Bleeding tongue: causes, description of symptoms, treatment and dental consultations

The tongue is an organ of touch that is located in the mouth and is involved in the digestion process; it consists of striated tissue covered with a mucous membrane. Visually divided into the root part and the body. It is on this organ that taste buds are concentrated.

Those located at the tip recognize sweet foods, the lateral ones recognize salty foods, the posterior lateral ones react to sour foods, and the root of the tongue is responsible for sending an impulse to the brain about bitter taste. If the papillae are damaged, the ability to recognize the taste of the food consumed may temporarily disappear.

In addition, the tongue is involved in speech, in stimulating the salivary glands, in chewing and swallowing. It is considered an indicator of a person's health status. Since the formation of plaque, swelling of the papillae, or, conversely, a too smooth surface indicates the development of some pathological disorders in the body.

Questions of physiology

The tongue is an organ consisting of striated muscle tissue, externally covered with a mucous membrane. It relates to the digestive system, participates in the process of grinding food, preparing products entering the oral cavity for the further process of digestion. The spade-shaped body of the tongue helps to mix food, crushed into small fragments and moistened with saliva.

The tongue contains many taste buds, which determine the sensation of taste. At the tip there is an area responsible for recognizing sweet taste, on the sides of the front of the tongue the salty taste is determined, and on the lower part - sour. The root zone is responsible for the perception of bitterness. The tongue is the most mobile organ of the speech apparatus, so it ensures the reproduction of a huge number of words and individual sounds.

How to heal a wound after biting

After you have stopped the bleeding, numbed the area and disinfected the area, you should promote the speedy healing of the wound. The faster it heals on its own, the lower the chance of going to the doctor with complications.

So, what should be the actions after providing first aid?

To heal the wound, you should rinse your mouth with a pharmaceutical mouthwash, as well as herbal decoctions.

1. When you get home, you should thoroughly and carefully brush your teeth and rinse your mouth with a pharmaceutical mouthwash. These manipulations should be performed after every snack, sleep, and also at night.
2. Additionally, several times a day we rinse our mouths with a decoction of oak bark, sage, calendula, St. John's wort, chamomile and other herbal infusions.
3. Also treat the area with a disinfectant solution (furacillin, trachysan, chlorhexidine) a couple of times a day. Antiseptic sprays and lozenges are also suitable.
4. Creates a competent menu. First of all, avoid drinks and foods that are too hot or cold. Thermal irritation of the mucous membrane interferes with spontaneous healing. Cold drinks can be used only in case of severe pain for pain relief in the absence of more effective anesthetics.
5. The menu should be filled with vitamins that promote active healing (group C, B, etc.). Lean on raw vegetables, fruits, herbs and meat products.
6. Contact your doctor. Many people ask what to do if a child bites his tongue until it bleeds.
   

   Here, try not to get carried away with cold liquids and chemicals, but as soon as possible get an appointment with a pediatrician for competent medical care.

Causes of bleeding

Why does my tongue bleed? The most common cause is trauma, which can be thermal (burn), mechanical (cut, bite), chemical (irritation) or physical in origin. The taste of blood in the mouth may appear when eating quickly, after talking, or when chewing. Injury can be caused by sharp protrusions of dentures or the edges of decayed teeth, fragments of food (bones), cutlery (fork, knife), during dental procedures (preparing the dentition for the installation of crowns).

Bloody marks on the tongue - what can cause the symptom and what to do about it

There are many possible reasons why your tongue may bleed. Most often, the prerequisite for this unpleasant phenomenon is banal damage to the organ during talking or chewing. However, in other cases, this symptom may indicate serious health problems. Such manifestations as a thick coating on the tongue, enlarged papillae, and even more so traces of blood, should at least alert you and also become a good reason to contact a specialist. Today we will look at the most common causes of blood above and below the tongue, and also find out what to do with this symptom.

