Tongue function
For the eating and swallowing function, that is, the "eating function", it is necessary to make various organs such as the tongue, lips, and cheeks work in a complicated manner. Among them, the tongue has an important function in the movement of taking food into the mouth, chewing it, and swallowing it.
1) Predation
Recognize food and put it in your mouth. At this time, use your lips and teeth. Predated food is received by the tongue, and the temperature and physical characteristics of food are instantly sensed.
2) Chewing/Mastication
If the food you put in your mouth needs to be chewed, chew the food with your teeth. At this time, the tongue works to move the food between the teeth, and when the teeth chew the food, the tongue holds the food. After chewing several times, the crushed food falls on the gaps in the lips and on the tongue, so the tongue collects those foods, moves them to the opposite teeth, and moves them so that they can be chewed again.
3) Swallowing
When the food is fine enough, the tongue collects the food in the mouth and sends it to the pharynx. When feeding food from the pharynx to the esophagus, it requires strong muscle strength that is pushed out by the tongue.
Source: Evaluation method and dietary guidance for dysphagiam (2001)
It is better to understand the entire process from mastication to swallowing by categorizing 5 stages as anticipatory stage, preparatory stage, oral stage, pharyngeal stage and esophageal stage.We introduce the process by animation.
