The tongue is a highly mobile muscular organ that lies on the floor of the mouth and extends back into the oropharynx. A V-shaped groove, the sulcus terminalis, divides it into an anterior two-thirds in the mouth and a posterior third facing the pharynx. It is made of intrinsic muscles that change its shape and extrinsic muscles that move it as a whole.
| Location | Floor of the oral cavity, with its root attached to the hyoid bone and mandible and its posterior third forming the anterior wall of the oropharynx |
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| Parts |
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| Nerve Supply | Hypoglossal nerve, CN XII (motor); Vagus nerve via pharyngeal plexus (palatoglossus); Lingual nerve, CN V3 (general sensation, anterior two-thirds); Chorda tympani, CN VII (taste, anterior two-thirds); Glossopharyngeal nerve, CN IX (general sensation and taste, posterior third); Internal laryngeal nerve, CN X (root near epiglottis) |
| Blood Supply | Lingual artery (dorsal lingual, deep lingual and sublingual branches); Tonsillar branch of the facial artery; Ascending pharyngeal artery |
| Venous drainage |
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| Lymphatic drainage |
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Moves food around for chewing, forms and pushes the bolus back to start swallowing, carries the taste buds and is the main articulator in speech.
All tongue muscles are supplied by the hypoglossal nerve except palatoglossus, so a hypoglossal lesion makes the protruded tongue deviate toward the damaged side, often with wasting and fasciculation. Sensation and taste follow the embryological split: lingual nerve and chorda tympani for the front two-thirds, glossopharyngeal nerve for the back third. Tongue cancer usually arises on the lateral border and can spread to nodes on both sides because lymphatics near the midline cross over.
Most common oral cancer, typically a painless ulcer or lump on the lateral border; spreads early to submandibular and deep cervical nodes.
Weakness of one side of the tongue, which deviates toward the lesion on protrusion and wastes over time; causes include skull base tumours and carotid surgery.
Tongue-tie from a short or thick lingual frenulum that limits tongue movement and can impair breastfeeding.
