A 64-year-old man’s tongue has turned green and begun to grow hair after a rare reaction to smoking ciggies whilst taking antibiotics.
Honestly, I’m gonna HUUUAAAAAAAAAGh.
The unidentified man’s case has been documented in the New England Journal of Medicine. In it, he went to the doctor after discovering that his tongue changed colour and started sporting fur. Woof.
If I have to see photos of this, so do you, babes.
This is your fair warning: this image is proper vom inducing. You’ve been warned. Scroll at your own risk.
I’ve literally made that image the smallest it can possibly be while I write this piece in order to stop me from hurling. The things I do for you sickos.
The man was diagnosed with a hairy tongue, which, scientifically speaking, means a bunch of skin cells started chilling on his tongue and never left, causing a party of debris and bacteria. Delicious!!!
This gives it the appearance of hair, which can apparently grow to almost an inch long if you don’t scrape your tongue.
I’m literally trying to just drink a cup of tea in peace and now all I can think about is inch-long bacteria hairs growing on my tongue. Oh god, I don’t even remember the last time I scraped my tongue.
These hairs can then further trap other icky substances like bacteria, food and yeast in what news.com.au describes as an “oral gill net”. Wow, the things I would do to unread this entire story.
“Hairy tongue may appear brown, white, green, or pink, depending upon the specific cause and other factors, such as mouthwashes or even candy,” the American Academy of Oral Medicine wrote.
It’s generally caused by poor oral hygiene and can be exacerbated by smoking, which causes bacteria and plaque to accumulate on the tongue. The man was also on antibiotics for a gum infection, which may have upset the mouth’s “microbial equilibrium” by causing more bacteria to accumulate.
The patient was told to use a good ol’ fashioned tongue scraper to deal with the whole thing (four times a day, FYI) and to also quit the durries.
If this has scared you, then please, for the love of god, brush your fucking teeth and invest in a tongue scraper. Thank you.
