Hi all,
I sure wish they'd change the name of this affliction......."hairy tongue". YUK. But I have it. I'm trying to make sense of it. My GERD has been well under control for a couple years. But it's come back mildly for about 6 weeks. In my other post I've mentioned that my diarrhea, nausea, sweating, etc. are back, and I'm wondering if my GERD is actually worse than it feels. Anyhow..........about 2 months ago, I developed a white tongue. I took an anti-fungal for it, thinking it was yeast, but it didn't help. I went to the ENT doctor and he said it was hairy tongue and gave me an antibiotic. It hasn't helped at all. He said I'll probably just have to live with it. I also don't have quite enough saliva, so it could be from that.
But I was wondering if it in any way might be related to my GERD flare-up. Who knows........maybe my acid is coming up into my throat/mouth at night, and changing the environment in my mouth.
Hairy tongue is when all those little fingerlike projections on our tongue ("papillae"), become enlarged, and trap gunk inbetween them, and start an infection. I'm desperate to get rid of this, and am trying to think of all possibilities. Anyone else have tongue problems like this? Thanks!