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The mouth plays an important role in eating, drinking, and speaking. Mouth breathing refers to the act of breathing through the mouth (as a temporary backup system) if there is an obstruction to breathing through the nose, which is the designated breathing organ for the human body. [8]
The human tongue is divided into two parts, an oral part at the front and a pharyngeal part at the back. The left and right sides are also separated along most of its length by a vertical section of fibrous tissue (the lingual septum ) that results in a groove, the median sulcus, on the tongue's surface.
The misinterpreted diagram that sparked this myth shows human taste buds distributed in a "taste belt" along the inside of the tongue. Prior to this, A. Hoffmann had concluded in 1875 that the dorsal center of the human tongue has practically no fungiform papillae and taste buds, [12] and it was this finding that the diagram describes.
The thin strip of tissue that runs vertically from the floor of the mouth to the undersurface of the tongue is called the lingual frenulum. It tends to limit the movement of the tongue, and in some people, it is so short that it actually interferes with speaking. A hump of tissue near the base of the tongue houses a series of saliva gland ducts.
A number of cranial nerves are involved in sensations in the mouth including trigeminal (V), facial (VII), glossopharyngeal (IX) and vagus (X) nerves. The dorsum of the tongue is covered in specialised mucosa. This contains the presence of taste buds allowing taste, and it accounts for around 15% of oral mucosa. [15]
Lingual papillae, particularly filiform papillae, are thought to increase the surface area of the tongue and to increase the area of contact and friction between the tongue and food. [2] This may increase the tongue's ability to manipulate a bolus of food, and also to position food between the teeth during mastication (chewing) and swallowing.
Category: Human mouth anatomy. ... Tongue; W. White roll; Wisdom tooth This page was last edited on 8 May 2024, at 01:39 (UTC). Text is available under the Creative ...
The mouth is the body orifice through which many animals ingest food and vocalize. The body cavity immediately behind the mouth opening, known as the oral cavity (or cavum oris in Latin ), [ 2 ] is also the first part of the alimentary canal , which leads to the pharynx and the gullet .