Lingual thyroid is an abnormal mass of ectopic thyroid tissue seen in base of tongue caused due to embryological aberrancy in development of thyroid gland. Most of the ectopic tissue is seen in the tongue.
The appearance of your tongue may indicate whether or not your altered taste buds stem from a thyroid issue. A healthy tongue is slightly pink, moist, and mostly smooth. If your tongue is dry, discolored, coated, or painful, you may suffer from hypothyroidism.
Symptoms can include fatigue, shortness of breath with exercise, and decreased ability to exercise. Hypothyroidism can also lead to swelling of the tongue, hoarse voice, and sleep apnea.
In children and adults, untreated hypothyroidism and thyroiditis (inflammation of the thyroid gland) can lead to swelling of the tongue and scalloped tongue. (Note that hypothyroidism also increases your risk of sleep apnea, a condition known to be one of the causes of scalloped tongue.)
If your scalloped tongue is caused by health conditions, like hypothyroidism, prescription medication may help. If you have a sleep disorder, devices such as a continuous positive airway pressure machine for sleep apnea, and a mouth guard for bruxism may help reduce pressure in the mouth that causes a scalloped tongue.
In most cases, hypothyroidism is treated by replacing the amount of hormone that your thyroid is no longer making. This is typically done with a medication. One medication that is commonly used is called levothyroxine.
Signs of your body undergoing excessive stress can show up on your tongue as unusual redness, sores, and ulcers. Also, if your tongue appears to have marks around the edges, that could signify consistently biting your tongue as a reaction to stress.
For example, a black and hairy looking tongue can signal poor oral hygiene, or diabetes. If your tongue is bright red like a strawberry, it could signal a deficiency in folic acid, vitamin B12, or iron. But, it could also mean you have strep throat, or a fever.
Sensitive Skin and Skin Discoloration
Thyroid hormones also influence the quality of your skin in various ways. For example, with hyperthyroidism, you may notice itchy and dry patches of skin. Your face may feel softer and swollen. You may even notice swelling around your fingertips.
Thyroid problems.
Occasionally, an overactive thyroid can also cause body odor. This is because the patient tends to sweat excessively due to the hyper-functioning thyroid gland. This condition can also be ruled out by physical examination and blood studies.
For people who do have symptoms, they may have trouble swallowing or breathing or have a feeling of fullness, pain, or pressure in the throat or neck. Some people might notice a lump in their neck when they look in the mirror, but this is uncommon.
White tongue is the result of an overgrowth and swelling of the fingerlike projections (papillae) on the surface of your tongue. The appearance of a white coating is caused by debris, bacteria and dead cells getting lodged between the enlarged and sometimes inflamed papillae.
An unhealthy tongue. If your tongue is a different colour than pink, or has large patches of white, brown, black, or another colour, this might indicate a specific health issue. Similarly, if you have large bumps or no bumps at all, you may also want to speak to a doctor.
This inflammation can push the eyes forward (“staring” or “bulging”) or cause the eyes and eyelids to become red and swollen. In some individuals, the inflammation may involve the eye muscles, causing the eyes to become out of line, leading to double vision.
Symptoms. A person with mild hypothyroidism might feel fine and have no symptoms. But those with symptoms can experience a puffy face, sluggishness, weight gain, feeling cold, a slowed heart rate, constipation, depression, and thinning hair.
Geographic tongue, fissured tongue, and hairy tongue are the most common tongue problems and do not require treatment.
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 syndrome, neuralgia, and allergic reactions.
Most often, yellow tongue is an early sign of a disorder known as black hairy tongue. Rarely, yellow tongue may be a sign of jaundice, a yellowing of the eyes and skin, which sometimes indicates liver or gallbladder problems.
Oral manifestations such as lichen planus, ulcers, xerostomia, erosion and tongue abnormalities seem to be particularly prevalent among patients with chronic liver disease.
Furthermore, muscles such as the masseter (mastication muscle) are activated during stress and several aspects of saliva are changed (e.g., cortisol levels, flow rates) [6]. As a result, any of these changes could potentially contribute to the increase of purple color in the tongue.
Tongue thickness measured by ultrasonography, correlates significantly with the severity of liver disease, as assessed by CTP and MELD scores. The patients with a CTP score ≥ 10 have significantly reduced tongue thickness as compared to normal individuals and those with less severe liver disease and CTP scores of 5-9.
When someone is dehydrated, the tongue appears dry and typically has a white or white-to-yellowish coating. In some cases, the tongue can appear patchy or splotchy. If your tongue commonly sticks to the roof of your mouth, you are dehydrated!
Anxiety can cause tingling or numbness in your tongue as well as other changes in your mouth. You may need to talk with a health professional if you have these signs. Anxiety may cause you to experience mental, emotional, and physical symptoms. This may include a tingling feeling, numbness, or swelling in your tongue.
Oral anxiety is the stress effects on oral health. Stress or anxiety can impact your oral health; when you are stressed, your immune system is compromised, and while the cause of canker sores is not proven, there is some correlation or higher likelihood between lowered immune and those nasty painful canker sores.