White Spots on the Tongue or in the Mouth
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Try one of these related symptoms.
White spots on tongue
White spots in the mouth
White dots on cheek
Possible Causes
Generally, White spots on the mouth surface or tongue can be related to:
- Herpangina
A viral infection of the throat and mouth that causes fever, throat pain, and mouth ulcers. Herpangina most often affects toddlers and children younger than 10 years old, especially children who attend daycare or schools where they interact with other children. There is a risk of dehydration because the mouth hurts when drinking water.
- Behcet's Disease
A rare autoimmune disease that causes inflammation in blood vessels throughout the body. Symptoms may include mouth and genital sores, as well as eye inflammation. As the disease progresses, joints and internal organs could also be affected.
- Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease (HFM)
HFMD (Hand-foot-mouth disease) is a highly contagious viral infection. To prevent transmission, patients should wash their hands regularly and avoid going to school until the ulcers have healed and the rashes have dried up. Patients often eat and drink less due to painful mouth ulcers, so it's important to monitor for dehydration and encourage food and water intake.
- Stomatitis
Doctor's Diagnostic Questions
Your doctor may ask these questions to check for this symptom:
- Do you have white spots in your mouth or tongue?
- How have the white spots in your mouth or on your tongue changed since it started?
- Have you had white spots on your mouth or tongue before?
- How long have you had white spots on your mouth or tongue?
Reviewed By:
Unnati Patel, MD, MSc (Family Medicine)
Dr.Patel serves as Center Medical Director and a Primary Care Physician at Oak Street Health in Arizona. She graduated from the Zhejiang University School of Medicine prior to working in clinical research focused on preventive medicine at the University of Illinois and the University of Nevada. Dr. Patel earned her MSc in Global Health from Georgetown University, during which she worked with the WHO in Sierra Leone and Save the Children in Washington, D.C. She went on to complete her Family Medicine residency in Chicago at Norwegian American Hospital before completing a fellowship in Leadership in Value-based Care in conjunction with the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, where she earned her MBA. Dr. Patel’s interests include health tech and teaching medical students and she currently serves as Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Arizona School of Medicine.
Yoshinori Abe, MD (Internal Medicine)
Dr. Abe graduated from The University of Tokyo School of Medicine in 2015. He completed his residency at the Tokyo Metropolitan Health and Longevity Medical Center. He co-founded Ubie, Inc. in May 2017, where he currently serves as CEO & product owner at Ubie. Since December 2019, he has been a member of the Special Committee for Activation of Research in Emergency AI of the Japanese Association for Acute Medicine. | | Dr. Abe has been elected in the 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia Healthcare & Science category.
Content updated on Feb 6, 2025
Following the Medical Content Editorial Policy
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Link to full study:
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.29.24312810v1References
White Tongue - Cleveland Clinic
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/17654-white-tongueWhite Tongue - Mayo Clinic
https://www.mayoclinic.org/symptoms/white-tongue/basics/causes/sym-20050676