My son has only 4 more Radiation sessions but my question has to do with something his doctor (Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon) told us immediately after surgery for removal of 1/6 of his tongue. He said that the tongue regenerates and that it takes about a year for it to grow back. I've searched on this site and also on google but find nothing to support this although I did find research done with snakes and rats concerning tongue regeneration. Has anyone heard of this or perhaps experienced tongue regeneration? I was wondering if it depended on how much of the tongue is removed.

My tongue was not affected, but "regeneration" is news to me! I'd wonder about the use of the word, whether the Doctor meant the functional return to near normal, or actual regrowth.

Sorry, but I suspect there may have been a misunderstanding. I'd love to hear that I'm wrong though!
Wayne

Anne-Marie,

I agree with Wayne that it sounds like some sort of misunderstanding. Like your son, I had about 1/6 of my tongue removed. That was almost 18 years ago, and I have yet to see any signs of "regeneration"!

However, it did heal quite well overall following surgery and radiation, and I've learned to live with the rather minor inconvenience of a lop-sided tongue.

Cathy

Hi Anne,

I heard that phrase but it was to do with the cells of the tongue. The tongue will heal it self, but not grow the part that was removed. I had part of tongue removed and it has not grown back. The Dr. said it would completely heal in a year. Maybe that was what your Dr. said.?

I hope your son is doing OK, it is a hard road to travel. Soon he will start to recover from all the treatments...

Take care.
Diane

Taste buds regenerate themselves. That may have been what the surgeon meant. The tongue itself is a muscle and doesn't regenerate anymore than any other muscle.

Hi Anne-Marie,

I had a 2 cm semicircular section of the side of my tongue removed almost 2 years ago. Today I have a small divot in the surgical area. It is maybe only 1/2 a centimeter.

I do think that the term regeneration may be inaccurate.

Aside from my personal experience, I can also draw from my observations as a dentist to answer your question. When a person has all of their teeth extracted and doesn't wear dentures, their tongue can get larger. Normally the teeth help to mantain the tongue's size. I have seen this many times but, it doesn't happen to everyone.

However, whatever you call it, the tongue can can enlarge, but there are limits to how much. With one sixth missing, I wouldn't expect it to all come back, but possibly some noticable difference may occur.

Hope this helps.

Jerry

WOW, Jerry, one never knows what one wil learn on this site. So now I am wondering, since all but 5 front upper teeth were removed when John had his 1st surgery in April 05. Altho part of his tongue is gone, couldthe remaining part have gotten bigger? Amy

Amy,

Might be difficult to tell. I think the larger amount removed, the more difficult it would be to tell.

Have to admit, I probably spent a lot more time checking out my tongue than the average person.

Jerry

Thank you so much, everyone! It really helps to get all these ideas and personal experiences and Jerry - I found your explanation very enlightening. When the surgeon first told us, there were three of us - my daughter, myself and a retired psychiatric nurse friend of mine and she just told me that she had heard the doctor say the same thing about the tongue regenerating. She also said that as a nurse, she was surprised because she had not previously heard of this "regenerating". I can see now, that since the teeth help to maintain the size of the tongue and when part of the tongue is removed, the resulting space could possibly allow the tongue to "spread out" or enlarge.