Black Spots On Tongue: Causes & Treatment Options

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It can be worrisome to notice a new dark spot on your tongue, especially when you maintain excellent oral health. While spots, patches, and discoloration of the tongue can be harmless and temporary, they can occasionally indicate something more serious—but it all depends on your medical history, how long you’ve had the spot, and the color.

Natural Appearance of Your Tongue

Though it might be the first time you noticed black spots on your tongue, they could be part of your tongue’s natural appearance. The human tongue is a movable set of muscles covered in taste buds. As it moves food around as you chew, the taste buds send the brain signals about flavor. Taste buds are visible to the human eye, and they can stand out and look like dark spots when something like red wine or coffee stains them. If you notice a dark spot after having a glass of wine or cup of coffee, do not worry—this discoloration should fade.

Conditions That Cause Discoloration

According to the Merck Manual, if your tongue discoloration is not due to something that stained it, it can be due to injury, poor oral health, disease, or other conditions. One common condition is oral hyperpigmentation, which can cause blue, purple, brown, black, or grey spots in the mouth, according to The Journal of Pharmacy and BioAllied Sciences. Specifically, hyperpigmented spots on the tongue can be a sign of the rare adrenal disorder Addison’s Disease or the rare genetic disorder Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome. Skin pigmentation changes can also be a result of chemotherapy, according to the National Cancer Institute. While this is common and temporary with chemotherapy and treatable at home, patients should note any changes to the tongue and skin and tell their medical provider.  

Black dots on the tongue could also appear due to a harmless condition called black hairy tongue. According to The Mayo Clinic, this condition happens when a buildup of dead skin cells on the papillae on the surface of the tongue don’t shed normally. The result is a tongue that has a black “furry” appearance. Other symptoms of black hairy tongue include a metallic taste in the mouth, bad breath, or a tickling sensation. Though there are many causes for a black hairy tongue, some common ones are bacteria growth due to antibiotics, poor oral hygiene, tobacco use, excessive coffee and alcohol consumption, and a soft food diet. Luckily, this condition should go away with good oral hygiene practice. According to Medline Plus, you can potentially treat it with antifungal medication.

Injury and Your Tongue

Oral piercings and tongue injuries may result in black spots on the tongue. That’s because damage to your tongue can leave a sore with a dark color. If you’ve had an oral piercing recently or bitten, cut, or otherwise injured your tongue, a black spot could be a lingering sign of damage. If this sore continues to linger, hurt, or get infected, be sure to contact your oral care provider about treatment methods. 

Chemical Exposure to Your Tongue

Certain chemicals react with acids on the surface of the tongue and turn it black. Exposure to the chemical bismuth, an ingredient in some medications used to treat upset stomach, may cause the color change, according to the Mayo Clinic. Though it’s often the entire tongue that turns black, the change could initially occur in patches. Once you stop taking bismuth, your tongue should return to its familiar pink hue.

Tongue Cancer

Rarely, dark patches on the tongue are a sign of a serious condition like cancer. The dark spots may also appear as scabs or sores that don’t heal. Other signs of tongue cancer include lumps, swelling, and problems with swallowing. If you have any of these symptoms, see a doctor immediately. Though tongue cancer is a serious disease, treatment is most effective in the early stages. If the spots are light gray and on the tongue’s side, they could be a type of leukoplakia called oral hairy leukoplakia, which, according to The Mayo Clinic, is related to autoimmune diseases. 

Treating Black Spots on Tongue

The first step in trying to remove black spots on the tongue is improving oral hygiene. Aside from brushing twice a day with a soft-bristle toothbrush and flossing daily, brush your tongue too. If the spots disappear after brushing, they may not need any further treatment. However, if the spots remain, visit your oral care provider. They can help determine the cause and appropriate treatment.

This article is intended to promote understanding of and knowledge about general oral health topics. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your dentist or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment.

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Dark Or Black Spots On Tongue: Causes & Treatments

The spots, patches and discolouration that sometimes develop on tongues may be harmless, but occasionally they’re a sign of something serious. Black spots on the tongue could range from tiny dots to conspicuous dark areas, which look especially alarming. If you notice black spots, tell a dentist or physician about them and get a proper diagnosis.

Natural Appearance of Your Tongue

Though it may be the first time you notice black spots on your tongue, they could be part of your tongue’s natural appearance. The human tongue is a muscle covered in taste buds. It moves food around the mouth as you chew, and the taste buds send the brain signals about flavour. Taste buds are visible to the human eye; they can stand out and look like dark spots when red wine or coffee stains them.

Alternatively, black spots on the tongue could signal a condition called hyperpigmentation, according to a case study published by the Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives. Pigmentation is what gives skin, hair and eyes their colour, and excessive concentrations of pigment in the tongue can result in harmless dark patches or spots, sometimes as a result of chemotherapy. In the case of hyperpigmentation and chemotherapy, the black spots usually clear up a few weeks after the treatment stops.

