Treatment for uncontrolled tongue thrust requires habit retraining in conjunction with a dental appliance.

Factors that can contribute to tongue thrusting include macroglossia (enlarged tongue), thumb sucking, large tonsils, hereditary factors, ankyloglossia (tongue tie), and certain types of artificial nipples used in feeding infants, also allergies or nasal congestion can cause the tongue to lie low in the mouth because of breathing obstruction and finally contributing to tongue thrusting. In addition, it is also seen after prolonged therapy by levodopa in Parkinsonism, also it occurs as extra pyramidal side effect (Acute muscular dystonia) after use of Neuroleptics (Anti-Psychotics).

Also called myofunctional therapy, the basic treatment aims of orofacial myofunctional therapist is to reeducate the movement of muscles, restore correct swallowing patterns, and establish adequate labial-lingual postures. An interdisciplinary nature of treatment is always desirable to reach functional goals in terms of swallowing, speech, and other esthetic factors. A team approach has been shown to be effective in correcting orofacial myofunctional disorders. The teams include an orthodontist, dental hygienist, certified orofacial myologist, general dentist, otorhinolaryngologist, and a speech-language pathologist.

Orofacial myofunctional disorders (OMD) (sometimes called “oral myofunctional disorder", and “tongue thrust”) are muscle disorders of the face, mouth, lips, or jaw.

Recent studies on incidence and prevalence of tongue thrust behaviors are not available. However, according to the previous research, 38% of various populations have OMD. The incidence is as high as 81% in children exhibiting speech/articulation problems (Kellum, 1992).

Ankyloglossia can affect eating, speech, and oral hygiene as well as have mechanical/social effects. Ankyloglossia can also prevent the tongue from contacting the anterior palate. This can then promote an infantile swallow and hamper the progression to an adult-like swallow which can result in an open bite deformity. It can also result in mandibular prognathism; this happens when the tongue contacts the anterior portion of the mandible with exaggerated anterior thrusts.

Opinion varies regarding how frequently ankyloglossia truly causes problems. Some professionals believe it is rarely symptomatic, whereas others believe it is associated with a variety of problems. The disagreement among professionals was documented in a study by Messner and Lalakea (2000). The authors sent a survey to a total of 1598 otolaryngologists, pediatricians, speech-language pathologists and lactation consultants with questions to ascertain their beliefs on ankyloglossia. 797 of the surveys were fully completed and used in the study. It was found that 69% of lactation consultants, but only a minority of pediatricians answered that ankyloglossia is frequently associated with feeding difficulties; 60% of otolaryngologists and 50% of speech pathologists answered that ankyloglossia is sometimes associated with speech difficulties compared to only 23% of pediatricians; 67% of otolaryngologists compared with 21% of pediatricians answered that ankyloglossia is sometimes associated with social and mechanical difficulties. Limitations of this study include a reduced sample size due to unreturned or incomplete surveys.

Behavior therapy is important especially when the kids are in their primary dentition in the pre-adolescent age. Improving habits at this time may lead to self-correction of open bite in many cases. Sometimes presence of infantile swallowing into early childhood may lead to an anterior open bite in patients. Habit control through appliances such as Tongue crib or Tongue spurs may be used in adolescent ages if the behavior modification fails to stop the habit.

In traditional Chinese medicine, scalloping of the tongue is said to indicate qi vacuity. In some homeopathic sources, scalloping of the tongue is said to be indicative of high blood pressure.

In some cases Meige's syndrome can be reversed when it is caused by medication. It has been theorized that it is related to cranio-mandibular orthopedic misalignment, a condition that has been shown to cause a number of other movement disorders (Parkinon's, tourettes, and torticollis). This theory is supported by the fact that the trigeminal nerve is sensory for blink reflex, and becomes hypertonic with craniomandibular dysfunction. Palliative treatments are available, such as botulinum toxin injections.

