Brown plaque on the tongue

A brown coating on the tongue, like any appearance on the surface of the tongue of layers that are not typical for a healthy state, is in most clinical cases a symptom of one or another pathology.

When a doctor asks a patient to show his tongue, it means that he is a good specialist and knows that a white coating in the center confirms his assumption about the presence of hyperacid gastritis or even gastric ulcer. A brown coating on the tongue very often indicates that the patient has problems with the gastrointestinal tract.

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Causes of Brown Coating on the Tongue

Why, when the tongue is coated with a brown coating, the first suspicion falls on gastrointestinal pathology? Because among the 24 "components" of our digestive tract, the tongue is number 7 - a unique organ whose mucous membrane is covered with a multilayered flat epithelium with four types of papillae. These papillae contain taste buds, and the muscle layer contains small salivary glands.

A coated tongue, that is, a brown coating found in the morning, is a layer of dead epithelial cells, tiny food debris, bacteria and microbes accumulated on its surface. Such a coating can be of varying thickness, density and degree of mechanical resistance, but in any case, its constant presence is considered a clear sign of gastrointestinal tract diseases. This symptom occurs due to the fact that with any secretory, absorption or motor pathology of the digestive system organs, the process of transmitting reflex nerve impulses to the gastrointestinal tract changes. If the stomach, gallbladder, pancreas and intestines are healthy, the reflex signal goes directly - from the taste buds - and the synthesis of the necessary enzymes and the process of digestion of food begins. In the opposite situation, the signals go in the opposite direction: diseased organs let the taste buds know about the problems that have arisen. As a result, the receptor apparatus reacts to these signals with “self-defense techniques” - the appearance of a brown coating on the tongue, as well as white, gray, yellowish-gray or yellow-brown.

Gastroenterology specialists identify the following causes of brown plaque on the tongue:

• corrosive gastritis (inflammation of the gastric mucosa due to the entry of high concentration alkaline or acidic solutions or radioactive substances into its cavity);
• fibrinous gastritis (observed with measles, scarlet fever, sepsis, typhoid fever);
• peptic ulcer of the stomach in alcoholism;
• enterocolitis (inflammation of the small and large intestines);
• granulomatous enteritis (Crohn's disease);
• dysbacteriosis (disruption of the obligate intestinal microflora), including after the use of antibiotics.

Yellow-brown and dark-brown coating on the tongue may appear as a result of chronic inflammation of the duodenum (duodenitis) - with reflux (backflow) of bile into the stomach and esophagus; with insufficient motility (dyskinesia) of the biliary tract; with cholecystitis and hepatitis, as well as in the case of dehydration (dehydration of the body) with prolonged vomiting or profuse diarrhea.

In this case, a brown coating on the root of the tongue is characteristic of a severe form of enterocolitis, as well as frequent constipation without intestinal inflammation.

However, there are reasons for brown coating on the tongue that are not related to the gastrointestinal tract. These include:

• advanced mycosis or candidiasis of the oral mucosa. With these pathologies, the tongue is first covered with a white coating, and then turns into a white-brown coating on the tongue;
• lung pathologies;
• autoimmune hereditary blood diseases - hemolytic anemia and erythropoietic uroporphyria, in which intracellular destruction (hemolysis) of red blood cells occurs;
• hypocorticism or Addison's disease (an endocrine disease associated with chronic adrenal cortex insufficiency);
• deficiency of niacin - vitamin B3 (or PP) in the body;
• consequences of using certain medications.

The tongue is coated with a brown coating in almost everyone who smokes a lot (this is the effect of phenols, which contain tar from cigarette smoke, on the epithelium).

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Treatment of brown coating on the tongue

It should be noted that no doctor will undertake treatment of brown plaque on the tongue. Why? Because there are no drugs or special procedures for such therapy.

The diseases that result in the appearance of a brown coating on the tongue are subject to treatment. That is, fungal diseases of the oral cavity, diseases of the stomach, gall bladder, duodenum, liver, intestines... should be treated. Getting rid of these pathologies will lead to the disappearance of the brown coating on the tongue.

Popular and quite effective mouth rinses with decoctions of medicinal plants (oak bark, sage, chamomile, calendula, St. John's wort) will partially help only with fungal infections of the oral mucosa, but only with the parallel use of appropriate antifungal drugs (which will be prescribed by a doctor).

In all other cases - with a stomach ulcer, biliary dyskinesia or enterocolitis - you need to see a gastroenterologist.

As for the question of whether there is a way to prevent brown plaque on the tongue, here we need to convince people not to abuse alcohol and not to smoke. What else? Avoid constipation (i.e. eat more plant fiber), and do not take antibiotics unnecessarily.

And to replenish the mentioned vitamin B3 (PP), which every adult needs at least 15 mg daily, it is recommended to eat foods that contain enough of this vitamin: meat, liver, egg yolks, milk, legumes, buckwheat, whole wheat grain, yeast, mushrooms, beets, peanuts. The human intestine, thanks to beneficial bacteria, is able to produce this vitamin itself - from the proteinogenic amino acid tryptophan, which we get when eating cheese, peas, beans, sea fish, rabbit and chicken, buckwheat, oatmeal, cottage cheese. But for this, helper vitamins are needed - vitamins B2 (riboflavin) and B6 (pyridoxine).

Therefore, doctors advise everyone who has problems with the stomach and intestines and complains of a brown coating on the tongue to regularly take B vitamins.