Injury and your Tongue

Oral piercings and tongue injuries may result in black spots. MedlinePlus explains that damage to the tongue can leave a sore. If you got an oral piercing recently or have bitten, cut or otherwise injured your tongue, a black spot could be a lingering sign of injury.

Chemical Exposure to your Tongue

Certain chemicals react with acids on the surface of the tongue and turn it black. Exposure to the chemical bismuth (an ingredient in some medications) may cause the colour change, notes the Mayo Clinic. Though it’s often the entire tongue that turns black, the change could initially occur in patches. Once you stop taking bismuth, your tongue should return to its normal pink hue.

Tongue Cancer

In rare cases, dark patches on the tongue are a sign of a serious condition like cancer. The dark spots may also appear as scabs or sores that don’t heal. Other signs of tongue cancer include lumps, swelling and problems with swallowing. If you have any of these symptoms, see a doctor immediately. Though tongue cancer is a serious disease, treatment is most effective when it begins in the early stages.

If the spots are grey, they could indicate a medical condition called leukoplakia, which is sometimes precancerous.

Treating Black Spots on the Tongue

The first step in trying to remove black spots on the tongue is improving oral hygiene. Brush your tongue when you brush your teeth.

If the spots disappear after brushing, they may not need any further treatment. However, if the spots remain, go see your dentist for a check-up. He or she can determine the cause and appropriate treatment.

Black spots on the tongue can be worrying. Though the spots, marks or patches are harmless in some cases, only a dentist or physician can make an accurate diagnosis of their cause. Book an appointment if you have black spots that don’t go away or are accompanied by other symptoms like lumps or swelling.

Black coating on the tongue: causes, treatment, prevention

Publication date: 04/28/2021

Updated: 06/02/2022

Checked by a doctor: Azarkevich Alla Petrovna

Contents

• Black coating on the tongue in children and adults
• Features of black plaque on the tongue
• Causes of black plaque on the tongue
• What to do in case of blackening of the tongue
• Treatment for black plaque on the tongue in Minsk

Language is a kind of indicator of human health. It is by its color that an experienced doctor is able to establish the presence of a particular disease and evaluate the functioning of the digestive system. In its normal state, it is painted in a light pink color and has no plaque. If this has been identified, medical attention may be required. Let’s see what black plaque on the tongue in children and adults indicates, and what measures should be taken when faced with a similar problem.

Features of black coating on the tongue

Most often, the formation of plaque on the tongue is perceived as something natural and safe. And, as a rule, this is actually the case, because the problem of plaque is easily solved by thorough brushing of the teeth. But the situation takes on a completely different character if the color of the plaque is black.

Plaque on the tongue is nothing more than dead cells of the mucous membrane of the tongue or food debris soaked in dark food dyes found in food. In this case, after a few hours, there will be no trace of the raid. But if the nature of the staining becomes permanent, and over time the tongue only becomes darker and darker, the help of a doctor is required.

Causes of black coating on the tongue

If the problem is not caused by food containing dyes, this may indicate conditions such as:

• fungal infections
• metabolic disorder
• diseases of the pancreas
• disorders of the adrenal glands
• nicotine abuse
• taking antibiotics
• Poor oral hygiene

Causes of black tongue coating in children and adults may also include severe dehydration or the use of drugs such as activated charcoal and iron supplements.

What to do about blackening of the tongue?

If you notice that you or your child has a black tongue, it is important to understand that the appearance of a dark coating is a symptom of an underlying disease. To eliminate plaque, it is required to treat the disease due to which it was formed. The first step towards this is to seek dental care.

Treatment for black plaque on the tongue in Minsk

During the examination, a specialist from the Family Dentistry Center in Minsk will be able to exclude a fungal disease and problems with teeth. If these are confirmed, appropriate dental treatment and removal of tartar is required. Harmful microorganisms that develop in the carious cavity can provoke the formation of black plaque, so you need to solve the problem as soon as possible. And to cure the fungus, drugs are prescribed for topical use.

During treatment, it is important to adhere to the following rules of care:

• thorough brushing of teeth and tongue twice a day
• using tongue scraper
• use of mouth rinses

In order to prevent black plaque in children and adults, it is recommended to visit the dental office at least twice a year, even if there are no complaints. The doctor will be able to recognize the disease when the symptoms are not yet noticeable to the patient. It is also important to teach children about oral hygiene from the appearance of the first teeth

☝ The information presented on this page is not a recommendation for action. Be attentive to your health, do not self-medicate. Be sure to consult your doctor.

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Removed from the tongue: “geographical” spots can be a symptom of COVID-19 | Articles

Characteristic spots on the surface of the tongue may indicate infection with SARS-CoV-2. Scientists came to this conclusion during the study of the symptoms of COVID-19based on data from 4.5 million users of the ZOE COVID-19 Symptom Study app. They report daily on how their illness develops. The connection of “geographical” language with COVID-19 is also mentioned in several scientific papers. However, Russian experts do not recommend diagnosing this symptom, since similar spots are associated with other diseases.

