If you’ve ever had a swollen taste bud you know how unbelievably painful and annoying it is. If you’ve never experienced this, I envy you. Most of the time our taste buds are awesome and let us taste all the delicious food in the world but once in a while they swell up and there’s more than one reason for this. Our tongues are covered in taste buds or papillae if you want to sound smart, and just like other parts of our body they get inflamed. If you think you’ve never had a swollen bud you probably have and just didn’t realize.
The swollen bud can sometimes be white or just stay red and if you look hard enough it’s just a little bigger than the rest of them. Depending where it is on your tongue you may not feel it, but if it’s on the tip it’ll definitely irritate you. Every time you touch one it feels super tender, almost like a cold sore. But don’t worry, because even though the pain may be unbearable, there are some tricks to getting rid of those pesky guys.
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It could be because of something super complex like transit lingual papillitis, which is a condition that occurs mostly in children and causes frequent swelling. A more common cause of swollen taste buds is trauma which means that you may have bit your tongue or cut it on something. It could also be a sign of an STD, an allergic reaction, lack of vitamins, or dehydration, but most of the time it’s probably just from eating spicy or acidic foods.
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If the cause of the swollen taste buds is dehydration, you’ll just want to drink some water and get your body rehydrated so the taste buds will return to normal. In other cases, you could try ice. Just like with many other body parts, ice will reduce swelling you just need to make sure you don’t keep the ice on your tongue for too long. Another common anti-inflammatory that will work is baking soda . Just let it sit on your tongue for a bit and it should get rid of the desire to burn your tongue off.
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Gargling salt water is a commonly known sore throat solution that also works for taste buds. The reason it cures both is because salt water helps get rid of viruses. That means you’re killing the bad stuff that causes the cold or the swollen taste buds. Don’t like the taste of salt water? Try gargling with just a tiny bit tea tree oil to get rid of bacteria. But if you want something even sweeter you can mix up a little honey solution and gargle that or just eat some straight honey.
Next time you feel a sore spot on your tongue, it’s probably a swollen taste bud. Think about what the cause might be and if it’s something simple (not an STD) take action and try some home remedies to get rid of them before they ruin your whole day because trust me, they will.