What's wrong with my tongue?

[German]

How its possible to send my Photo here? iam with Smartphone

[poco333]

@German click on post reply and down below text area there is an "attachments" tab you can click on. From there upload pic, has to be under 250kb

[AlphaB]

22.jpg

@AlphaB Your tongue actually doesn't look too bad. You can actually see the fungiform papillae in amongst the filiform ones. I realize cell phone pics don't always do justice to reality. Here's a little clearer pic of mine-- not perfect but not even recognizable from what it used to be. I don't have to ever scrape it or anything anymore this is its everyday working clothes lol.

Isotretinoin (synthetic vitamin A) is a new one to me. If its a gel that you apply topically and let sit on the tongue for a while I wouldn't be too optimistic. Being as it's not a keratolytic I would be cautious as to it affect on other tissues in the mouth. But I could be wrong if you decide to try it I hope it works!

I have tried many things over the years. TCA peel completely clears off the surface of the tongue, leaving it baby smooth, and can taste everything so clearly, but after a week or so the filiform papillae grow back and long again. I used to use urea topically, just holding my tongue out and leaving urea sit on it for as long as I could. It was moisturizing but other than that I just didn't notice much, and that was using it topically every day. Ironic that letting it dissolve in mouth and holding there for ten minutes or so before spitting out is a whole different animal. And I only had to do it a few times (may not need to again time will tell).

Also I am using pure urea, similar to what I posted a link to above. Most of the dental journals mention a urea gel, 30 to 40 percent. To be clear that is not what I am using, never have.

Awesome, I appreciate the picture and additional detail. Btw, did you have a burnt/bitter taste or physically dry/fibrous/unpleasant sensation on your tongue as well?

I ordered some Urea crystals from Amazon, just received it today and Im about to try it now before going to bed. Just finished my oravital abx rinses without any change in my tongue, so I'm really hoping this helps. Fingers crossed!

As to the isotretinoin, it has made zero difference so far.. although I was prescribed a lower concentration. From what I recall reading in the paper on hairy tongue, one patient was completely unresponsive after 4 weeks of low dose isotretinoin, but respond after the dose was doubled. I think the urea holds more promise though tbh.

@AlphaB you said three years ago your tongue was fine didn't have issues. Can you trace the problems back to an origin like an antibiotic or antifungal. There is quite a bit of evidence that drugs like Flagyl can cause folks to end up with a hairy tongue (seemingly permanently) even though their tongue was perfectly healthy to start with. Kind of alarming really.

My best current guess is that the issues started after a new sexual partner. It was a particularly stressful time in my life, I had become recently single after 6 years and hooked up with several chicks that year. My GI symptoms started simultaneously, and after a positive SIBO lactulose breath test, I took a 2 week course of flagyl and Rifaximin. My breath and tongue coating predated those abx, but unfortunately the abx only made my stomach worse. I have been trying to find an answer to fix my stomach and breath amongst other issues that all started with GI issues spontaneously. I'm pretty sure I picked up one of the many millions of bacteria humans naturally carry, and perhaps due to stress/genetics/bad luck/planetary alignment, I drew the short, shitty smelling straw lol.

Dr. Hyland, the creator of Oravital, also said most bad breath is "caught" - picked up from someone we kiss. Scary since some of those bacteria are linked to major issues including heart disease, cancers, alzheimers, etc. Also makes you wonder if there is some common bug present in the local Canadian microbiome, since we have one of the higher rates of IBS worldwide... but i've digressed

[AlphaB]

There’s also a tongue cleaning process called Laser Tongue Debridement, also known as Laser Tongue Rejuvenation, using a combination of laser and high pressure water jet. This may take several visits and cost thousands of dollars. There’re at least 2 clinics in the US that offer this, and I think one in western Canada.

I sort of lean towards the antibiotic oral rinse approach.

From what I've read, the laser tongue rejuvenation is a total scam. I've yet to read any reports of long term success with this method. Makes sense, since the bacteria will grow back relatively rapidly.

[Beenhereforeva]

22.jpg

@AlphaB Your tongue actually doesn't look too bad. You can actually see the fungiform papillae in amongst the filiform ones. I realize cell phone pics don't always do justice to reality. Here's a little clearer pic of mine-- not perfect but not even recognizable from what it used to be. I don't have to ever scrape it or anything anymore this is its everyday working clothes lol.

Isotretinoin (synthetic vitamin A) is a new one to me. If its a gel that you apply topically and let sit on the tongue for a while I wouldn't be too optimistic. Being as it's not a keratolytic I would be cautious as to it affect on other tissues in the mouth. But I could be wrong if you decide to try it I hope it works!

I have tried many things over the years. TCA peel completely clears off the surface of the tongue, leaving it baby smooth, and can taste everything so clearly, but after a week or so the filiform papillae grow back and long again. I used to use urea topically, just holding my tongue out and leaving urea sit on it for as long as I could. It was moisturizing but other than that I just didn't notice much, and that was using it topically every day. Ironic that letting it dissolve in mouth and holding there for ten minutes or so before spitting out is a whole different animal. And I only had to do it a few times (may not need to again time will tell).

Also I am using pure urea, similar to what I posted a link to above. Most of the dental journals mention a urea gel, 30 to 40 percent. To be clear that is not what I am using, never have.

Awesome, I appreciate the picture and additional detail. Btw, did you have a burnt/bitter taste or physically dry/fibrous/unpleasant sensation on your tongue as well?

I ordered some Urea crystals from Amazon, just received it today and Im about to try it now before going to bed. Just finished my oravital abx rinses without any change in my tongue, so I'm really hoping this helps. Fingers crossed!

As to the isotretinoin, it has made zero difference so far.. although I was prescribed a lower concentration. From what I recall reading in the paper on hairy tongue, one patient was completely unresponsive after 4 weeks of low dose isotretinoin, but respond after the dose was doubled. I think the urea holds more promise though tbh.

