Yes, Multiple Sclerosis (MS) can significantly affect the tongue, causing numbness, weakness, and poor coordination, leading to issues with speech (dysarthria), chewing, and swallowing (dysphagia). This "MS tongue" can also reduce taste sensation and make it easier to accidentally bite your tongue, leading to sores, while nerve damage impacts the muscles needed for fine motor control in the mouth.
Some people with MS lose sensation in their tongue. Some health care providers refer to MS-related tongue issues as “MS tongue.” Loss of sensation or numbness can make it difficult to move your tongue when you speak, chew, or swallow. Tongue numbness may also diminish sense of taste.
Many MS patients struggle with sneaky, overlooked symptoms such as irritability, cognitive fog, motor fatigue, trouble walking in the dark, bladder retention, constipation, transient double vision, abnormal skin sensations, diminished sexual sensation, swallowing difficulties, and impaired social cognition.
The inflammation characterizing MS can affect not only nerves but also the mouth's inner lining (mucous membranes). Painful sores in the mouth and on the tongue can result. Burning mouth syndrome is the presence of pain similar to sunburn or electric shock in oral membranes that appear normal.
Bacterial, viral, and fungal infections can cause tongue discomfort. Some common infections include: Oral thrush: A fungal infection causing white patches on the tongue. Geographic tongue: Patchy areas of redness and inflammation.
Oral Lichen Planus: This oral autoimmune disease occurs when the immune system attacks the mucous membranes inside your mouth, according to The Mayo Clinic. It will appear as lacy white patches, sometimes accompanied by painful sores on the lining of the cheeks, tongue, and gums.
ALS can make it difficult to take in enough food and liquids. Weakness in your jaw and tongue can affect your ability to chew and swallow safely.
If you have hypoglossal nerve damage, your tongue weakens on the side that's affected. It will eventually waste away (atrophy), leading to paralysis of your tongue. Because of this, you may have trouble swallowing, chewing and/or speaking.
Symptoms of advanced MS
There is a high prevalence of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders in MS, such as pain and difficulty opening the mouth and TMJ sounds, which can be attributed to myofascial and neck pain. Some studies also report teeth grinding, dental hypersensitivity, and xerostomia [12,13].
What are the early symptoms of multiple sclerosis?
Invisible symptoms of MS – fatigue, pain, blurred vision, numbness, and brain fog – which often go unnoticed by other people, can also interfere with daily functioning and be just as debilitating.
These include fibromyalgia and vitamin B12 deficiency, muscular dystrophy (MD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), migraine, hypo-thyroidism, hypertension, Beçhets, Arnold-Chiari deformity, and mitochondrial disorders, although your neurologist can usually rule them out quite easily.
Common tongue diseases and problems include canker sores, thrush, oral lichen planus, and tongue trauma. Other problems or conditions that can impact the tongue include tongue cancer, transient lingual papillitis, geographic tongue, vitamin B12 deficiency, Sjögren's disease, neuralgia, and allergic reactions.
Symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS)
Some of the most common symptoms include: feeling extremely tired (fatigue) problems with your eyes or your vision, such as blurred vision or eye pain. numbness or a tingling feeling in different parts of the body.
MS-related itching can happen anywhere on the body and can affect one or both sides. It most commonly affects the face, torso, arms, and legs.
People with MS may experience numbness or a burning sensation in their tongue. This is because MS effects on the brain affect sensation. MS can weaken the tongue's muscles, making it more difficult to perform day-to-day activities, such as speaking, eating, and swallowing.
Primary fatigue is caused by MS damage in the brain and spinal cord. And lots of processes might be involved. One idea from researchers is that passing messages around nerve damage takes extra energy. Secondary fatigue is caused by living with MS symptoms like pain, or disturbed sleep.
Other more advanced symptoms include hand weakness, wrist drop (difficulty raising hand), curling fingers, poor sensation. You may notice that you drop items or have difficulty gauging how to pick up an item.
A neurological assessment typically involves the evaluation of mental status, cranial nerves, motor and sensory systems, reflexes, and coordination. Why does a neurologist look at your tongue? Looking at the tongue helps evaluate cranial nerve function, providing insights into potential neurological issues.
Symptoms of Dysarthria and Dysphonia Associated With MS
Slurred speech usually results from weakness and/or incoordination of the muscles of the tongue, lips, cheeks and mouth.
Several types of oral lesions can be observed in patients with multiple sclerosis such as stomatitis, oral ulcers, glossitis, cheilitis, gingivitis, gingival hyperplasia (Dilantin), xerostomia, candidiasis, herpes, opportunistic infections, hemorrhagic changes and even certain forms of cancer (lymphoma, squamous cell ...
The tongue size in ALS, as measured in the sagittal plane, can be reduced by as much as two-thirds of normal. The shape of the tongue in ALS tends to be rectangular or square rather than curved as is normal.
Early signs of ALS often involve painless muscle weakness, such as tripping or dropping things, along with muscle twitching (fasciculations), cramping, and stiffness (spasticity), commonly starting in limbs but sometimes affecting speech (slurring) or swallowing (choking). Other early indicators include significant fatigue, poor balance, or even uncontrollable laughing/crying (pseudobulbar affect). These symptoms usually begin subtly in one area and spread, affecting daily activities before becoming severe.
Usually, tongue pain results from infection and inflammation. Common causes of tongue pain include: Injury: Consuming foods or drinks that are too hot can cause a painful, burned tongue. Sores and mouth ulcers: Canker sores, cold sores (fever blisters) and mouth ulcers can form on or around your tongue.