Rare case of green hairy tongue is pure nightmare fuel

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Medical imagery tends to burst with gore and horror, from grisly gashes, festering flesh, to a merciless gush of other odious afflictions. But the most disturbing sights aren’t always the most grievous ailments—as a recent case in Ohio demonstrates. A man there developed a completely benign condition. His prognosis was excellent. He recovered in full, quickly. Yet, for any observer, a ghastly glimpse of his mild malady may cause acute discomfort and enduring trauma.

The man briefly developed an unusual condition in which a shaggy carpet of green fibers covered his tongue, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine. (If you dare, an image of the man’s tongue can be found here.) The thick, plush matt of foul fur was a form of hairy tongue syndrome. The most common version of this condition is black—which is also pretty disturbing. But, in exceptional cases, the repulsive rug can also appear as tongue-colored, brown, yellow, blue, or green.

The rare hue seemed to initially stump doctors, who prescribed him an antifungal medication after assuming the fuzzy eruption was a yeast infection. But, after a course of the drugs, his oral outgrowth remained in all its glory. After that, doctors at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base medical center diagnosed it as hairy tongue syndrome.