Yellow Tongue: Are you going through the condition of a yellow tongue? Well, if you are concerned with the coloration of your tongue, you don’t need to bother too much as it is often harmless and will go away on its own.
In most cases, yellow tongue or similar condition is caused due to poor hygiene of your teeth and gums.
However, there can also be some other reasons known to cause such an issue. Some of these situations include jaundice or any other serious condition.
It’s time to learn the cause of abrupt coloration of your tongue and what the treatment options available are:
Table of Contents
Yellow Tongue Causes
One of the most common causes of yellow tongue is the building up of bacteria and skin cells on the surface of your tongue. In most cases, it happens because of poor dental hygiene.
Please note that Jaundice happens to be one of the most common and serious causes of yellow tongue.
When to call your doctor?
In case, you only have the issue of yellow tongue with no other symptom, you don’t need to see a doctor. But you should call a doctor in cases like
- Bleeding or easy bruising
- Fever
- Vomiting
- Blood in your stools
- Abdominal pain
- The tongue hurts or pain
- The skin or the whites of your eyes are also yellow
- The yellow color doesn’t go away after two weeks
Are there complications associated with yellow tongue?
In most cases, yellow tongue don’t cause any serious complication. But there are certain conditions that cause jaundice can often lead to issues like:
- Liver cancer
- Bleeding in your gastrointestinal tract
- Spleen enlargement
- Swelling of belly and legs
- Liver failure
- Liver scarring
Treatment
In order to treat a yellow tongue, you are required to brush it gently with a mixture part hydrogen peroxide and five parts water once a day. Afterwards, rinse your mouth a number of times with water.
Doing this will treat any other underlying condition along with yellow tongue. Take a look at some other similar type of issues and the ways to manage them.
Treating black hairy tongue
- Try to brush your teeth at least twice a day, especially after meals
- Never forget to rinse your mouth with water a few times a day
- Avoid smoking
To improve your oral hygiene
- Try to brush your teeth twice a day using a soft-bristled brush.
- Never forget to floss at least once a day
- See your dentist after every six months
- Try to avoid the intake of sticky foods like gummies and toffee
To treat dry mouth
It’s a common situation where your doctor can prescribe you a special mouth rinse to enhance the amount of saliva in your mouth
- Try drinking more water and sugar free drinks
- If the problem of dry mouth is due to a medicine, ask your doctor about it
- Try to avoid alcohol, tobacco, caffeine
- You can chew sugarless gum to enhance the saliva production
- You can turn on humidifier to moist your mouth
To treat geographic tongue
- You can take corticosteroid ointments as prescribed by your doctor
- You can even use a mouth rinse along with an anesthetic to relieve pain (if any)
To treat jaundice
- If jaundice is caused by hepatitis, take prescribed medicine
- Avoid taking too much alcohol to protect your liver
- For severe liver complication, consult your doctor
To quit smoking
- Keep in touch with your doctor to manage it
- Try using a nicotine replacement product to manage your condition
- You can even try medicines prescribed to you like bupropion (Zyban) or varenicline (Chantix) to relieve symptoms
How to prevent yellow tongue
In order to limit or reduce the accumulation of cells (cell build up) along with the number of bacterial growth on your tongue, try following these steps:
- Quit the habit of smoking
- Brush your teeth regularly
- You can make use of a tongue scrapper to gently remove dead cells, food particles and other debris
- Increase the amount of fiber in your diet to reduce the number of bacteria in your mouth
By following these measures, you can definitely be able to get rid of the problem f yellow tongue or any other situation. Also, never forget to consult a doctor if situation becomes worse.
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