Talk:Black hairy tongue

Black Tounge
Black Tongue is also the sweetest noise-rock band ever to hail from New York City and can regularly be witnessed in and around Brooklyn.

Does this subjective, informal entry belong here?


 * No. Deleted. --Arcadian 03:29, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Merge
Perhaps the Hairy tongue article and the Black tongue articles should be merged? I'm too much of a newbie to do it myself... I am going to at least try to put in a link from each article to the other one since the two each reference the other condition. --Clay1039 16:20, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

I went ahead and merged the text from "Hairy tongue" into this Black tongue page.--Clay1039 00:33, 12 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Just to clarify, black tongue is separate condition from hairy tongue, but when hairy tongue is discolored, the term black hairy tongue may be used. I think the merge was correct anyway.... Lesion ( talk ) 01:03, 3 February 2013 (UTC)

itchy chin
my doctor informed me that an itchy chin is often an early symptom of BHT. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.212.81.10 (talk) 19:27, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

This isn't understandable by normal people
Someone should rephrase this so that normal people can understand it. Right now it seems like it uses scientific terms that are not likely to be understood by an average person. 67.171.230.17 (talk) 05:51, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

Causes
Everywhere else I look it says it IS caused by an overgrowth of yeast or bacteria.

http://www.webmd.com/oral-health/black-hairy-tongue

Caviar Emptor (talk) 06:03, 21 June 2012 (UTC)

Here's another reference: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/medical/IM03891 which states it is typically caused by an overgrowth of bacteria, or sometimes yeast. This directly contradicts the statement in the article. Jeepien (talk) 16:01, 5 October 2012 (UTC)
 * not heard that before. Yeast produce pigment? Normally the texts say colonization of chromogenic bacteria on lengthened filiform papillae is the cause of this appearance. Perhaps overgrowth of yeast and bacteria can occur together on a background of dry mouth, but it is the bacteria that are specifically responsible for causing the pigmentation? I would like better sources than the ones you offered to qualify a link with yeast in the article. There is a lot of stuff about yeast overgrowth on the internet that is pseudoscientific. lesion (talk) 23:13, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

Pepto bismol
staining is from a bismuth compound, and produces transient surface staining of a normal tongue. Compare with black hairy tongue where first there must be overgrowth of the filiform papillae and then colonization by chromogenic bacteria. Neither of these factors are present in the bismuth associated staining, so changed " a similar condition" to "a similar appearance". lesion (talk) 23:19, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

valid image?
Is this really a picture of black hairy tongue. The "hairs" don't look overgrown at all, not like the images in the textbooks. I suspect staining due to another cause without elongation of the papillae. lesion (talk) 20:14, 18 January 2013 (UTC)
 * I am now more sure that this is a pic of black tongue/lingua nigra and not black hairy tongue/lingua villosa nigra. I think this article could do with a better explantion of the different causes of tongue staining which may be in the absence of hairy tongue... Lesion  ( talk ) 21:24, 2 February 2013 (UTC)

Removing unsourced statements
I reworked the article a bit, using a few textbooks. These had fairly good coverage of this condition, and no mention of the following factors as causes was made. I therefore remove these statements from the article until suitable supporting citation is provided. Lesion ( talk ) 23:27, 2 February 2013 (UTC)
 * "it is thought to be linked to the development of thrush"
 * "possible side effect while taking the antibiotic penicillin"
 * "certain vitamins"
 * "also a side effect of bulimia"
 * "hydrogen peroxide when a high concentration (at least 3-5%) of this chemical is used as a mouthwash, or swallowed"