Warts on Tongue

The tongue is one of the strongest muscles in the body. The surface of the tongue that is visible is known as the dorsal surface of the tongue. This surface is covered with papillae, which give the tongue its velvety appearance. There are many tongue diseases that lead to visible changes in the surface and color of the tongue. One such condition is tongue warts. It is a commonly seen symptom that is a result of a sexually transmitted disease.

Causes
Warts on tongue are caused due to a virus known as human papillomavirus. This is a virus which leads to genital warts, which could occur on any surface of the body, but are especially seen on mucocutaneous surfaces. This is a sexually transmitted disease, thus, the symptoms in the mouth can only occur as a result of having oral sex with a person who is already suffering from this condition. The possibility of contracting this infection is especially high if the person is having or performing oral sex or is showing active symptoms at that point of time. This is so, because at that time the wound may be open and due to this, the contagiousness rate is high. Also, if you happen to have an open wound in your oral cavity, then the chances of you contracting HPV increases many fold.

Symptoms
The HPV warts on tongue may be present alone or in clusters. More often than not, these are very tiny blisters that burst and spread in the surrounding area. These warts may be present all over the dorsal surface of the tongue, but are more prevalent on the tip and the sides of the tongue. This is dangerous because when present on the side, due to the movement of the tongue, they tend to burst easily, and thus, spread easily. These warts generally over time may even get encrusted and may leave scars behind.

Treatment
As is the case with almost all viral infections, there is no full and final cure of warts due to human papillomavirus. One can only mitigate the symptoms to an extent that they do not show up, but even with the help of antiviral medication, you cannot completely eliminate or kill the virus. Sometimes, the warts may eventually lead to small raised and fleshy growths. Furthermore, almost all treatments for warts lead to either some kind of depigmentation or scarring.

Most of the time, the treatment offered is purely symptomatic. If the person is having difficulty eating, then the doctor advises to apply topical antiviral creams. These help to mitigate the symptoms to a considerable extent. If the person has pain or a slight burning sensation due to the wart, which is causing a lot of discomfort and difficulty in eating, then he can use a topical anesthetic or a topical analgesic, which will help soothe these symptoms. If the symptoms are very severe, then there may be need for more invasive treatment for the patient to get any kind of relief.

So, can you get warts on your tongue? The answer is yes. Even if the person you are having unprotected sex with does not show any active signs and symptoms at that time, if you happen to have even a small open wound, the virus could enter your body and lead to symptoms like tongue warts. So, in such cases, it is best to take precautions by ensuring that you have protected sex, because, as they say, prevention is better than cure, especially when there isn't one!