Synonyms
Black hairy tongue; Coated tongue
Definition
Hairy tongue is characterized by an overgrowth of filiform papillae in the midline of the dorsum of the tongue anterior to the circumvallate papillae due to an increase in keratin production or a decrease in normal keratin desquamation, resulting in a hair-like appearance (Fig. 1). Most affected people are heavy smokers; other possible associated factors are general debilitation, poor oral hygiene, and a history of radiation therapy to the head and neck.
Hairy tongue (Courtesy of Prof. Dr. I. van der Waal, Departement of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery/Oral pathology, VuMC, Amsterdam, Netherlands)
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References and Further Reading
Cheshire, W. P. (2004). Unilateral black hairy tongue in trigeminal neuralgia. Headache, 44, 908–910.
Manabe, M., Lim, H. W., Winzer, M., & Loomis, C. A. (1999). Architectural organization of filiform papillae in normal and black hairy tongue epithelium dissection of differentiation pathways in a complex human epithelium according to their patterns of keratin expression. Archives of Dermatology, 135, 177–181.
Poulopoulos, A. K., Antoniades, D. Z., Epivatianos, A., Grivea, I. N., & Syrogiannopoulos, G. A. (2008). Black hairy tongue in a 2-month-old infant. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 44, 377–379.
Taybos, G. (2003). Oral changes associated with tobacco use. The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 326, 179–182.
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van der Wal, J.E. (2016). Hairy Tongue. In: Slootweg, P.J. (eds) Dental and Oral Pathology. Encyclopedia of Pathology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28085-1_726
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28085-1_726
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