So I was telling my sister what happened when I woke up with a black tongue the other day (see this post). She told me to go on Google and search it. So I did because I hadn’t done that yet. I came across an article on Wikipedia that said:
Pepto-Bismol has been known to cause one’s tongue and stool to turn black. This form of “black tongue”, however, is a result of the separation of bismuth from salicylate, forming bismuth trisulfide (Bi2S3) in combination with the sulfur found in saliva.
Bingo! I took a Pepto-Bismol chewable tablet before I went to bed which resulted in me waking up with a black tongue in the morning. Woot!! Now that mystery is solved. LOL!!
[Edit:] Brushing your tongue with a toothbrush and water helps remove the blackness.
[Update: October 6, 2011] I can’t believe how many people have been commenting on this post since it was posted back in 2007. I’m so happy I could help you all through the mini heart attack of waking up with a black tongue. Scary stuff, I know! LOL!
All the best to you all & future visitors who joined the “Black Tongue Club”. Haha 
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731 Responses to I found out what causes a black tongue!!
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Initially upon waking up and seeing a black tongue I think I’d freak a bit. I would jump to the conclusion that I was somehow poisoned or was suffering from necrosis since frostbite on the tongue in NM during the summer would be unlikely. lol
After that though I’d think it’s really cool and then procede to show my tongue off to anyone and everyone.
Hahaha…I never thought about showing it off. Damn, I should of took a picture too. Maybe next time it happens, lol!!
I have never heard of that before. What a weird side affect. I think I’d scream if I noticed my tongue turned black lol.
I agree with everyone else. I would have done something drastic, such as scream or go crazy. But then I would realize that Google, once again, would save the day, and rid me of my troubles.
That is really weird! I’ve had black stool, but never a black tongue. That would freak me out too!
Hey! I have black tongue too!
I feel much better now after reading your note… I did take pepto last night and I did wake up with a black tongue and I did freak out!
Thank you! I was starting to freak out that I was going to have to stop drinking. Seems like beer makes me take pepto and pepto makes my tongue black. Miller brewing Co. Thanks you too, now I will not have to stop drinking!!!!! LOL. Seriously. Thank you for your time I am very glad I found your sight.
I thought I’d scrub my tongue raw. Thank God for Google. I really need a Pepto Bismol now.
Thansk!!! That solved my issue. I woke up with my whole tounge covered in black and I freak out and so did my wife. I search it too, and came across with the same thing. I remember that before I went to sleep I took a chewable pepto bismol tablet. It was a crazy experience!
I’ve suffered the black tongue for years – lots of illness and antibiotics, plus meds I must take. None of my doctors or dentists wanted to touch it and I have tried everything – just discovered EMAMERICA (effective microorganisms) we have one type for our wastewater lagoon, which is amazing, and they have a product called probiotic EM-1 for internal use – I started with 3 drops and four days into treatment I am already seeing and feeling results! My tongue is almost a tongue again! That’s EM (effective microorganisms) EMAMERICA on line (I’m not a dealer, nor a representative, I just believe in the product! (I also got the toothpowder and mouthwash while I was at it and I’ll never use regular toothpaste again!
finally I found out what this is!! thanks!
I woke up with a black tongue this morning and after showering and brushing my teeth (it did start to come off), I headed to the computer and googled “why did my tongue turn black” I thought of everything that I ate last night and I couldn’t make any sense of it. I was scared that there was something seriously wrong with me. Then your blog was one of the results of my google and I am soooo thankful that you put this up there! Yes, I DID take some pepto bismal last night! I had an upset stomach and took the PB right before going to bed. Mystery solved!
thats what happen to me but i got scare and i whent with a black tounge to school it was embersing i dint open my tounge at all
thank god…i thought i was dying.
It happened to me too… took two pepto tabs last night before bed, woke up with black tongue, proceded to freak out, searched google, found this, alls good – whew.
Just this morning my 21 year old son came to me upset about his “black tongue”. I, too, suggested that he google it. And, of course I am the one to do all the googling. I am greatly relieved on his behalf b/c I had never seen this before and my son did use pepto last night. Funny thing is is that when my son was little we always told him his tongue would turn black if he told lies… when he showed his father and me his tongue this morning we both asked him the same time if he had been telling lies at !