Mechanical damage

If your tongue is bleeding, the cause is most likely mechanical damage. As a rule, this is an injury caused by negligence during eating, talking or dental procedures. Physical injuries are mainly caused by a maxillofacial blow or an accident. Thermal damage occurs when burned with steam, drinking too hot drinks, the cause may be fire, radiation, or an electrical appliance. Chemical damage occurs when aggressive chemicals come into contact with the mucous membrane.

Why does biting happen?

As a rule, the tongue is not seriously damaged and causes only mild discomfort to the person. But in some cases, the damage is accompanied by the appearance of blood, pain, significant wounds (this happens due to sports injuries, a fall, a blow, etc.).

We will look at what to do if there is bleeding from the tongue, how to heal the wound and avoid complications.

Often a person unknowingly bites the soft tissue of the mucous membrane, after which he becomes aware of the problem through the salty taste of blood in the mouth, vibration at the bite site, burning and pain. A number of observations and studies made it possible to form a group of factors that most often lead to damage to the mucosa.

The cause of tongue bite may be congenital malocclusion, a defect in the structure of the jaw, or pathology of dental development.

1. Thoughtfulness . While thinking about important projects or everyday worries, daydreaming, or concentrating on studying material, we automatically chew our lips and the inside of our cheeks, and sometimes, out of zeal, we can bite our tongue.
2. This often happens during chewing , when a person quickly and thoroughly chews food, while being distracted by his thoughts, TV, newspaper or interlocutor. While eating, try not to talk with your mouth full to avoid damaging soft tissues. Also, you should not eat in a hurry, throwing large pieces into your mouth.
3. Sometimes there are dental reasons for such situations. This may be a congenital malocclusion, a defect in the structure of the jaw, a pathology in the development of teeth (chaotic arrangement, unnatural direction of growth, etc.).
   

   Very often nowadays people bite soft tissues due to improperly manufactured or installed dentures and implants.

4. Separately, it is worth highlighting anesthesia in the group. After performing dental, plastic and other manipulations in the area, local anesthesia wears off for 2-4 hours, during which the patient can eat and communicate. A person practically does not feel the numb parts, so he can literally “chew” the soft mucous membrane and tongue. Unfortunately, in this case, he learns about the problem only a few hours later, when the anesthesia stops working and the first painful sensations appear.
5. Habit . This reason is also quite common and is related to the first point about thoughtfulness. For some people, the desire to chew and bite the mucous membranes, lips (and then, by chance, the tongue) arises in any situation: fear, panic, concentration, decision-making, excitement, fascination, surprise, etc.

Pathological condition

If your tongue bleeds, this may be one of the symptoms of glossitis. Inflammation is caused by viral or bacterial microflora; it can be an independent pathology or accompany some systemic diseases. For example, stomatitis is often caused by the entry or activation of the herpes virus into the body. Mechanical injuries contribute to the development of the disease; smokers and people who abuse alcohol are at risk.

If the tongue bleeds, common causes of this condition are concomitant pathologies: liver diseases (carcinoma, cirrhosis, hepatitis), chronic renal failure, chronic inflammation of the gastric mucosa, intestinal inflammation, peptic ulcer. This symptom is characteristic of intoxication with salts of heavy metals, helminthiases, and vitamin deficiencies.

Diagnostics

Diagnostic measures are not difficult for a specialist, but there is a need to find out the reasons that led to bleeding. Most often, if the injury is traumatic, a thorough examination of the oral cavity is sufficient to determine the severity of the injury.

To determine glossitis or infectious processes, the following measures are prescribed:

• chemistry .
• Bacteriological cultures to detect pathological microorganisms.
• Cytological examination.
• Polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
• Enzyme immunoassay - search for specific antibodies in the blood or antigens to the disease.
• RPR test - to exclude syphilis.
• Scraping for the presence of Treponema pallidum.

Only after this can the dentist give any recommendations and prescribe the necessary therapeutic measures.