The lesions are harmless, and no treatment is indicated beyond reassurance, unless the person requests it. The most common and simple treatment is construction of a specially made acrylic prosthesis that covers the biting surfaces of the teeth and protects the cheek, tongue and labial mucosa (an occlusal splint). This is either employed in the short term as a habit breaking intention, or more permanently (e.g. wearing the prosthesis each night during sleep). Psychological intervention is also reported, but does not appear to be beneficial.

So far, there is no certain treatment that can completely stop snoring. Almost all treatments for snoring revolve around lessening the breathing discomfort by clearing the blockage in the air passage. Medications are usually not helpful in treating snoring symptoms, though they can help control some of the underlying causes such as nasal congestion and allergic reactions. Doctors, therefore, often recommend lifestyle changes as a first line treatment to stop snoring. This is the reason snorers are advised to lose weight (to stop fat from pressing on the throat), stop smoking (smoking weakens and clogs the throat), avoid alcohol and sedative medications before bedtime (they relax the throat and tongue muscles, which in turn narrow the airways) and sleep on their side (to prevent the tongue from blocking the throat).

A number of other treatment options are also used to stop snoring. These range from over-the-counter aids such as nasal sprays, nasal strips or nose clips, lubricating sprays, oral appliances and "anti-snore" clothing and pillows, to unusual activities such as playing the didgeridoo. However, one needs to be wary of over-the-counter snore treatments that have no scientific evidence to support their claims, such as stop-snore rings or wrist worn electrical stimulation bands.

Surgery is also available as a method of correcting social snoring. Some procedures, such as uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, attempt to widen the airway by removing tissues in the back of the throat, including the uvula and pharynx. These surgeries are quite invasive, however, and there are risks of adverse side effects. The most dangerous risk is that enough scar tissue could form within the throat as a result of the incisions to make the airway more narrow than it was prior to surgery, diminishing the airspace in the velopharynx. Scarring is an individual trait, so it is difficult for a surgeon to predict how much a person might be predisposed to scarring. Currently, the American Medical Association does not approve of the use of lasers to perform operations on the pharynx or uvula.

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a relatively new surgical treatment for snoring. This treatment applies radiofrequency energy and heat (between 77 °C and 85 °C) to the soft tissue at the back of the throat, such as the soft palate and uvula, causing scarring of the tissue beneath the skin. After healing, this results in stiffening of the treated area. The procedure takes less than one hour, is usually performed on an outpatient basis, and usually requires several treatment sessions. Radiofrequency ablation is frequently effective in reducing the severity of snoring, but often does not completely eliminate it.

Bipolar radiofrequency ablation, a technique used for coblation tonsillectomy, is also used for the treatment of snoring.

With an interdental lisp, the therapist teaches the child how to keep the tongue behind the two front incisors.

One popular method of correcting articulation or lisp disorders is to isolate sounds and work on correcting the sound in isolation. The basic sound, or phoneme, is selected as a target for treatment. Typically the position of the sound within a word is considered and targeted. The sound appears in the beginning of the word, middle, or end of the word (initial, medial, or final).

Take for example, correction of an "S" sound (lisp). Most likely, a speech language pathologist (SLP) would employ exercises to work on "Sssssss." Starting practice words would most likely consist of "S-initial" words such as "say, sun, soap, sip, sick, said, sail." According to this protocol, the SLP slowly increases the complexity of tasks (context of pronunciations) as the production of the sound improves. Examples of increased complexity could include saying words in phrases and sentences, saying longer multi syllabic words, or increasing the tempo of pronunciation.

Using this method, the SLP achieves success with his/her student by targeting a sound in a phonetically consistent manner. Phonetic consistency means that a target sound is isolated at the smallest possible level (phoneme, phone, or allophone) and that the context of production must be consistent. Consistency is critical, because factors such as the position within the word, grouping with other sounds (vowels or consonants), and the complexity all may affect production.

Another popular method for treating a lisp is using specially designed devices that go in the mouth to provide a tactile cue of exactly where the tongue should be positioned when saying the "S" sound. This tactile feedback has been shown to correct lisp errors twice as fast as traditional therapy.

