Hairy Tongue, got any cures?

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dales2loud
dales2loud Member Posts: 45
in Head and Neck Cancer #1
Help I've got a bad case of; Hairy Tongue. My Doc's last advice was for me to ask my dentist. Does anyone have any advice for me or better yet how to get rid of it? I'm scraping and brushing it but it does not seem to be doing any good.

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  • longtermsurvivor
    longtermsurvivor Member Posts: 1,842 Member
    #2
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    hairy tongue
    is a physical finding, not a diagnosis. it has many causes. its treatment depends on the specific cause. Your dentist is likely not a good resource person for this problem. Any internal medicine doctor or family practicioner has seen bunches of these.

    Btw, oftentimes hairy tongue resolves by itself.


    Best wishes
  • Hal61
    Hal61 Member Posts: 655
    #3
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    Hairy situation
    Dale, make sure your hairy tongue isn't on the white side, or you might be looking at thrush in the mirror, but even a dentist should've mentioned that, but maybe not. Have a look.

    best, Hal
  • Greend
    Greend Member Posts: 678
    #4
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    had that too
    The doctor told me it was usually a bacteria and "nothing to worry about" I got rid of mine by using peroxide water in a Water Pic using the tounge scrapper attachment. Still comes back some times but easy to clear.

    Denny
  • zaac23
    zaac23 Member Posts: 27
    #5
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    hairy tongue
    Is it really hair. my surgeon took some skin from under my chin as a skin graft to reconstruct my tongue and i grew a beard on my tongue for awhile. the radiation i received did kill all the hair but it certainly was a good conversation piece for a little while
  • Greend
    Greend Member Posts: 678
    #6
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    zaac23 said:

    hairy tongue
    Is it really hair. my surgeon took some skin from under my chin as a skin graft to reconstruct my tongue and i grew a beard on my tongue for awhile. the radiation i received did kill all the hair but it certainly was a good conversation piece for a little while

    Zaac tongue
    I had to smile at the picture of that graft growing hair - first thought was to garggle with Nair. :>)

    I was assuming his reference to hairy tongue was what I called Black Tongue because it looks like black patches of moldy hair. If not then its new to me.
  • longtermsurvivor
    longtermsurvivor Member Posts: 1,842 Member
    #7
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    zaac23 said:

    hairy tongue
    Is it really hair. my surgeon took some skin from under my chin as a skin graft to reconstruct my tongue and i grew a beard on my tongue for awhile. the radiation i received did kill all the hair but it certainly was a good conversation piece for a little while

    Ha ha ha...
    I've had that problem too. I had a graft from the distal radial artery and surrounding structures to rebuild the floor of my mouth last year. The thought of all that hair growing on the floor of my mouth bothered me so badly that before surgery I had electrolysis to remove the hair. 9 hours of electrolysis. $1200 worth of electrolysis. Then they took a bigger piece than planned and I still grew hair around the edges of the graft, so my mouth looked like it grew a toupee. I can't feel the hair, cause the surgery destroyed the sensation to that side of my tongue. Now facing radiation again, the remaining hair is all going to fall out. Geez.
  • Ingrid K
    Ingrid K Member Posts: 813
    #8
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    longtermsurvivor said:

    Ha ha ha...
    I've had that problem too. I had a graft from the distal radial artery and surrounding structures to rebuild the floor of my mouth last year. The thought of all that hair growing on the floor of my mouth bothered me so badly that before surgery I had electrolysis to remove the hair. 9 hours of electrolysis. $1200 worth of electrolysis. Then they took a bigger piece than planned and I still grew hair around the edges of the graft, so my mouth looked like it grew a toupee. I can't feel the hair, cause the surgery destroyed the sensation to that side of my tongue. Now facing radiation again, the remaining hair is all going to fall out. Geez.

    yup, it's really hair
    I had the same thing, they replaced my tongue with a patch from my arm and about on month after surgery, I started seeing the hair....i asked the docs and they said it will all get killed off with radiation.... I must say, I couldn't stand it, so I tweezed each little hair..didn't hurt, though because my "new" tongue had no feeling. It did all die off during radiation.
  • Ingrid K
    Ingrid K Member Posts: 813
    #9
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    Greend said:

    Zaac tongue
    I had to smile at the picture of that graft growing hair - first thought was to garggle with Nair. :>)

    I was assuming his reference to hairy tongue was what I called Black Tongue because it looks like black patches of moldy hair. If not then its new to me.

    good one, greend
    denny, good one ! gargling with Nair can't be much worse than the magic moutwash, LOL.

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