Symptoms of glossitis

The first sign of the disease is a feeling of discomfort in the oral cavity. Then salivation increases, swelling occurs, the tongue becomes bright red, taste sensations become dull, and eating becomes painful and difficult. Often the patient's speech becomes slurred due to swelling. If left untreated, mushroom-shaped growths may form on the tongue. If the disease is caused by an infection, then symptoms of inflammation are characteristic: local fever, swelling, general deterioration of well-being.

What you should absolutely not do

If blood appears on the tongue, it means there is an open wound on its surface. In order not to aggravate the situation and not provoke the development of inflammatory processes, it is important to adhere to some restrictions. So, if you inadvertently injured the main speech organ, refrain from the following actions:

• cauterizing the wound with alcohol - this will only further injure the mucous membrane,
• drinking hot tea will increase bleeding,
• treating the wound with brilliant green or iodine,
• pressing the wound with a bare finger or teeth, trying to stop the bleeding by pressing the tongue to the roof of the mouth.

Until the bleeding has completely stopped, do not eat or put anything foreign in your mouth until the wound has completely healed. It is also strictly forbidden to self-medicate with antibacterial drugs - they can only be prescribed by the attending physician.

Diagnosis and treatment

If your tongue hurts or bleeds, you should consult a doctor. The specific clinical picture allows a diagnosis to be made during a routine dental examination. To clarify, bacteriological, biochemical, histological, cytological or serological diagnostic methods are used. Based on the results of the examination, the doctor will make a diagnosis. Glossitis can be:

• deep, localized in the area of ​​the floor of the oral cavity;
• diamond-shaped, usually developing against the background of chronic diseases;
• folded - congenital anomaly;
• desquamative (“geographical language”);
• Gunter's, which is a symptom of folic acid or vitamin B12 deficiency;
• interstitial, accompanying syphilis in the third period.

If your tongue bleeds, what should you do? To make eating easier, you should give preference to pureed soft dishes and soups. During the day, as well as before and after meals, rinsing with a weak antiseptic solution (chlorhexidine, furatsilin) ​​is recommended. In cases of severe pain, applications with antiseptics are used. Plaque is removed with a swab soaked in proteolytic enzymes. The skin regeneration process is accelerated by local products with vitamin A.

In rare cases, surgery may be required. Strong anti-inflammatory, antifungal agents and antibacterial drugs are prescribed according to indications. Hormonal medications (hydrocortisone, prednisolone) in the form of ointments for topical use are used in short courses for difficulty breathing.

Possible reasons

There can be many factors that provoke the development of the problem. The reasons may be simple trauma or even pathology of systems and internal organs. Blood from the tongue appears in the following cases:

1. Bite, injury, cut due to mechanical action;
2. Irritation or cracking of chemicals;
3. Burn, inflammation, growth;

The surface of the mucous membrane can be damaged by a knife, fork, or sharp edges of food products. Injuries are caused by protrusions of prosthetic structures and emergency situations. Hot steam, drinks, and current have a burning effect on soft tissues. With severe damage from pesticides and aggressive acids, even capillaries are exposed. If the damage is severe, anomalies of the venous ducts appear. In this case, you should consult a doctor. Diagnostics in dentistry will accurately determine the provoking factor. It may be glossitis, that is, an inflammatory process. He is called:

• Pathogenic bacteria that have entered the wound.
• Allergy to hygiene products.
• Low-quality alcohol, cigarettes, chemical food additives.
• Hot spices.

The cause of the pathology is problems of the gastrointestinal tract, as well as the circulatory system and the central nervous system. Deficiency of vitamins B, PP, A negatively affects health.

Possible complications

In advanced forms of the disease (if the tongue constantly bleeds, removal of plaque is accompanied by severe pain, there are purulent ulcers), an abscess may form. At the same time, salivation increases significantly, the tongue greatly increases in size, acute throbbing pain occurs, and speech is impaired. A serious complication is the development of phlegmon. Suppuration becomes pronounced, speech and breathing become difficult, the patient refuses to eat, and possible attacks of suffocation. Symptoms of general intoxication of the body become pronounced.