Using either or both methods, the repetition of consistent contexts allows the student to align all the necessary processes required to properly produce language; language skills (ability to formulate correct sounds in the brain: What sounds do I need to make?), motor planning (voicing and jaw and tongue movements: How do I produce the sound?), and auditory processing (receptive feedback: Was the sound produced correctly? Do I need to correct?).

A student with an articulation or lisp disorder has a deficiency in one or more of these areas. To correct the deficiency, adjustments have to be made in one or more of these processes. The process to correct it is more often than not, trial and error. With so many factors, however, isolating the variables (the sound) is imperative to getting to the end result faster.

A phonetically consistent treatment strategy means practicing the same thing over and over. What is practiced is consistent and does not change. The words might change, but the phoneme and its positioning is the same (say, sip, sill, soap, …). Thus, successful correction of the disorder is found in manipulating or changing the other factors involved with speech production (tongue positioning, cerebral processing, etc.). Once a successful result (speech) is achieved, then consistent practice becomes essential to reinforcing correct productions.

When the difficult sound is mastered, the child will then learn to say the sound in syllables, then words, then phrases and then sentences. When a child can speak a whole sentence without lisping, attention is then focused on making correct sounds throughout natural conversation. Towards the end of the course of therapy, the child will be taught how to monitor his or her own speech, and how to correct as necessary. Speech therapy can sometimes fix the problem, but however in some cases speech therapy fails to work.

Permanent lisps can often be corrected through extensive oral operations. Often, when a patient has extreme overbite, causing a lisp, having orthodontic braces and rubber bands for an extended period of time will correct the issue, and resolve the lisp.

Tongue crib is a removable applianced placed in the maxillary arch for the purpose of stopping the tongue thrusting habit. This appliance maybe used in patients with mixed dentition or permanent dentition. Tongue crib is attached through a bar to two bands placed on the upper 1st molars. The crib is shaped like a horseshoe with metal bars that prevent the thrusting habit. Tongue crib is known to eliminate habits in about 90% of the patients. (citation needed). Huang et al. published a study in 1990 which stated that patients who achieved a positive overbite during their tongue crib therapy had a good chance of maintaining that overbite after their orthodontic treatment. They credited this change to a change in the posterior positioning of the tongue due to the crib therapy.

Some of the side-effects of using a tongue-crib therapy is that this appliance may trap a lot of food which may cause inflammation around the appliance. In addition, repeated contact of tongue with the appliance may also lead to an imprint on the tongue which will self-resolve once the appliance is removed. It is important to note that this type of therapy will only work in patients who do not have a skeletal open bite tendency. Skeletal open bite tendency may be addressed via surgery or other treatments depending on the severity.

Successful treatments have shown that causes are functional rather than physical: that is, most lisps are caused by errors in tongue placement within the mouth rather than caused by any injury or congenital deformity to the mouth. The most frequently discussed of these problems is tongue thrust in which the tongue protrudes beyond the front teeth. This protrusion affects speech as well as swallowing and can lead to lisping. Ankyloglossia or tongue tie can also be responsible for lisps in children.

However, it is unclear whether these deficiencies are caused by the tongue tie itself or the muscle weakness following the correction of the tongue tie. Overbites and underbites may also contribute to non lingual lisping. Temporary lisps can be caused by dental work, dental appliances such as dentures or retainers or by swollen or bruised tongues.

Treatment and prognosis of macroglossia depends upon its cause, and also upon the severity of the enlargement and symptoms it is causing. No treatment may be required for mild cases or cases with minimal symptoms. Speech therapy may be beneficial, or surgery to reduce the size of the tongue (reduction glossectomy). Treatment may also involve correction of orthodontic abnormalities that may have been caused by the enlarged tongue. Treatment of any underlying systemic disease may be required, e.g. radiotherapy.

If a cause can be identified for a burning sensation in the mouth, then treatment of this underlying factor is recommended. If symptom persist despite treatment a diagnosis of BMS is confirmed. BMS has been traditionally treated by reassurance and with antidepressants, anxiolytics or anticonvulsants. A 2016 Cochrane review of treatment for burning mouth syndrome concluded that strong evidence of an effective treatment was not available. Other treatments which have been used include atypical antipsychotics, histamine receptor antagonists, and dopamine agonists.

