Hyoglossus

Looks like

A thin four-sided muscle on each side of the tongue, running up from the hyoid bone in the neck into the side of the tongue.

What it does

Pulls the tongue down and back, helping to move food during chewing and swallowing.

Keeping it well

Powered by the hypoglossal nerve. Weakness or wasting of one side of the tongue needs a doctor.

Related conditions

• Bad breath (halitosis)
• Botulism
• Burning mouth syndrome
• Candida & fungal infection
• Fibromyalgia
• Frailty & falls in older age
• Hand, foot and mouth disease
• Head and neck cancer
• Heat exhaustion & heatstroke
• Lichen planus
• Malnutrition & refeeding syndrome
• Mouth ulcers (aphthous stomatitis)
• Muscular dystrophy
• Pemphigus vulgaris
• Polymyalgia rheumatica
• Rhabdomyolysis
• Sarcoma
• Sarcopenia
• Scarlet fever
• Stevens–Johnson syndrome / toxic epidermal necrolysis
• Tetanus
• Tongue-tie (ankyloglossia)