white coated tongue, not going away

12-21-2004, 04:40 PM

Recently I awoke to a tongue covered in a somewhat thick, white mucus, more prominently towards the back. Also in the back were four to six bumps. With an occasional habit of smokeless tobacco, this got my extremely worried so I headed to the doctor. She said that all I had was bronchitis (I also had an overall weak feeling, persistant cough and some sinus congestion). She also said that the white covered tongue was as a result of the bronchitis and the bumps in the back of the tongue were simply inflamed taste buds. This was about two weeks ago, even though another doctor confirmed this about a week later... today the tongue is still white (espcially in the morning. it brushes off somewhat but does eventually come back) and the taste buds are still inflamed. Several thoughts have gone through my mind, from it just being from bronchitis to thrush to leukoplakia to oral cancer. This has me extremely worried. I have faith in the doctors who said that this is nothing big and that everyone has a white coating on their tongue, but the fact that it has stayed this long worries me. Can anyone offer me some insight or advice? Please help me ease my mind, I am young and don't want to devastate my family, especially around this time of the year

12-21-2004, 05:02 PM

the bumps on the back of your tongue are taste buds, but are always there. the white on the tongue is thrush, a yeast infection. i am a bit surprised the doctor did not reconize this as thrush, especially since it is not going away. there is a simple perscription you can use to get rid of it. lozenges you let dissolve in your mouth, or a liquid called nystantin. this is a swish and swallow stuff.
i have a big problem with thrush and have had it for several years now due to a year on antibiotics.
i would go see another doc and mention, thrush!
the bumps on the back of my tongue are always noticable, i don't think they are inflammed, i think you just notice them more with the white on them. mine have been like since i first complained about the thrush.
karen

12-21-2004, 06:10 PM

Thanks so much for your advice...I'm not too sure if it's thrush, though. I've been obessing over it all day, and recently i consulted a close friend to take a look, and what he said was that my tongue looked completely normal and that i was obsessing over what is a normal white lining on the tongue. The thing that really bothered me were the bumps on the tongue, which the doctors have said are merely taste buds. The interesting thing about these bumps is that two of them are on the right side of my tongue, on the actual side of the tongue. My friend also said that he doesn't think that these are inflamed taste buds but canker sores that can develop from a cold, and that garggling w/ salt water will take care of it. What I'm wondering is if canker sores can actually develop on the tongue, i thought they just developed near the lips or around the gums...

white coated tongue, not going away

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