New symptom

Tim Spector, a well-known British doctor and professor at King’s College London, claims that characteristic spots on the tongue, which is why it is called geographical, may be a symptom of COVID-19 disease. The doctor came to this conclusion based on messages from users of the ZOE Symptom Study application, in which more than 4.5 million people are registered. The research project, led by Tim Spector, was launched in March 2020 to collect as much data as possible about the new disease and predict the further development of the pandemic.

Volunteer participants in the study, infected with the coronavirus, daily provide all the information about their well-being, which is then processed using a specially developed algorithm. “One in five COVID-19 patients show unusual symptoms that are not on the official list, such as skin rashes. We continue to see an increasing number of so-called covid tongues and strange mouth ulcers. If you find yourself with unknown symptoms or even just a headache or weakness, then stay at home, ”the doctor wrote on his Twitter at the end of January 2021. There is a hashtag #covidtongue (eng. “covid language”) on the social network, through which many posts about this manifestation of the disease are available.

Photo: Global Look Press/Prabin Ranabhat

Tim Spector, dubbed Doctor Data by the press, is well known in the UK for expanding the list of symptoms that are taken into account when diagnosing COVID-19. It was his team who first determined that confusion and delirium can be a sign of coronavirus infection among older patients, and children carry the infection without the symptoms that appear in adults. The hypothesis that the lack of smell and taste may be a manifestation of coronavirus infection was also expressed by Mr. Spector long before it was officially recognized.

The reaction to the doctor’s detection of another symptom of COVID-19 followed quickly. In the first half of February, The British Dental Journal, part of the Nature group of scientific journals, published under the heading “Letter to the Editor” a message from Bristol dentist R. W. Hathway, who urged dentists and other professionals to pay attention on the phenomenon of covid language. According to the expert, this phenomenon may well be a symptom of COVID-19in the early stages of the disease. The discoloration of the surface of the uneven tongue may be due to an increase in the level of the cytokine interleukin-6, which is actively released during COVID-19 disease. Another likely reason for the association of spots on the tongue with coronavirus, the dentist called the presence in the body of a greater amount of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), which often serves as the entrance door for the virus to enter.

Similar cases

Reported cases of “geographic” tongue in patients with COVID-19 described in the medical literaturevery little. For example, article in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases reports a 67-year-old covid patient traveling in Brazil who, along with other symptoms, developed painful manifestations in the mouth, including a “geographical” tongue. In addition to treatment for coronavirus, the man received antifungal drugs and daily mouth rinses with disinfectants. Two weeks later, the unpleasant symptoms in the oral cavity disappeared, and then recovery from COVID-19 followed.. The spots on the tongue remained, but did not give any unpleasant sensations.

For more examples of geographic tongue being recorded at the same time as symptoms of COVID-19, see the article on the signs of coronavirus in the oral cavity, published in the online library of scientific materials Wiley Online Library. The material tells about two women aged 43 and 78 years old with positive PCR tests for coronavirus. Both had tongue lesions, which disappeared after a course of rinses and other types of drug treatment.

Photo: RIA Novosti/Aleksey Sukhorukov

Only further research will be able to reliably show whether “geographical” language should be included in the list of symptoms of COVID-19.

To be confirmed

Russian specialists interviewed by Izvestia were skeptical about the prospect of diagnosing COVID-19 by spots on the tongue.

– It will become possible to classify “geographical” language as a symptom of coronavirus only when, according to all the rules of modern medicine, the existence of a significant relationship between COVID-19 is justifiedand this phenomenon and when similar results will be obtained independently from each other by different groups of researchers. Then the conclusions of the studies will replenish the arsenal of clinicians ,” explained Stanislav Ostavnov, head of the laboratory for analyzing indicators of public health and digitalization of health care at MIPT (the university is a participant in the project to increase the competitiveness of education “5-100”).

According to the specialist, the diagnosis of coronavirus infection requires laboratory confirmation – positive smear results (PCR) or the presence of antibodies in the blood. Even computed tomography de jure can only detect pathological changes in the lungs associated with viral pneumonia, but what kind of virus it was caused by, PCR just finds out.

– “Geographical” language occurs not only with coronavirus infection, there are a lot of other diseases that are accompanied by similar spots , – said Anna Lyubushkina, head of the infectious department No. 1 (COVID) of the clinic of the Samara State Medical University. – This is a metabolic disorder, diseases of the intestines or stomach in the acute phase, various pancreatic dysfunctions, hepatitis, any dental diseases.

Photo: Izvestiya/Dmitry Korotaev

For this reason, it would be wrong to focus only on the presence of a “geographical” language in a patient, it is necessary to assess the patient’s condition as a whole, the specialist explained to Izvestia.