Fissure tongue
52 year old Caucasian female. Medical history: Heathy- WNL. Patient presents with fissure tongue and geographic lateral boarder and the tip of tongue. Patient was not aware of it, there was no pain or discomfort. I showed and explained these finding to my patient:
Fissure tongue is a finding of multiple small furrows or grooves on dorsal surface of the tongue. It can be shallow or deep, single or multiple. Usually most fissure are found on the middle 1/3 of the tongue. It may be genetic. As people age, that condition is found more commonly and the severity also increases. Grooves can collect debris and become irritated. No treatment is necessary except to encourage good oral hygiene including brushing the top surface of the tongue to remove any food debris from the fissures. Typically, patient with fissure tongue can have a combination with geographic tongue.
Geographic tongue– benign migratory glossitis. Involves the dorsal and lateral borders of the tongue. Affected tongue will have a bald, red area of varying sizes with irregular white border. The appearance of the affected portion of the tongue results from loss of the finger- like and mushroom shaped papillae. There are several factors that have been proposed as possible cause such as emotional stress, psoriasis or genetic.
Patient was recommended to avoid irritating products:
- Hot or spicy food
- Acidic foods
- Toothpaste
