What Causes Sialorrhea?

Enlarged Tongue

An enlarged tongue and macroglossia are terms used to describe when an individual's tongue is inflamed, swollen, or larger than normal in size and proportion to other structures in the oral cavity. An enlarged tongue can be the result of cancer, inflammatory diseases, endocrine disorders, infectious diseases, and numerous different congenital disorders. Sialorrhea can happen in individuals affected by an enlarged tongue as the result of Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome, congenital hypothyroidism, Down syndrome, and primary amyloidosis. An enlarged tongue is typically not the sole cause of an affected individual's sialorrhea unless it is very severe. An enlarged tongue that causes an individual to develop sialorrhea is usually associated with oral incompetence, nerve dysfunction, and sensory dysfunction that causes the individual to be unable to mediate the spillage of saliva from their oral cavity.

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