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NetWellness provides the highest quality health information and education services created and evaluated by faculty of our partner universities.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
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NetWellness provides the highest quality health information and education services created and evaluated by faculty of our partner universities.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
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Dental and Oral Health (Adults) |
Tongue problems05/09/2008 11:38PM |
I have had geographic tongue for years. It comes and goes but now I have become aware of what looks like cuts in my tongue. Some times it looks like just a few cuts but others times it looks like a lot of cuts. I can get some burning pain if I eat very salty foods. I also cannot eat any hot seasoned foods, encluding black pepper, because it will make my tongue so sore that I want to hang my tongue in a cool glass of water. I am also effected sometimes by ripe bananas, pineapple, oranges and strawberries. It this something I need to worry about. In particular I am talking about the cuts on my tongue. Is there anything I can do to make them go away. I am 64 years old.
The "cuts" that you are referring to, in all likelihood, really are not cuts, but rather are thin grooves, almost like little ditches on the top surface of the tongue. This condition is called fissured tongue, and it occurs together with geographic tongue quite commonly. This fissuring develops in about 20% of people, and is essentially a variation of normal. Nothing can prevent the grooves from developing, but this is not really considered a disease or problem that needs to be fixed or prevented. Geographic tongue (also known as "benign migratory glossitis") is a relatively common condition that will occasionally become symptomatic, producing a burning sensation when the lesions are active. Burning mouth syndrome is another condition that occurs in adults and could develop independently of your geographic tongue, however. It is also not serious. More information about these conditions can be found at the website http://aaomp.org
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Carl M. Allen, DDS, MSD Professor & Director, Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery and Pathology Dental Faculty Practice Section of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology College of Dentistry The Ohio State University |
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