When medical intervention may be needed

Sometimes a small wound after a bite can heal on its own, and a person will forget about it within a few hours. But in other cases, when there is a fall, a dislocated jaw, a bruise or blow to the area, the tongue and other soft tissues of the mouth can be severely damaged, which may even require the help of specialists.

If your tongue is seriously damaged, you should consult a specialist.

Let's look at the main symptoms of complications after biting:

• the muscle is very swollen and swollen at the site of the bite;
• a brightly colored hematoma has formed in the area, which causes discomfort during eating and communicating;
• in the morning you can see blood on the tongue, the reasons for which are a strong bite depth, for example, when the tooth has completely passed through the soft tissue, or poor blood clotting, which is why the wound continues to bleed after a long time;
• a long and deep wound with jagged edges has formed, from which blood oozes during chewing, communication and muscle tension;
• initially there was no noticeable discomfort, but gradually the situation began to worsen, the tongue became swollen, sore and numb, taste and temperature receptors were impaired;
• the wound began to fester and darken, become inflamed and increase in volume, which may indicate infection;
• plaque, characteristic rashes and ulcers (stomatitis), other dermatitis and inflamed areas appeared on the tongue, which also indicates that pathological microflora has entered the wound.

When should you see a doctor?

1. The swelling and wound do not disappear within 4 days.
2. On days 2 and 3, the wound begins to increase in volume and spread to healthy areas.
3. Pain, burning sensation and discomfort persist for more than 3 days while eating food and liquid, or communicating.
4. The hematoma at the site of the bite did not resolve within 3-4 days.
5. We noticed suppuration and discoloration of the area, plaque formation, pimples and ulcers, and furrows on the tongue.
6. The integrity of the muscle has been seriously compromised (bitten through, part of the tongue bitten off, jaw or lips not closing properly).

Try to get an appointment with a therapist, otolaryngologist or dentist as soon as possible.

Treatment of cracked tongue

If the tongue bleeds in the morning, then first of all mechanical factors and an allergic reaction to oral care products should be excluded. It is necessary to adjust dentures and fillings, correct the bite, change toothpaste or brush (replace with a softer one). Treatment usually includes rinsing with disinfectants and sanitation of the mouth.

First, you should contact a dentist, who, if necessary, will refer the patient to a therapist, endocrinologist or other specialized specialists. Complex vitamin supplements, pharmaceuticals, and physical therapy are often prescribed. If there is a concomitant disease that can cause the tongue to bleed, then treatment must be started.

It is important to adjust your diet. Usually it is recommended to exclude smoked, spicy and salty foods, and give up bad habits. As part of drug therapy, painkillers (Lidocaine, Novocaine), disinfectants (potassium permanganate, soda, furatsilin solution) and normalization of blood supply (Trental, Capoten), and electrophoresis are used.

Modern medicine offers hirudotherapy among the methods of treating cracks in the tongue that cause bleeding. Leeches are placed directly on the tongue and lips, sometimes on the palate. Many years of experience in using this method of therapy have shown excellent results, but not every patient will decide on a specific procedure.

Why might your tongue bleed?

Now let's figure out why blood still appears on the tongue. There are many potential causes of blood marks, but the most common is careless biting of an organ while speaking or chewing. Most often the tip suffers for this reason. As a result, painful ulcers may form on the surface of the epithelium. The choice of a specific treatment method in this case will directly depend on the extent of the damage. If the wound is small, but there is bleeding, it will be enough to treat the defect with an antiseptic solution. However, before using a pharmaceutical product, you should consult your doctor.

Why does the tongue bleed?

If the wound is serious and requires stitches, then you cannot do without the help of a specialist. In addition to banal biting, there are many other reasons that can lead to bleeding. Let's take a closer look at them.

