Geographic Tongue: Clinical Characteristics of 188 Cases

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical characteristics and assess other factors associated with geographic tongue in Thailand. One hundred and eighty-eight Thais with geographic tongue and 188 controls were interviewed regarding their medical history, symptoms, and the nature and migratory pattern of their lesions. Variations in the clinical appearance, lesion location, and any associated tongue fissures were recorded. The age range for the 188 subjects was 9 to 79 years. The highest incidence (39.4%) occurred in the 20-29 age group. Women were affected more than men (1.5:1). The leading group of medical conditions consisted of allergy-related disorders; however, the incidence of these problems among both subjects and controls was not significantly different (55.2% vs. 44.8%). Our results demonstrated a significant co-existence of geographic tongue and fissured tongue. Most of the geographic tongue lesions manifested a typical appearance consisting of a central atrophic area bounded by a raised white circinate line (69.1%) with multiple tongue sites affected (62.8%). The most common locations were at the lateral margins and tip of the tongue. The majority of our subjects (75.5%) were asymptomatic. The results of this study correspond with the findings of previous geographic tongue studies in other populations.

Treatment of geographic tongue with topical tacrolimus

“…Patients may report of oral discomfort such as burning, pain, excessive salivation and unpleasant taste 1 5. The patient was asymptomatic a year earlier to recovery, which was a similar finding with other studies 4 5. Then he developed pain which was also noticed by Sigal and Mock1 in two children.…”

“…Very few cases have been reported in children4 5 and we found this condition in a 6-year-old child with a history of the lesion since first year of age. Patients may report of oral discomfort such as burning, pain, excessive salivation and unpleasant taste 1 5.…”

“…The word ‘geographic’ is used to describe this disorder because the changing pattern of red and white areas on the dorsal surface of the tongue looks like a map 2. When the same condition occurs in other areas of the oral cavity, various terminologies such as geographic stomatitis, erythema migrans, annulus migrans, erythema areata migrans and areata stomatitis migrans have been used 1 4. Aetiology of this disorder is still not known.…”

Taste evaluation in adolescents and pediatric patients with benign migratory glossitis

“…The mean age for the experimental and control group was 12.1 (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18) years. All participants in the case group exhibited lesions 7 6 Maximum 12 12 Percentile 10th 8 9 25th 9 10 50th 12 11 75th 12 12 90th 12 12 Mann-Whitney U test: statistical difference (P < 0.05).…”

“…Some studies have demonstrated that BMG is more prevalent in young individuals [5,[13][14][15]. However, other authors believe that most of the cases is noted in individuals over 40 years of age [16,17]. BMG is by far the most frequent tongue disease reported in the different studies reviewed on the pediatric population.…”