance of tongue hygiene in children and adults by comparing their oral care needs and practices. It also provides an overview of different tongue pathologies based on their color, shape, size, and texture.
本综述旨在研究健康舌头的重要性以及牙齿护理对维持口腔整体健康的作用。口腔健康通常被认为次于整体健康，而舌头清洁通常在牙齿护理之后才被重视。舌头清洁不佳会导致口臭、口干、龋齿、味觉改变和口腔感染。建议在刷牙时使用舌刷刮舌，但人们往往不这样做。在医学、儿科和牙科检查中，检查舌头对于筛查至关重要。舌头的颜色、形状、大小和质地的任何变化都可能表明潜在的局部或全身疾病。健康的舌头呈粉红色，乳头健康，这有助于我们享受所吃食物的味道。在日常刷牙时多花几秒钟刮舌这一简单步骤有助于保持舌头健康。为撰写本综述，研究了来自电子数据库如PubMed/Medline、谷歌学术和语义学者的文章。结果发现了正常舌头颜色、质地、形状和大小的重要性。结果还进一步发现了各种舌头病变、保持舌头清洁的挑战以及应对这些挑战可能的未来方向。本文通过比较儿童和成人的口腔护理需求与做法，探讨了舌头清洁在儿童和成人中的重要性。它还根据舌头的颜色、形状、大小和质地，对不同的舌头病变进行了概述。
