The yellow hairy tongue

A 36-year-old woman presented herself to our out-patient clinic because she noticed that her tongue turned turned partially hairy. She has been smoking 25 cigarettes a day for the last 17 years. Otherwise the patient was healthy. Clinical exam showed a soft yellowish tongue with a hairy center. The rest of the clinical exam was normal. A hairy tongue is a commen benign clinical condition caused by proliferation of the papillae facilitating the collection of bacteria and debris and finially in discoloartion. The discoloration can vary from black, brown to yellow. Contributing factors are smoking, excessive consumation of coffee, alcohol, poor oral hygienes, hyposalivation, eating a soft diet and the use of certain antibiotics such as tetracyclines. The treatment consists of the correction of the contributing factors. In our case the cessation of smoking and the improvement of oral hygiene was recommended.