A black tongue can occur due to certain medications or drinks. It can also be a sign that dead skin cells are accumulating on your tongue.
While it may be alarming to see, a black tongue generally isn’t a sign of anything serious. You might also notice that your tongue looks slightly
hairy. But rest assured, those aren’t hairs. These are both signs of a temporary condition called black hairy tongue.
Read on to learn more about why this happens and how you can treat it.
Symptoms
Your tongue is covered in hundreds of tiny bumps called papillae. Usually, you don’t notice them much. But when dead skin cells start to collect on their tips, they start to look longer.
These long papillae are easily stained by bacteria and other substances, giving your tongue a black, furry appearance.
In most cases, a black appearance is the only symptom, but sometimes black hairy tongue can be accompanied by feelings of burning, gagging, and tingling. You might also experience bad breath or an unusual taste in your mouth.
Causes
Experts aren’t sure why the tongue sometimes stops shedding dead skin cells, but it may be related to:
- Poor oral hygiene. Dead skin cells are more likely to accumulate on the tongue if you’re not regularly brushing your teeth and tongue or rinsing your mouth.
- Low saliva production. Saliva helps you swallow dead skin cells. When you don’t produce enough saliva, these dead skin cells can hang around on your tongue.
- Liquid diet. Eating solid foods helps scrape dead skin cells off your tongue. If you follow a liquid diet, this doesn’t happen.
- Medication side effects. Some medications have dry mouth as a side effect, which makes it easier for skin cells to accumulate on the papillae.
When your tongue stops shedding dead skin cells, other substances can stain it. Some of these substances include:
- Antibiotics. Antibiotics kill both good and bad bacteria in your body. This can affect the delicate balance of bacteria in your mouth, allowing certain yeasts and bacteria to thrive.
- Tobacco. Whether you’re smoking or chewing it, tobacco is one of the biggest risk factors of black tongue. Tobacco very easily stains the elongated papillae on your tongue.
- Drinking coffee or tea. Coffee and tea can also easily stain elongated papillae, especially if you drink a lot of either of them.
- Some mouthwashes. Certain harsh mouthwashes that contain oxidizing agents, such as peroxide, can affect the balance of bacteria in your mouth.
- Bismuth subsalicylate (Pepto-Bismol). Bismuth subsalicylate is a common ingredient in some over-the-counter gastrointestinal medications. When it reacts with traces of sulfur in your mouth, it can stain your tongue, making it appear black.
