Whitish tongue?

[DisgracedAngel]

I'm hoping this is just a sign of anxiety although Google doesn't say such...

The last two days I've had a whitish colored coated tongue. It doesn't hurt, doesn't taste weird, in fact it doesn't bother me at all other than knowing it is there. I know that this can be a symptom of HIV, even though I am not so sure it is thrush, and I fear my flippant days of my youth may be catching up with me from 10 years ago. I have no other symptoms (except right now I'm a bit flushed but that may be my panic). Despite this, I'm convinced it's something horrible.

Is this something that you can get with anxiety? It's been horrible lately, I worry about one thing after another. I'm currently out of work and stressing about finding a job and send my days worrying about that and my health :-/

[Mojo61]

Dehydration can cause a white furry tongue. Are you eating and drinking properly?

[DisgracedAngel]

I like water but haven't been drinking as much as I normally do. Throw in a coffee here and there and probably not doing myself any favours!

Today after finally eating something and having a drink was when I felt my best. Not that it was bothering me anyways but I still somehow felt better, like the slight dryness feeling was gone and I even thought my tongue looked better. However, a few hours later I starting doubting again and still managed to convince myself that it's something serious.

I feel hopeless because of that! Anxiety is really, really horrible isn't it!

[Mojo61]

Oh yes, it certainly is!

My tongue was awful, really white and furry. I wasn't eating or drinking at the time though so I guess that didn't help. As soon as I started a normal eating regime it went away. Try brushing it or getting one of those tongue scraper things

[DisgracedAngel]

I brush my tongue every morning so was hoping it wasn't my hygiene, but may need a tongue scraper. It isn't thick though and scratching it doesn't show any redness, so i am hoping it is nothing but in the back of mind I'm still saying I have HIV, even despite no other symptoms. Anxiety will indeed have you thinking the worse but it's incredibly debilitating.

[DisgracedAngel]

I'm off to the doctor today finally and I'm terrified to say the least. The anxiety has taken over my life. It's hard to eat, sleep, think, function as normal...

My mother has tried to reassure my that it shouldn't be anything sinister. As i first said, I thought my past was catching up with me. She said I'd be very ill at this point. I visited her in January and a bad, bad flu bug went around and the whole house got it. My sister and I had it for a day, my mother had it for a week and it put her boyfriend in hospital with pneumonia. She assured me (or try to) that if I was infected and for that long, then I wouldn't have been so lucky. I also had blood tests recently regarding my sinusitis /allergies and the wbc count was high, then lower after some antibiotics showing my body was fighting it. My mother said again this wouldn't have been the case otherwise. (she's a nurse and I go to her with everything!!)

I think maybe a thing about health anxiety is that no matter what reassurance you get, you'll still think the worst! Even if the doctor said you're fine sometimes you think "what if...?" This is the cycle I'm trying to break out of!

[Carnation]

Try rinsing your mouth out with some Corsodyl mouthwash.
It kills any bacteria and freshens the mouth and takes away the yuck. x

[DisgracedAngel]

Thanks Carnation X :-) I plan on doing that but thought I'd see the doctor first just in case he suggests something else.

It's weird because it's not even "yuck" really. A bit of a dry feeling in the morning but that goes away throughout the day, especially after drinking/eating some. There's not any big spots of white to be scraped off, just an overall weird whitish tinge that doesn't go. Ive tried rinsing with salt water today and apple cider vinegar with water other days and nothing. Definitely need the corsadyl.

[KeeKee]

The back half of my tongue is like this. I have a tendency to get dry mouth so thought it was due to that. I was at the dentist only 2 days ago and nothing was mentioned so must be normal. Dentists are trained to notice anything dodgy in the mouth so they would have mentioned if it wasn't normal

[DisgracedAngel]

Well I just got back from the doctor.

He had a look and scraped some of my tongue. He said it's isn't thrush, but he did use the "a" word...

...Anxiety!

He said it's just a white coating. And if it was thrush it would be more substantial and it wouldn't scrape off as easily without leaving behind redness and being sore. He said chill out and next time don't wait a week to call him and let my anxiety let me think the worst haha

[Fishmanpa]

My tongue was awful, really white and furry.

What did I tell you about cleaning the cat?! :D

Positive thoughts