Approximately one half of drug-related taste distortions are caused by a zinc deficiency. Many medications are known to chelate, or bind, zinc, preventing the element from functioning properly. Due to the causal relationship of insufficient zinc levels to taste disorders, research has been conducted to test the efficacy of zinc supplementation as a possible treatment for dysgeusia. In a randomized clinical trial, fifty patients suffering from idiopathic dysgeusia were given either zinc or a lactose placebo. The patients prescribed the zinc reported experiencing improved taste function and less severe symptoms compared to the control group, suggesting that zinc may be a beneficial treatment. The efficacy of zinc, however, has been ambiguous in the past. In a second study, 94% of patients who were provided with zinc supplementation did not experience any improvement in their condition. This ambiguity is most likely due to small sample sizes and the wide range of causes of dysgeusia. A recommended daily oral dose of 25–100 mg appears to be an effective treatment for taste dysfunction provided that there are low levels of zinc in the blood serum. There is not a sufficient amount of evidence to determine whether or not zinc supplementation is able to treat dysgeusia when low zinc concentrations are not detected in the blood.

Tongue lesions are very common. For example, in the United States one estimated point prevalence was 15.5% in adults. Tongue lesions are more common in persons who wear dentures and tobacco users. The most common tongue conditions are geographic tongue, followed by fissured tongue and hairy tongue.

It has been reported that approximately 68% of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy experience disturbances in sensory perception such as dysgeusia. In a pilot study involving twelve lung cancer patients, chemotherapy drugs were infused with zinc in order to test its potential as a treatment. The results indicated that, after two weeks, no taste disturbances were reported by the patients who received the zinc-supplemented treatment while most of the patients in the control group who did not receive the zinc reported taste alterations. A multi-institutional study involving a larger sample size of 169 patients, however, indicated that zinc-infused chemotherapy did not have an effect on the development of taste disorders in cancer patients. An excess amount of zinc in the body can have negative effects on the immune system, and physicians must use caution when administering zinc to immunocompromised cancer patients. Because taste disorders can have detrimental effects on a patient's quality of life, more research needs to be conducted concerning possible treatments such as zinc supplementation.

Crenated tongue (also called scalloped tongue, pie crust tongue, lingua indentata, or crenulated tongue) is a descriptive term for the appearance of the tongue when there are indentations along the lateral borders (the sides), as the result of compression of the tongue against the adjacent teeth.

The oral mucosa in the area of crenation is usually of normal color, but there may be erythema (redness) if exposed to a high degree of friction or pressure. Crenated tongue is usually asymptomatic and harmless.

It is not a disease as such, but usually results from habits where the tongue is pressed against the lingual surfaces (the side facing the tongue) of the dental arches, or from any cause of macroglossia (enlarged tongue), which in itself has many causes such as Down syndrome.

Where crenation is caused by parafunctional habits, there may also be associated bruxism, linea alba, or morsicatio buccarum.

Macroglossia is uncommon, and usually occurs in children. Macroglossia has been reported to have a positive family history in 6% of cases. The National Organization of Rare Disorders lists macroglossia as a rare disease (less than 200 000 individuals in the US).

Tongue diseases can be congenital or acquired, and are multiple in number. Considered according to a surgical sieve, some example conditions which can involve the tongue are discussed below. Glossitis is a general term for tongue inflammation, which can have various etiologies, e.g. infection.

Since most cases cause no symptoms, reassuring the person affected that the condition is entirely benign is usually the only treatment.

When symptoms are present, topical anesthetics can be used to provide temporary relief. Other medications that have been used to manage the symptoms include antihistamines, corticosteroids or anxiolytics, but these drugs have not been formally assessed for efficacy in geographic tongue. If some foods exacerbate or trigger the symptoms, then cutting these foods out of the diet may benefit. One uncontrolled trial has shown some benefit in controlling the symptoms of geographic tongue.

BHT is a benign condition, but people who are affected may be distressed at the appearance and possible halitosis, and therefore treatment is indicated.