Glossitis

DEFINITION.—Inflammation of the tongue.

The term glossitis is usually applied to inflammation of the tissues of the tongue as a whole (parenchymatous glossitis), and not to those superficial inflammations which exist associated with the different varieties of stomatitis and with other affections, and which implicate the mucous membrane and its glands and papillæ only (superficial glossitis). Superficial glossitis, however, sometimes terminates in parenchymatous glossitis. Papillæ and glands are usually affected together in superficial glossitis. When the inflammation predominates in the papillæ the disease is often designated as papillary glossitis; when in the glands, it is often termed follicular glossitis. Superficial glossitis, again, is sometimes manifested by the eruption of vesicles on the tongue, under which circumstance it is often denominated vesicular glossitis, sometimes herpetic glossitis. Glossitis is sometimes restricted to a portion of the tongue (circumscribed glossitis), and it sometimes involves the whole of the tongue (diffuse glossitis). Either form may be unilateral (hemiglossitis), though both forms are more frequently bilateral. Either form may be acute or chronic.