Images in Clinical Medicine

Black Hairy Tongue

Catherine C. Newman, M.D., and Richard F. Wagner, M.D.

N Engl J Med 1997; 337:897September 25, 1997

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Figure 1 A 66-year-old man who was edentulous and did not wear dentures reported having a yellow tongue. He ate only liquefied foods, his oral hygiene consisted of mouthwashing, and he had not taken oral antibiotics recently. Black hairy tongue was diagnosed. In this disorder, the filiform papillae on the dorsum of the tongue are hyperplastic and dark black. The pigmentation may be the result of trapped chromogenic bacteria, food, coffee, or tobacco.

Catherine C. Newman, M.D.
Richard F. Wagner, M.D.
University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555-0783

Citing Articles (2)

Citing Articles

1. 1

   PD Pigatto, F Spadari, L Meroni, G Guzzi. (2008) Black hairy tongue associated with long-term oral erythromycin use. Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology 22:10, 1269-1270
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2. 2

   Diana N Ionescu, Jennifer L Hunt, Daren Lomago, Samuel A Yousem. (2005) Recurrent Sarcoidosis in Lung Transplant Allografts. Diagnostic Molecular Pathology 14:3, 140-145
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