Swollen, Scalloped Tongue

Posted , 3 users are following.

Hi All, I'm working my way towards the correct dose of T4 (Tirosint), but in the mean time, I am suffering and have been for a while from an enlarged or swollen tongue.  

It has scalloped edges and I believe it is causing my jaw to shift forward, thus worsening my TMJ issues.

My endocrinologist's PA said that no, a scalloped tongue is NOT tied to thyroid issues, but when I look online I see a correlation.  Also my dentist confirmed that thyroid issues can cause a swollen tongue.

Has anyone else had this when they had thyroid issues and if so, does it go away?

Thank you!

0 likes, 4 replies

4 Replies

  • Posted

    Yes..  A scalloped tongue is tied to hypothyroidism.  I have one myself.  It feels very large for mouth too, as it is squished, pushing hard against my bottom teeth.  Also, when I talk, it pushes and gets "caught" on my bottom teeth too.  So, yes, out of everything I read and my own experience, I would say there is a definite connection..

    • Posted

      Thank you Melissa for your response.  You seem from other responses to have reached a good place symptom wise, so I take it the scalloped tongue has not lessened even though the T4 treatment seems to be helping?

      By the way, your responses to me are encouraging on this site!  Thank you for sticking around and posting even when you don't need to anymore.

      Rose

    • Posted

      That's so sweet.. Thank You!  Yes, you are correct in that I am stable and symptom free on the Levothyroxine alone.  Despite this, my tongue is still larger then what it should be for my mouth and still scalloped.  Perhaps it just takes a long time to go back down to normal?  Not sure though, that's a good question.  I'll have to do some research and see what I can come up with.  I do know that the tongue becomes scalloped from being overly large for the mouth and presses against the teeth for many, many years.  So being a scalloped tongue takes a long time to develop,  I'm assuming it can take a long time to become normal again.  I have been stable on my levothyroxine now for around a year and half now and I would say that it has yet to start to normalize, that I can notice, but has not gotten any worse.  I'll try to find out how long it can take a scalloped tongue to normalize and will let you know what I come up with...

  • Posted

    This would be very concerning to me, as it could indicate you're having some sort of autoimmune response to the meds, which are known to cause and exacerbate autoimmune disease. While tongue swelling isn't typical, it is concerning, and if you've never had a swollen tongue before and haven't changed your diet recently, well... the only thing left is the levo.

    I did a search and found this article on the causes of swollen

    Take some time and troubleshoot your diet and any changes such as laundry soap, to see if any of these could cause the swollen tongue.

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