I woke up with a black tongue this morning and obviously thought the worst!!! :S My doctor tried to palm it off as a fungal infection, but im glad i googled it coz i took a pepto tab last night. Thanks. Well done on solving so many peoples mysterys, it doesnt tell you this on the pack!! :P
Thank you for helping so many of us. I am SO releived that I am not dying. Thank you!
as if this happens to so many people and no body’s ever heard of it! it also seems to be mostly chewables as apposed to the liquid. SO WEIRD. and gross.. it takes disgusting.
thanks alot pepto…
WOW!!! I couldnt believe it when i saw my tounge this morning!! I too thought the worst. Is my stomach bleeding? Am i dying? Then i found this sight1!! I also took 2 pepto tabs last night before bed. What a trip!!!
It started coming off when i took my tooth brush to it. Thank you for the info. I am so relieved!!!
my daughter was sick to her stomach last night and i gave her 2 pepto tablets and told her to go to bed,the next morning while brushing her teeth she noticed her tongue was black we had no idea that was a side affect when i found this i was soooooooo relieved i really thought something was very wrong!!!who knew?
woke up last night from sleep apnea and had some stomach problems. took pepto bismol chewable tabs and woke up with black tongue. i figured it was from the pepto because i knew it could turn your stool black. i had a bad taste in my mouth after taking it. but, now I know for sure
Thank you so much!
I took a Pepto Bismol chewable tablet last, night awaken with a black tongue.
How scary is that!!
I thought PB was the casue, but wasn’t quite sure, because it also turns my bm black.
I was trying to think what did I eat last night, bushed my teeth and my tongue as usual some of it came off. Hours later black residue was still on my tongue. Close to pushing the panic button, I decided to google “black tongue.
Thanks for saving the day and my sanity.
I am very relieved to hear that the pepto caused this. I took 2 tablets the other day before going to bed, and I awoke to find my tongue black. I was startled to say the least and didn’t know what caused it. Thanks for relieving my fears about this.
Thank you very much!
This is crazy same thing happened to me after spitting out from tooth brishing I noticed a reddish color on my spit and rinse. Then I opened my mouth to brush my toungue and Wala!! my toungue was black. Before freaking out I started brush and once the blackness came off I was a bit relieved but still puzzled. I just googled and mystery solved I did drink some pepeto in the middle of the night. Thanks the black toungue would have been on my mind all day.
I am so relived, thank you for posting this. I bet we can avoid this happening if we brush after taking pepto. I have taken it many times before and never had a black touge because I had brushed beore bed, this time I had already brushed, boy was I worried! Thank you for posting this…but isn’t the black stuff gross? It looks like mold even though I know it’s a chemical reaction
I am so relived, thank you for posting this. I bet we can avoid this happening if we brush after taking pepto. I have taken it many times before and never had a black tongue because I had brushed before bed, this time I had already brushed, boy was I worried! Thank you for posting this…but isn’t the black stuff gross? It looks like mold even though I know it’s a chemical reaction rather than a bacterial one. Everyone say it with me…YUCK!
<–here’s us. Ew.
Thank you. I, too, awoke with black tongue. Took 2 pepto tabs last night and found out ‘why’ thanks to your posting. Google is the best!
I woke up with a black tongue this morning. I thought I had Ebola or something, we just got back from Mexico the day before. I took a total of 6 pepto tabs throughout the day yesterday. Never eat at the Burger King at the Cancun airport!
problem solved , thank you
Wow! I, too, went to brush my teeth this morning and saw the black tounge. I had just had something “suspicious” taken off my skin, and my imagination got carried away. I thought that maybe I had skin cancer, and it had spread to my tounge and I was of course, dying. I took some pepto this morning, and after reading this website was GREATLY relieved that death was not at my doorstep! Thanks!
Hello! I’m another terrified pepto user
Thank you so much for your post. I hope it moves up on the google list because another entry I read said black tongue can be an early warning sign of a serious disease! I had two chewable pepto bismal last night. Phew.
Cheers
Woke up with a black tongue and nearly started crying on the spot as I frantically tried to clean it off. Finally got to google… pepto. I had pepto tablets last night cause my stomache was rebelling. *sighs of relief*
Diluted peroxide works wonders, FYI.
PS: I am NEVER taking pepto again lol.
My tongue is black today and i have never taken pepto in my life. I have been rinsing before bedtime with a prescription mouthwash called chlorhexidine gluconate to kill bacteria after some gum surgery 3 weeks ago, but it didn’t turn black until today. I did take a Benadryl in the night last night… could THAT have anything to do with it? Anyone heard of that?
I am also a victim of the Pepto black tongue. I took two Pepto chewables last night and woke up with a black tongue. I used a tongue scrapper for about 20 minutes this morning trying to remove the discoloration. I am so glad to hear that I’m not suffering from some freaky tongue disease.