@AlphaB you said three years ago your tongue was fine didn't have issues. Can you trace the problems back to an origin like an antibiotic or antifungal. There is quite a bit of evidence that drugs like Flagyl can cause folks to end up with a hairy tongue (seemingly permanently) even though their tongue was perfectly healthy to start with. Kind of alarming really.

My best current guess is that the issues started after a new sexual partner. It was a particularly stressful time in my life, I had become recently single after 6 years and hooked up with several chicks that year. My GI symptoms started simultaneously, and after a positive SIBO lactulose breath test, I took a 2 week course of flagyl and Rifaximin. My breath and tongue coating predated those abx, but unfortunately the abx only made my stomach worse. I have been trying to find an answer to fix my stomach and breath amongst other issues that all started with GI issues spontaneously. I'm pretty sure I picked up one of the many millions of bacteria humans naturally carry, and perhaps due to stress/genetics/bad luck/planetary alignment, I drew the short, shitty smelling straw lol.

Dr. Hyland, the creator of Oravital, also said most bad breath is "caught" - picked up from someone we kiss. Scary since some of those bacteria are linked to major issues including heart disease, cancers, alzheimers, etc. Also makes you wonder if there is some common bug present in the local Canadian microbiome, since we have one of the higher rates of IBS worldwide... but i've digressed

Did you try the Urea crystals? How is it? How is your tongue? How is your BB? Poco did say it will take 4-5 days until you are bb free. I bought mine today and will try tonight. . I am hopeful but then again everytime I am, it comes back.

[sadlife123]

@ poco333 wow your tongue is my dream. I really want to try the Urea supplement but it's $50 of shipping here to Austria. I cannot find anything similiar to it. Can I use pure crystalline urea?

[poco333]

@sadlife123 Pure crystalline urea should be fine but please use your own good judgement.

[poco333]

So the stuff I recommend is pure urea. The "mint" urea I had posted a link to I also ordered one. I didn't realize it was quite so diluted with flavors (only 65% urea). Anyways I figured I better try to make sure it gave a similar effect to pure. Instead of one teaspoon pure I used prbably half the pack (22 gram pack). It seems to work the same and actually tastes good, leaves nice taste in mouth.
The interesting thing, though, is I tried to see if I could scrape anything with my fingernail (not hard at all just mostly to see if theres anything loose) right after I spit the stuff out. And I could!! there was quite a little stuff that peeled right off. I don't have HT anymore so I don't think I needed to do this but wanted to test. This might be a better approach than leaving it and scraping junk off the next day (all that dead junk is just gonna smell bad anyway). Food for thought folks!!

Learning as we go maybe?

Again I don't have all the answers but hopefully somebody can be helped by this

[sadlife123]

I ordered some pure crystalline urea now and it's arriving tomorrow! Gonna update you guys

@poco333 so you put it in your mouth, let it sit for 10 min and then just spit it out without scraping? And then scraped it off the next day?

[poco333]

@sadlife123 I think it might be better to scrape right after you spit it out. Just don't scrape hard just enough to see if stuff will kinda peel off. I wouldn't use a tongue scraper just use your index finger nail and try to reach back as far as you can

[AlphaB]

So I've tried the urea twice now. Bought standard crystalline urea from Amazon, though it wasnt food or medical grade.

First time I held it for 5 mins, then spit out. It was pretty disgusting tasting, and I found it very difficult to not swallow. Also burns a bit. Didn't scrape directot afterwards and noticed no effects the next couple of days when scraping my tongue.

Second time was a few mins ago. Held for 10 this time and preceded it with a mint breath strip to help with the taste. Significant burning this time on tongue and at the entrance of throat where there was contact. Even harder to not swallow and my mouth was completely full of saliva at the end.

Scraped immediately afterwards this time, and there was a significant amount of gunk. Seems promising to me, as I'd just brushed, flossing, scraped my tongue and rinsed with chlorhexadine and chlorine dioxide rinses an hour before, per oravital protocol.

Here's to hoping my tongue is shedding more by tmrw morning or the day after.

[sadlife123]

I've just tried it. Left it in my mouth for 10 minutes (gross taste and left my mouth burning), spit it out and scraped my tongue without any change. There was barely any gunk coming off. :/ I took some more and scraped my tongue with it and now my tongue is bleeding, burning and still white and furry lol.

Might try it again the next days

[spyr]

I also bought some pur crystalline urea from Amazon, it is sold for cosmetic use.
Before using it, my tongue was looking like this :

IMG_5519.jpg (233.54 KiB) Viewed 782 times

So I received the urea and put some on my tongue and held it during 10min. I felt a little bit of burning sensation. The burning sensation was more important the next day (without any other use of urea). After 24 hours of first use, my tongue looks like this :

IMG_5521.jpg (249.92 KiB) Viewed 782 times

My tongue is still dirty, with a very small improvement, I tried again some urea today, I will share the results in the next days.

What I'm afraid of is it gave very bad reaction the next day after first use, I know I was filling rooms with my breath.

[Beenhereforeva]

Tried the UREA for 10 minutes. Spit it out, rinsed. Waited about 12 hours before scraping without much change. Tried again. Scraped off after 15 minutes with minimal change. Sipping on baking soda and I think the bb has intensified because now I smell it when I wear my mask like a chemical smell. Before I smelled it but not with chemical smell and not as intense as today. My usual BB is 45%. After this it’s like 70%. I’ll try one more time but I can already tell it won’t do much. Thanks anyway and I’m happy it worked for you. I guess anyone who sells Urea will be the happy ones that we are all buying to try this.

[StillHoping]

Any new updates from those testing this out? Any progress or did it work at all?