Table 3. Histopathological damage classification.

			Groups
	Findings	Median (minimum–maximum)
		HG	MTXG	TMTX	p-values*
Tongue	Keratinized papillae	0 (0–0)	2 (2–3)	1 (0–2)	0.041
	Epithelial thickness	0 (0–0)	2 (2–2)	1 (1–2)	0.015
	Swelling in the lamina propria	0 (0–0)	2 (1–2)	2 (1–2)	0.699
Inner cheek	Inflammatory cell infiltration	0 (0–0)	3 (2–3)	1 (0–1)	0.002
	Hemorrhage	0 (0–0)	3 (2–3)	1 (0–1)	0.002
	Muscle fiber degeneration	0 (0–0)	3 (1–3)	1 (0–1)	0.002

0: normal; 1: mild damage; 2: medium damage; 3: severe damage. HG: healthy group; MTXG: methotrexate group; TMTX: taxifolin+methotrexate group. *Statistical analysis was performed between the MTXG and TMTX groups by the Mann-Whitney U test.