Hey Christine
that mouthwash (often called Corsodyl) can turn your teeth and tongue brown if you use it too much…that’s what my dentist warned me…should come off if you stop using and brush tongue!
My 6 month old has a black/brown mark at the back of her tongue…anyone know why? Thought it might be banana…! HELP
You are so Awsome! Thank you so much! I had this happen once before but as I was brushing my teeth and tongue in the dark i didn’t realize it until I spit. Then I wasn’t sure what was going on. Then last night I took a Pepto and wala, Black Tongue this morning. I scrape my tongue and alot of it came off. Then I got into some weird sites about what was going on in my body. And to my delight, there you were. Thanks you are Blessed.
Sharon
Last night I took about 3 pink Pepto Bismal (2 then 1) tabs, and I chewed each one. At around 4am, I got up to go remove some unnecessary well filtered fluid from my body that it had stored up for such purpose the normal way (I had a lot of water last night before bed — I don’t remember if I drank it before or after my last PB tab — and I wonder if washing the tongue after using the PB tab would prevent black tongue), and while I was in the bathing room, I decided to brush my teeth, too. Well, when the first rinse hit the white vanity, it was not clear and toothpasty like usual, and I noticed the black parts right away. I tried brushing and rinsing again to see how much more would come out. Not much came out the second time, but a little. So, I took a look at my tongue, and wow, it was all black! I was excited, and said to myself, this isn’t like white tongue which would be an indicator of sickness; this was black. So, I finished, directly came to google, and found a site that said it could be reduced immune system and a whole bunch of other possibilities that scared me. Then, the second link I looked at was wikipedia which said what you found, and I was like “why didn’t the other site say that? I obviously had PB pills!”
I see some of the other posters had some of the other possible causes — sickness, mouthwash, etc., mentioned in the sites I saw, but the majority of respondants here also had it from Pepto Bismal chewables. I’m quite relieved it’s not just some Wikipedia lie, and that all of you also had this experience from PB.
At first I was thinking it was the antibiotic action of all the Cayenne Pepper I was eating to potentially help with the stomach problems (Cayenne Pepper kills many of the bacteria that cause stomach problems, including notably the bacteria that usually are the cause of stomach ulcers, so I was using it as a potential benefit in me and my roommate’s fight with stomach pains), and the whole sickness cause got me scared, too. Whew! No fungus (I hope)! (Fungus is often a side effect of antibiotics, since many microorganisms tend to eat various fungi, so attacking the microorganisms helps the fungi.)
I woke up Friday morning, 11/9/07 with a black tongue after taking two chewable (store brand) of PB the night before. While brushing my teeth I noticed black stains in the sink. I opened my mouth and notice my black tongue, I got chills and almost fainted. I did not see a disclaimer on the box in regards to black tongue. For now on, I research all OTC medicine. This was too scary for me.
I had black tongue a few years ago and it scared me so bad that morning my heart stopped! My boyfriend proceeded to make fun of me and say i had something wrong with me until he noticed his black tongue!! (at that point i figured if i was dying i wasnt going alone so i forgot about it). Happened again last night and i thought it must have something to do with heartburn (had it really bad yesterday and was drinking pepto like it was kool aid). My sister suggested the internet and thank god for her! they should really put a warning on the label. I wonder how many people in the world have been scared to death b/c of this?!
OMG!!! I woke up with black tongue this morning! I thought I was dying…I brushed and brushed, alot came off, but not all. I rushed to the computer and found you….I did take two Peptol chewables last night…it is NOT mentioned on the package. I think now my stomach is worse than it was before!!! Thank you a million times over!
Count me in those that found this site to be a relief. My wife is a nurse and it baffled her as well. I took 2 tabs right before I went to bed. I woke up and noticed a weird taste in my mouth, but didnt think much of it. Then brushed my teeth and it looked like I had been eating oreo cookies.
O well this eases my concern.
Thanks!
BTW they should list this on the box as a side effect.
OMGOODNESS THIS JUST HAPPEND TO ME RITE NOW 9:08! THAT IS CRAZY I WAS SCARED i SCRUBBED MY TONGUE WITH MY TOOTH BRUSH IM GLAD ITS PEPTO CUZ I TOOK PEPTO LAST NTIE BEFORE I WENT 2 SLEEP
I woke up with a black tongue this a.m. I recently had to breast diopsies and 3 skin biopsies both which came back neg. yesterday. My mother just was diagnosed with breast cancer just like her mother. Needless to say I felt sure I had cancer, however, learned from this site it was the PB I took last night.
I am so glad that i am not the only one who freaked out because i took the PB tablets last nite also.
i was scared as sh*t when i woke up!!! The first thing i did after i brushed my teeth was google it so thanks to u all for your commemts!!!!
