How To Get Rid Of Covid Tongue

For months, reports have trickled in about weird symptoms of COVID-19. There was COVID toes, unusual skin rashes, and loss of taste and smell, which later became an "official" symptom of the virus. Now there's a new one to keep on the back burner: COVID tongue.

According to a research letter published in the British Journal of Dermatology, a significant number of COVID-19 patients are experiencing bumps on their tongue, along with inflammation and swelling. The letter analyzed data from 666 patients at a temporary field hospital in Spain and found that more than 45% had some form of mucocutaneous symptoms. (Mucocutaneous symptoms appear on areas where mucous membranes and skin meet, like your mouth, eyes, and parts of genitalia.)

More than 25% had symptoms in their mouth, including inflammation of the bumps on the skin surface, and overall redness and swelling of the tongue. It was common for patients to also say they felt a burning sensation in their mouth, as well as loss of taste.

mucocutaneous manifestations in 666 patients with COVID‐19

Credit: British Journal of Dermatology

The letter even includes photos, so you can see close-ups of (a) a swollen COVID tongue and (b) a patchy, bumpy COVID tongue. This raises a lot of questions, including whether you should be keeping close tabs on your tongue now. So we asked doctors to weigh in.

First, is COVID tongue a real thing?

Yes, it's legit. "I've seen a few," Rajeev Fernando, MD, an infectious disease physician working in field hospitals nationwide, tells Health.

Some doctors, like Richard Watkins, MD, an infectious disease physician and professor of internal medicine at the Northeast Ohio Medical University, haven't seen this in COVID-19 patients, but there could be a reason for it. Patients "are usually wearing a mask and I don't ask them to take their mask off," Dr. Watkins tells Health.

It's because of this that COVID tongue is likely underreported, Thomas Russo, MD, professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York, tells Health. "Many physicians focus on the heart, lungs, and abdomen and, in the age of COVID-19, they pass on examining the mouth even more because it can increase their risk of getting infected," he says. "This has probably been missed in a lot of individuals."

What causes COVID tongue?

It's important to point out that what's been dubbed COVID tongue isn't necessarily unique to COVID-19. "A number of viruses can cause mucocutaneous manifestations," Dr. Russo says. Dr. Fernando agrees. "These symptoms aren't a slam dunk for a COVID-19 diagnosis," he says.

And while this phenomenon hasn't been studied heavily, Dr. Russo says it's "biologically plausible" that COVID-19 can make your tongue swell.

Dr. Fernando explains it this way: Your cells contain enzymes called ACE receptors, which SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes COVID-19—latch onto. From there, the virus gets into your cells, replicates, and makes you sick. "There are a lot of ACE receptors in the tongue, so the virus concentrates very heavily in this region," he says. "In the tongue, there can be a lot of COVID." And that can lead to symptoms like tongue bumps and tongue swelling.

What should you do if you think you have COVID tongue?

Dr. Fernando says that it's unlikely that you would ~just~ develop COVID tongue. Instead, he says, it's more likely that you'd notice tongue oddities alongside other, more recognizable symptoms like a cough, shortness of breath, or loss of taste and smell. "It will be part of a constellation of symptoms," he says.

If your tongue feels or looks funky, it could be a sign that you have another type of virus—or that you just ate something that irritated you, Dr. Russo says. "All of these oral and mucocutaneous manifestations tend to be nonspecific," he says. While he says that tongue symptoms "could increase your suspicion for coronavirus infection, it's likely that other symptoms would trigger that diagnostic pathway."

Bottom line: Don't ignore bumps or inflammation of your tongue—but don't panic if you develop one of these, either.

The information in this story is accurate as of press time. However, as the situation surrounding COVID-19 continues to evolve, it's possible that some data have changed since publication. While Health is trying to keep our stories as up-to-date as possible, we also encourage readers to stay informed on news and recommendations for their own communities by using the CDC , WHO , and their local public health department as resources.

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