How to Treat a Burned Tongue

How to Treat a Burned Tongue Travis Stork: If you’ve ever overheated your soup in the microwave or sipped a freshly steamed latte, you can definitely relate to Kin’s question. Kin: Hi doctors! I love hot coffee, especially in the winter time. Every now and then, the risk goes a little overboard, over steaming that milk. Can burning my mouth damage my sense of taste? Travis Stork: So, the good answer -- it is initially quite painful. The good answer is you’re not going to permanently ruin your taste buds. They are actually going to -- your tongue will hurt but your taste buds, your sense of taste over time will be fine. But a great question is do you guys have a little home remedy if you burn your tongue? Jim Sears: You know I just deal with it. Drew Ordon: I put ice on it. Lisa Masterson: Ice, yeah. Travis Stork: Certainly cool waters are great option but after that, did you all know that a little bit -- Jim Sears: What do you have in there? Drew Ordon: You put sugar? Jim Sears: You put sugar on your tongue. Lisa Masterson: You know I actually use that for -- like pepper burns if you actually have like a hot chili pepper type of burn. Put it in sugar, it will sort of instantly neutralize it. Travis Stork: Didn’t you do that once when you’re -- Lisa Masterson: I was in India and I had like the hottest chili pepper ever. I thought my, you know, trachea is going to like clamp down and I was going to be run to the emergency room and they made this little concoction with sugar and just took it down. Because if you keep -- in that instance, if you keep drinking cold water, it just makes it worse and that’s all you want to do but it’s making it worst. Travis Stork: So, if you burn your tongue, you can add a little sugar over where you burned it. It’s not going to cure it. It’s just going to actually make that pain go away a little bit.