OMG, this happened to me this morning! Im actually very glad to have come across this page. I woke up this morning and my tongue was black! I decided to search the internet as to why. VOILA! I stumbled upon this beauty and realized, holy crap!! I ate Pepto-Bismol chewables last night!
Does anybody know if there are any other products that may cause the same thing? Last night I did not take pepto bismol, but I did use my last crest white strip. The stuff on it always got on my tongue. I dont know if that may be the cause….
Um… Thanks for the info, but I strangly DIDN’T take pepto bismol. I took a different medicine, though.
Omigosh! Thank you! Freakin’ chewable tablets!
i woke up with black tongue this morning and thought i was dying. when i checked out all my other bodily parts and found most of the extremities also black i realised i was dead!
SWEET!!! I too took a disgusting pepto chewable before I went to bed and the same thing happened to me. I was worried till I read this post
thanks
so i woke up today and saw that i had a black tongue and black stuff on my teeth and i PANICED!!! i’m 7mo pregnant and so obviously i thought of all the horrible things that could be going wrong in my body that would affect the baby… so i called the dr’s office and they’re having me come in later today… then i got on trusty google and found this…. then i remembered i had killer heartburn last night and took two PB chewable tabs. lol i’m going to go in anyways just to make sure but my god am i relieved!!
thanks for posting this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i just took pepto for the first time last night….thank you for this!!!!!!!
Thanks for posting this – none of the medical websites mentioned it – and of course I looked at them first after waking up with a disgusting, putrid BLACK TONGUE. Ugghh! I chewed about half a box of pepto dismals the day before for heartburn and the next day I thought my insides were rotting and probably black as well. Thanks for saving the day!!!!!!!
I am so relieved…my Mom called me today and told me she woke up with black tongue AGAIN. Well, a few months ago she experienced it for the first time, but that was after I had taken her out and got her so drunk that we both probably should have had alcohol poisoning, so we assumed it had to be from the excessive amount of alcohol. Then when it happened again this morning, I googled every medicine she takes before deciding to google “black tongue” and that’s when I found your blog…whew…talk about relief!!! Now we both know to never take pepto again…hell if it does that to your tongue, think about what it could be doing inside of your body…scary!!!
Man, I woke up with a black tongue this morning too. I had to google it and here I am. It came off just as easily, good thing too…because I was worried.
yesterday, i had a stomach ache so i took 2 pepto tablets. i woke up this morning and i had the black tongue thing and it scared to death. i thought that i was deathly ill or something so i went online and i came here. talk about a relief.
I woke up this morning with a completely black tongue. I freaked out and called into work thinking my tongue was dying. I then googled “black tongue” and learned that it was caused from the peptobismol that I took the night before.
That is so funny! I just woke up with a black tongue wondering what the hell is wrong with be but it is because of Pepto Bismol, especially the chewing tablets.
Holy crap! This was too funny! I too woke up with a black tongue this morning. Told my sister who told me to google it which is where I found YOUR site saying your sister told you to google it!! Plus, I thought only my friend & I said “Woot!” hahaha. Yeah, Pepto. Mystery solved. THANK YOU for the info AND the great belly laugh – from me AND my sister!
When my daughter came to show me her black tongue last week, I was terrified!! I thought I had to go to the ER with her before going to work. I helped her scrape it off with her toothbrush and it came off except for some in the back. After talking with her about it, it was her that came up with the conclusion that it was the pepto tablet i gave her the night before for her belly ache. I Googled it and confirmed it and so has everyone else here. I told her not to tell her teacher or friends because it would be hard to explain that to them, plus its just gross. They should put to brush after taking on the label, it scared the wits out of me, she thought it was funny. But….it is funny!!!
OMG, I woke up this morning and made some coffee, then I went into the bathroom and almost peed my pants when I saw my tongue was black. I spent an hour thinking I was dying from Aspergilloma or something ewually bleak. I had had the flu for the past few weeks and I swear my life started to flash before my eyes. This was the worst morning ever, but the best when I realized that I hjad taken ONE pepto chewable the night before. This has never happened and I have taken it many times, but I am so relived. Thanks, and for real, they should put something on the box about this.
omg that is such a huge relief, i woke up this morning ready to go on my senior class trip and found that my tongue was black! i started crying thinking i had food poisoning and had to be rushed to the hospital thereforemissing the trip which had already been paid for! you see, i had been feeling nauseaous yesterday and my sister told me as a joke that i had food poisoning but being the paranoid creature i am i took it more seriously than expected. But i did take pepto bismol last night so believe me when i say thank god!!!
