Am I allergic to something? Why does my tongue hurt so often?

My wife used to get mouth sores until she started taking an L-Lysine supplement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-lysine

Sometimes I find the acidity of vinegar to hurt my tongue a little. (Which is sad, because I love pure balsamic on salads.) So maybe it’s that?

Besides having an M.D. examine your mouth, also get a dentist’s assessment.

In addition to quickly seeking expert medical advice also try eating bland non-spicy foods for a few days to see if your mouth pain stops.

Good health!

@gondwanalon if it’s anything like every other time, though, any pain usually goes away within….5 hours i’d say. Isn’t that weird? I can always remember saying casually to someone “damn, my tongue hurts!” and then that’s it. It goes away so soon after. Growl.

Could it be the texture of the food, roughing up your tongue? In this particular case, the croutons would be the likely culprit. I have that happen to me sometimes. Spicy food does it to me, too, but I’d guess that’s fairly normal.

@augustlan its not the texture i dont think. in fact my tongue is very smooth right now. I know the feeling you’re talking about. I love sour and spicy and salty things and all 3 give me that roughed up feeling. It’s more of just a muscle pain…

@deni I’m at a loss, then.:(
Let us know how it goes at the doctor/dentist!

See a good doc is probably the best advice one can give to medical questions on Fluther..

That said, I’ve had something that is perhaps similar. My tongue would swell after certain meals and would feel like it was rubbing abraisvely on my back teeth (sometimes perhaps accompanied by a strange metallic flavour..). In other cases small point sources of irritation would come up often towards the tip of the tongue. I understand that symptoms like these might be caused in some cases by a flare up of Candida albican fungus or an overly dry mouth.

The closest thing I could find when I went a chasing for a diagnosis, was a loose congolomerate of conditions jointly referred to as burning tongue (or mouth) syndrome.

http://www.yourdentistryguide.com/burning-mouth/

Anyways, like you, I noticed a pattern that seemed to be assocaited with diet. First, my tongue got irritated with overly acidic foods. Pineapple or acidic dressings would cause discomfort. (this might be a separate issue from the one below)

In addition, a somewhat different type of swelling (primarily towards teh back and edges of the tongue…with imapcts on the gums) seemed to be associated with my eating yoghurt. So I cut down on that and started drinking larger amounts of water, avoided overtly acidic foods, and I started rinsing my mouth regularly with water over a few days following the symptoms. I also floss more now…which dropped the gingivitis…which dropped the irritation, which means now I have shinny white teeth and healthy gums (cue sparkly grin to camera….KACHING!)

This could be a coincidence…ie perhaps the symtoms would have gone away regardless, or only one of these factors helped the condition (ie more water). But this approach worked for me (no acidic foods, no yoghurt, lots of water, even better oral hygiene), and it also has stopped the sympoms in their tracks on the rare occassions when it came back in the months following the first outbreak (It hasn’t come back for over a year now).

So, as far as any relatively harmless anecdote is worth trying, I’d see what sounds relevant from my experiences and give it a go.

best of luck. (happy to clarify further if you think it’ll help)...

sorry but im ROFL, Your question when viewed immediately beside the question before yours is humorous.
Oral thrush is a possibility ?

It’s the spicy foods. Does it to me each time. I love tacos but know I’ll pay for eating them for awhile after. Either that or what Odysseus said. :)

Tongue sores are typically a sign of lack of certain vitamins in the diet. Stress can increase the problem. A good vit B complex can help. (folic acid especially) Does the skin on your fingers ever peel?

There are so many reasons… you may only be aware of them after a meal, but the sores are there all the time. Best case… vit B complex… worst case… oral cancer. Good idea to see a doctor. Especially with the pain being felt in other parts of your mouth.

That being said,... read this website. Without looking at your tongue and getting more info, it’s hard to tell….

http://www.webmd.com/oral-health/tongue-problem-basics-sore-or-discolored-tongue-and-tongue-bumps

I sometimes suspect that eating too much salt does something similar to me.

My doctor told me almost 30 years ago not to use toothpaste with SLS sodium lauryl sulfate if acidic foods burned my mouth or caused white ulcers. L-Lysine supplement was an excellent remedy until the doctor told me about the SLS. Those foods didn’t bother me for 20 years until Tom’s toothpaste added in SLS without changing the label. So I’ve got a couple of brands of toothpaste without it but balsamic vinegar seems to still said off the burning tongue even if I don’t get the mouth ulcers.