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hi i'm dr joe nemeth i'm a periodontist
in southfield michigan
and today i want to talk about something
called black hairy tongue
it could be green hairy tongue it could
be yellow hairy tongue it could be white
or brown hairy tongue but the common
term is black hairy tongue
it sounds like a pretty awful thing like
what is the the mystery of the black
hairy tongue
well black hairy tongue is horrible or
and disgusting as it may sound is really
relatively harmless
and we see it when there's been an
overgrowth typically of fungus
on the tongue
or a lack of healthy bacteria on the
tongue
and that can be caused by any number of
things for instance
if you are taking antibiotics sometimes
those antibiotics will knock out the
good bacteria that are necessary for
balance on the tongue and allow an
overgrowth of bad bacteria or fungus on
the tongue and really what is
black hairy tongue or any hairy tongue
there are a small papilla called
filiform papilla
on the tongue
these papilla are typically
one millimeter long they're very very
short
but when you have black hairy tongue and
the normal bacteria are suppressed these
papilla tend to get longer and longer
and longer and where they're normally
barely visible maybe one millimeter they
can be 2 3 4 5 8 10 15 or more
millimeters they can be three quarters
of an inch long
and when those papilla get long they
look like
it looks like fur it looks like a hairy
hairy tongue and that hairy tongue picks
up different pigments it can pick up
pigment from tobacco from coffee from
tea and just cells in the mouth dead
cells accumulate on it and very often
it can have a black or very dark color
but depending on what pigments it's
picked up you could have a green hairy
talk and i have kayla with me who is
actually a
model as well as an assistant so i
thought
as handsome as i am you might want to
see someone who's really beautiful so
here's kayla with a couple of questions
dr nema so many people have had this
issue before how do you get rid of
the black hairy tongue
as i said you have to find out what's
causing it it can be caused by an
antibiotic it can be caused by a
mouthwash certain strong mouthwashes
particularly if they have
oxidizing agents or peroxide even
hydrogen peroxide can kill those
bacteria especially using strong
hydrogen peroxide
alcohol can kill those bacteria smoking
can kill those bacteria
dry mouth
can enable those fungus to proliferate
there are a number of things
that can contribute to it but those
things usually can be modified if it's
smoking obviously if it's alcohol
obviously antibiotics they'll run their
course once you're done with them that
should subside also anti-fungal agents
can be used as a rinse which can speed
the recovery from the hairy tongue
but one of the common causes that i see
a lot of are these strong mouthwashes
that are killing the normal bacteria so
those strong mouthwashes have to be
diluted or
they have to be substituted with
something that's milder dr nema does the
black hairy tongue cause pain or any
type of odor well generally it's not
painful but patients will also they'll
feel like they're [ __ ] their tongue is
furry well it is it is furry
can it cause bad breath well yeah
bacteria certain kinds of bacteria can
get embedded in there and contribute to
bad breath so that is a possibility we
have a bad breath center here we've seen
thousands of patients and looking at
tongue is a big part of our examination
most of those patients do not have a
hairy tongue but they do have bad breath
so hairy tongue does not mean bad breath
dr hammuth is it possible to scrape any
of that off with a tongue scraper well i
wouldn't want to use a tongue scraper
until the source of the problem is
eliminated once you've eliminated the
the source of the the problem usually
it'll just go away by itself or
frequently it will a tongue scraper use
gently not too hard may hasten getting
rid of it or brushing
gentle brushing with a soft brush
brushing your tongue can do it sometimes
actually if it doesn't go away
you can see a a dentist or an all
surgeon and they can use a laser and
actually trim away
those
long
papilla
and remove it that way but that's kind
of a last resort and really very rarely
has to be has to be done dr nemeth is
this contagious can you pass this for to
your partner or your child it's not
contagious but my feeling is your
partner is not going to be that thrilled
to kiss you with your black hairy tongue
so hey you may have a black hairy tongue
it actually occurs about 13 of the
general population will have some sort
of
discoloration variation of hairy tongue
during their lifetime
so don't worry about it it's not harmful
it happens
and it's going to go away just get rid
of the source if you can determine it
and usually be able to
but make sure your mouth is healthy
because if your mouth's not healthy
you're not going to be healthy you just
can't be
so we'd love to hear from you comments
questions subscribe to our youtube
channel and remember
a healthy mouth definitely will be a
healthier body have a wonderful
wonderful day thank you and have a great
day
restore your smile and your health visit
dr nemeth.com to schedule your
appointment today
