EXPERT ADVICE

EXPERT ADVICE

Healthy tongue: These exercises are a mouthful  Experts: Can Help With Sleep, Swallowing

Kamini.Mathai@timesgroup.com

15.07.2021 

Good sleep, easier breathing and an overall healthier lifestyle – could it all possibly be at the tip of your tongue? Just like with every muscle, say dentists, the tongue too needs its fair share of work-outs and strengthening exercises to keep it in tip-top shape.

"Strengthening, functional training, posture correction are needed to keep the tongue strong,” says dentist Dr Shifa Shamsudeen, who is launching her non-profit ‘The Tongue Foundation' in the city on Friday to create awareness on a muscler that is often taken for granted and neglected.

Poor tongue posture can also lead to problems such as speech impediments, snoring and sleep apnea, says Dr Seema Alice Mathew, oral & maxillofacial surgeon at Dr Mehta's Hospitals. “The tongue is a powerful muscle. Now, if the tongue falls back while sleeping it can obstruct the airway and cause sleep apnea, especially in someone who is obese,” she says.

During breastfeeding, the tongue naturally touches the upper palate. But in bottle-feeding, the tongue is pushed down, which is not natural, explains Dr Shifa.

In terms of breathing, the gas nitric oxide (NO) – a natural chemical and mechanical viral barrier --is produced in the paranasal sinuses and excreted into the nasal airways. “But when you have a slightly open mouth – a result of a weak tongue – you are engaging in passive mouth breathing, which means the NO effects are partially lost predisposing one to respiratory infections,” says Dr Shifa. “Remember, the upper jaw isn’t just the roof of the mouth, it’s the floor of the nose. In its resting position, the tongue must touch the roof of the mouth.”

Divya S, speech-language pathologist at Pebbles Centre for Child Development, says one of the ways to strengthen the tongue and jaw is to apply something semi-solid and slightly sticky to the roof of the mouth – caramel chocolate for instance – and then try to remove it with the tongue.

“The processed soft foods that we eat use the cheek muscle more than the tongue muscle, thus weakening the latter. That’s why we also need to feed the tongue with a diet of whole grains and give it a workout,” says Dr Shifa.