5 Powerful remedies to soothe a burnt tongue
Dr. D.Sendhil Nathan MDS, DNB Prosthodontics And Implantology
Assume you are in a star hotel and plenty of hot, delicious foods are placed in front of you on your table. You take a piece of hot meat and place it in your mouth. Aw….Aw….
It is very hot and you might feel a burning sensation in the tongue. Right.
Such situations happen even in our house. When you sip hot caffeine or bite a food item without checking the temperature of the dish.
During such situations, the tongue becomes numb for a while and cannot feel the taste. This is because the exposure of too much heat over the tongue fades the taste buds and papillae (rough texture on the tongue surface).
Such burnt tongue also requires the care as well as you meet a burn injury anywhere in your body. We have explained some remedies to soothe the burning tongue pain.
1) Consume a cool substance immediately
Remember that if you chill the burnt tongue quickly after the “hot” incident, the injured tongue will heal quickly.
Similar to pouring tongue on the burnt skin to cool down the burnt region, you should cool down the burning sensation in the tongue. Drinking some water is the primary thing to be done after such events.
You may consider suck ice cubes. Don’t chew them because chewing ice cubes may break your teeth.
The Alternate food substances to chill your tongue include milk, yogurt, ice cream, fruit juices or fresh fruits.
2) Rinse with saltwater solution
Salt is a natural antiseptic and it can neutralize the acids to provide relief from the burning sensation. Swishing mouth with salt water solution is an ancient remedy and it is still in practice to cure cavities, tooth pain, gum diseases and various dental ailments.
Take a glass of warm water and add 2-3 teaspoon salt. Stir it well. Gargle your mouth with this solution after cooling the burnt tongue.
3) Chew minty gums
Sugarless chewing gums are potent to clean our mouth whereas minty gums are effective to chill the burnt down.
You can experience the gum’s cooling ability when you chew mint gum and drink some water.
Minty gums consist of methanol. The compound can trigger the cold sensing nerves to cool the mouth. It calms down the burning and reduces inflammation.
4) Apply sweetened agents over the burnt tongue
Some resources say that take a spoon of sugar and sprinkle it over the burnt region in your tongue. It dissolves with the moist over the tongue to relieve the pain and burning sensation.
Dental Health Specialists recommend Honey as an alternative to this approach because sugar is not good for our dental health. It makes the teeth vulnerable to cavities.
Apply Honey over the freshly burnt tongue. Besides cooling, the antibacterial agents present in the fluid take care of accelerating the healing process.
5) Avoid acidic and citrus fruits
We had mentioned to eat fruits for chilling the burnt area in your tongue. Meanwhile, you should be aware of which fruit you are taking to alleviate the burning sensation.
Don’t prefer fruits like orange, pineapple, lime fruits, ugli Fruit, grapefruit or other citrus fruits. This is because the acidic compounds present in such citrus fruits make the condition worse and cause intense pain in the tongue.
Conclusion
When our tongue is exposed to a hot substance, the taste buds are damaged and make the tongue numb until the injured region is cured. The above mentioned tips will help you to ease the pain while speeding up the healing process.
Taking Vitamin E rich foods and preferring medications like Acetaminophen, Orabase paste, ibuprofen also helps you to restore the damaged tissues on the tongue quickly.
