A Strange Tongue Discoloration
Most of us know that our tongue'snatural, healthy color is the red and pinkish. Even though these twocolors may vary in shades, our tongue is considered healthy as longas it has them only. However, some diseases and medical conditions,some more serious than others, may trigger tongue discoloration. Eventhough, under the influence of these underlying conditions, yourtongue may have may different, unnatural colors, yellow is the mostcommon. Besides being extremely unusual and therefore annoying anduncomfortable, yellow tongue means problems of other sorts, thusneeding immediate treatment. Read on to know what causes our tongueto turn yellow and which are the best possible treatments for thisstrange problem.
The Usual Suspects
First and foremost, there is a highlikelihood that your yellow tongue is caused by either fungal orbacterial activity, resulting in infection. The fungus to blame iscandida, which inhabits both your tongue and palate, painting ityellow. This is usually a sign of low immunity and may be a warningof some other illnesses. Upon bacterial infections, one's tongueusually turns black. Both cases are frequently seen in people whohave neglected their tongue piercings or had them doneinappropriately.
On the other hand, the reasons behindyour yellow tongue may not be infections at all. Rather, you might besuffering from a phenomenon known as a geographic tongue. Namely, ourtongue has a gentle, pinkish layer on its surface. This layer isknown as filiform papillae. The papillae affected by this conditiontend to disappear or move to other parts of the tongue, leaving theplaces where they were beforehand empty. This results in yellowcoloring of the barren areas, possibly resulting in pain, burning andinability to consume spicy food due to irritation. Most of the times,the papillae are known to grow back resulting in cessation of thiscondition and the tongue discoloration as well.
Alternatively, poor dental hygiene,abnormal growth of papillae, consumption of certain, artificiallycolored food and many other conditions may all possibly result inyour tongue turning yellow.
Possible Treatments
The treatment depends on the cause.Thus, microorganism activities will need antiseptic solutions appliedonto the tongue surface. As mentioned above, geographic tongueusually needs no treatment since it disappears on its own. Finally,whichever the cause may be, as soon as you notice your yellow tonguehas remained such for a longer period of time, you are advised toseek medical assistance immediately and have your doctor recommendyou proper treatment.
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