What are the symptoms of tongue lichen? What is tongue lichen?

You may be unfamiliar with the oral disease of tongue lichen. What is tongue lichen? It is a disease that occurs on the tongue, usually at the tip and belly of the tongue. It appears as papules in the early stages of the disease. If it is not effectively treated for a long time, the lesions will turn red, and ulcers may appear in severe cases. Let’s take a look at the symptoms of tongue lichen.

There are three notable symptoms of lichen planus on the tongue:

(1) Oral mucosal lesions can occur in any part of the oral mucosa. Most of them are symmetrical, and 87.5% of the lesions occur on the cheeks. Most patients have no subjective symptoms and the disease is often discovered accidentally. Some patients experience roughness of the mucous membrane, a tingling sensation, a burning sensation, dry mouth, and occasional itching as if insects were crawling on them. When the mucosa is congested and eroded and when it encounters spicy, hot, sour, or salty stimulation, there will be local burning pain. The condition may fluctuate repeatedly, and multiple lesions may appear at the same time. And they can overlap and transform into each other. The lesions are small white papules, generally as big as a needle head, which are keratotic lesions with various patterns of white papular tissue, mainly white stripes and white patches, which are reticular, dendritic, annular or semi-annular. The mucosa may develop erythema, congestion, erosion, atrophy and blisters.

(2) Skin lesions are flat papules that are slightly raised above the skin surface. The size is from millet to mung bean, polygonal, and has clear boundaries. Most of them are purple-red, and may be hypopigmented, hyperpigmented, or normal skin color. Some papules may be seen with small white spots or light reticular white stripes, called Wickham lines. Lesions occur anywhere on the body but are more common on the extremities than on the trunk. The patient feels itchy and scratches are visible on the skin. Ulcerative lesions may be painful. When it occurs on the scalp, it can damage hair follicles and cause baldness. After the skin lesions heal, brown pigmentation may remain, and the pigment may decrease to become slightly atrophic pale white spots.

(3) Nail lesions: nail thickening or thinning. Lichen planus of the nail and tongue is most common on the big toe, and the nail plate often has longitudinal grooves and deformation. Nail damage generally has no subjective symptoms, but if there is secondary infection, it may cause pain in the surrounding tissues.

Lichen planus is a chronic inflammatory disease of the skin and mucous membranes and is one of the common diseases of the oral mucosa. The cause of the disease may be related to infection, mental, endocrine, systemic diseases, genetics and immunity factors.