How to stop bleeding

If the tip of the tongue is bleeding, then in most cases it is enough to hold cold water or ice in the mouth so that the blood vessels narrow and the bleeding stops. Later, the oral cavity should be disinfected. If the blood flows strongly, then in most people it causes panic. If veins are damaged in the deep layers of muscle tissue, you need to act in a collected manner.

First, you should treat your hands with a disinfectant solution, and only then begin to study the extent of damage to the organ. Unwashed hands can introduce many bacteria into an open wound. To prevent the risk of infection, all precautions must be taken. The head must be lowered down over a sink or some kind of container and the oral cavity should be opened slightly so that the blood can flow freely. It cannot be assumed that blood flowed down the larynx into the respiratory organs.

You can stop bleeding by applying pressure to the injury site. To do this, you need to use a sterile cloth, napkin, cotton wool or bandage. You need to hold it until the bleeding stops completely. You can wrap a piece of ice in a cloth and apply it to the damaged area. Usually such measures are enough to stop the bleeding. If severe pain occurs, you can take a general pain reliever. If damaged by acids, the aggressive effect can be neutralized with a moderate alkali solution. After exposure to any chemicals, the mouth should be rinsed with plenty of running water.

In case of complex organ injuries, it is necessary to call an ambulance. Urgent medical attention will definitely be required if the bleeding cannot be stopped within thirty minutes.

Mechanical causes of bleeding

As noted above, the most common cause of blood is mechanical damage. However, this phenomenon is not always caused by careless tongue biting. The oral mucosa can be damaged as a result of careless cleaning of the tongue, injury from a sharp nut shell, seed or fish bone. It’s even more difficult with babies, because when children start teething, they diligently put everything they can get their hands on into their mouths. At this time, the risk of soft tissue injury increases significantly.

“For example, it used to often happen to me that I wake up in the morning and blood is flowing from my tongue. It doesn’t whip, of course, but still. True, after brushing my teeth everything went away. And then I finally decided to get braces and went to see an orthodontist. While talking to the doctor, I told her about my problem, and then she explained that it was all due to an incorrect bite and crooked teeth. It’s just that at night, when I involuntarily clenched my jaws, my teeth began to rub my tongue, which then caused bleeding. Now I’m in braces, which, by the way, also seriously scratched all the mucous membranes, but here wax saves me ... "

Camilla R., 28 years old, from correspondence on the forum www.32top.ru

Tongue injury is a common cause of bleeding.
Other common external factors include a fall or blow to the face. At high risk are people with damaged teeth, the sharp edges of which can easily damage the integrity of soft tissues. Also, many problems are caused by incorrectly installed fillings, worn-out prosthetic structures that require relining or replacement, as well as orthodontic devices, which contain many small parts that can injure surrounding tissues.

I would like to pay special attention to hematomas that form directly on the body of the tongue as a result of mechanical influences. A bruise appears when a vessel located inside an organ bursts. This situation can lead to swelling of the soft tissues, which can lead to difficulty breathing and other serious consequences.

Treatment of bleeding

Be sure to treat the wound with an antiseptic.
Based on the examination of the patient and assessment of his general well-being, the doctor will decide what to do - first stop the bleeding, or deal with the cause that caused it. If we are talking about inflammatory ulcerative diseases of the oral cavity, then there is no threat to the patient’s life from small discharges of blood, so it will be enough to treat the affected area with antiseptics and healing medications, concentrating on the cause of the underlying disease.

At the same time, mechanical penetrating trauma that leaves a deep wound or cut requires surgical intervention. The main measure used is the application of catgut sutures to the tongue while simultaneously disinfecting it. If there is a suspicion of the presence of a foreign body inside a cut or puncture, it is allowed to examine the wound canal with a probe.

Additional Information. If bleeding from the tongue cannot be eliminated with stitches, which happens with a deep wound at the root of the organ, the doctor will have to ligate the lingual artery.