symptoms

Red Dots on the Tongue - Causes and Symptoms

Definition

The presence of red dots on the tongue may depend on various causes.

The sudden appearance of many small and annoying red papillae in relief, which make the lingual mucosa look like a strawberry or a raspberry (both in color, shape and texture) may depend on scarlet fever . This infectious disease is caused by beta-hemolytic streptococcus and mainly affects children. In this context, fever, sore throat, nausea and small red-colored skin spots also appear. Among the exanthematous diseases, scarlet fever is the one that occurs most at the level of the oral mucosa, but it is not excluded that such a presentation is associated with measles and rubella.

A reddened tongue with very prominent papillae may also be due to inflammation of the oral cavity, such as stomatitis, or an allergic reaction.

When small red and swollen bumps appear, instead, at the origin of this manifestation there could be a nutritional deficiency.

Photo: Strawberry tongue associated with Scarlattina. From wikipedia.org

Possible Causes * of Red Dots on the Tongue

  • Food Allergy
  • Contact allergy
  • Kawasaki disease
  • Measles
  • Rubella
  • Scarlet fever
  • Burns