Tongue Diagnosis and Analysis

Tongue diagnosis: A normal tongue is pink in color, medium thickness, no cracks, ulcers, no teeth marks and with a light white moist coat (with root) on it. It has a look of aliveness and is supple (not stiff). There is no movement (quivering, trembling, side-to-side motion, curling or shifting to one side.) A healthy tongue looks like a piece of freshly killed meat.

NHT News. Vol. 3 No. 5 May 2007

It’s common to see thick tongues, purplish tongues, tongues with teeth marks in them and tongues with cracks in various places. I also have noted tongues with coats both white and yellow, sticky and thin coats. A few of my clients have what is called Geographic tongue. But what do they mean?