DID YOU KNOW?!
Black hairy tongue is a fairly common condition! 🤯
Did you know black hairy tongue can also be:
- green
- yellow
- pink
- brown and or black
An estimated 13% of people develop black hairy tongue. That means 1 Billion*ish people on planet earth will experience black hairy tongue. 🤯
We borrowed the rest of this blog from Live Science: https://www.livescience.com/black-hairy-tongue-case-report
The Black Hairy Tongue Story:
The story goes like this a man went to a dermatology clinic because his tongue was coated in a dense carpet of hairlike fibers! Can you imagine?
The dermatologist was able to quickly diagnose him with a common medical condition. The condition is known as black hairy tongue! known medically as lingua villosa nigra.
You might be wondering, how do you get black hairy tongue and more importantly, how do you get RID of black hairy tongue.
What Causes Black Hairy Tongue:
The long story short - is poor oral health care. Yup. Neglect that mouth and it will turn black on you!
Here is the more scientific definition/version:
"Black hairy tongue occurs when tiny, cone-shaped bumps on the surface of the tongue, called filiform papillae, don't shed as they normally do, according to the Cleveland Clinic . These papillae typically grow about 0.04 inch (1 millimeter) long before detaching from the tongue in a process called desquamation. But if the top of the tongue does not undergo regular abrasion — for instance, from a toothbrush, tongue scraper, or solid, textured foods — these papillae can grow to be unusually long — up to about 0.7 inch (18 mm) in length."
Don't want a black hairy tongue?:
- limit diet foods
- limit soft foods
- do not consume excessive amounts of coffee, tea, alcohol or tobacco
- if you are on certain medications, like antibiotics; radiation treatment of the head and neck, you may experience temporary back hairy tongue
- certain mouthwashes can also disrupt the process of desquamation and drive the condition's onset
- dry mouth may also be a another risk factor
So there you have it! Don't want a black, brown, pink, green, yellow hairy tongue.... keep that mouth clean and tongue scrape!