I woke up for the second Morning with this black tongue.
Brushed it of the first time and hoped it was from my herbal Tea
the nite before.
The next morning the black tongue arrived again.
Thought I was becoming really sick of bird flu.
I freaked internally.
then searched this site up and thank god it was the Peptobismol
chewable tablets I took on both occasions.
They should mark the PB label and warn of discollouring
of the tangue and the bodily stills to a blackish green discolorashion.
So people dont panic, ruin there days and waist there time.
Pretty Bad system considering we are in 2008 and
this is not mentioned on the peptobismol labels.
what else is out there that is not mentioned or warned on other drug shelf items.
unbelievable.
thank you google, thank you!! more importantly, thanks to ALL the people that took the time to submit their testimonials on black tongue!!! i have been sick for 4 days now w/a nasty stomach flu. I just brushed my teeth and noticed black spots in my spit, opened my mouth and nearly had a heart attack!!! completely went weak (and i’m already weak from being sick!) …ran to show my husband, who immediately panicked and called the doctor!! i raced for the computer and googled black tongue…what a relief!!!! thank you! thank you. and the doctor has yet to even return my call!
Wow! This is crazy. I freaked out this morning when I saw my tongue was brown. I thought I must have been bleeding out of my lungs or my stomach or something, especially because my stomach was upset last night… so I took a Pepto Bismol tablet. It’s good that it’s nothing, but still pretty freaky.
Other causes for Black tounge?? I noticed today I have a black tounge!! Tried to scrub it off with tooth past. I don’t take pepto bismal, but I drink a lot of tea and just finished a round of antibiodics and almost finished taking something for a yeast infection because you get them when you take antibiodics. I don’t know the cause if it is the anti yeast medicine, the tea or antibiodics but I appreciate Maya’s posting that she has had it for years and due to fungas, could be what I have. I will be continuing to monotier this and keep you posted.
Joyce
My doctor gave me an agressive round of antibiodics for what turns out to be just a pimple on my face. They didn’t know for sure waht it was, thought it was infected with a cyst underneath. Nope! $70 broker, with a yeast infection and a black tounge all caused by the antibiodics, but good news! my pimple has gone away!
Thank you so much for this info!! Just woke up with black tongue and freaking out!! I Booked appointment to doctor already!! I dont have insurance, so the tests would cost a lot!! Now Im relieved)) I did take that pink tablet before going to sleep!! whew, I’m so relieved, that it was nothing more serious than that
thank you!!
im a hyponchondriac and i was freaking out!!
thanx tina!!! i woke up with a black tounge and i surely did take pepto before i went to bed last nite because it has happened once before and all i could think of it the food that i ate and i didnt eat anything last nite.
WOW! I too am a person who got the pepto black tongue. I freaked out this morning and then found this site on google, and what a relief. Really glad it was the pepto and not the fungus/bacteria cause that I’ve also read about…phew. And I agree that they really should put something on the box about this side effect!
THANKS! I too was very worried. I took a Pepto tablet last night. I don’t usually have an upset stomach so maybe that’s why I don’t remember this happening when I’ve taken Pepto before. Unfortunately, my stomach still doesn’t feel very well but at least I know I’m not gonna die!
I have black tongue too and I have been on antibiotics and periodontal disease mouthwash. Gee, I guess that’s what has done it. Hope it goes away!!!
my son was complaining about his stomach hurting and hurting, so I gave him 2 chewable PB’s last night. This morning he work up with a black tongue and freaked out. My husband made an appt with the ped’s and seating at the doctors office. While I’m at work I thought to search what causes a black tongue. Thats when I found this sight. I told my husband what it was and he said I which I would had known before I was seating back here in the back waiting on the doctor to tell me nothing is wrong and stick me with a high bill.
Wow, am I glad I found this…woke up this morning with black tongue…totally forgot until now that I took two pepto chewables last night before bed!!! How crazy is this!?!
Yo I woke up this morn with the same thing. I spit in the sink like nothing and flossed. I proceded to stink out my tongue the joint was black. I got spacey for a sec and started shaking thinking wtf. I look in my cabinet to jog my memo but to no avail I couldn’t fig out what it was cuz I didn’t have oreos. Then I thought I had pepto chewys. But until I looked on the net I was bugging. What a sigh of relief………lol
oh my me too
i must admit when i went to brush my teeth this morning i was FREAKED out. but then after reading this i realized i had taken pepto bismol yesterday. crazy.
I must thank you for posting this for I’ve been scratching my head trying to find a reason for my black tongue. Yes, I had peto bismal chewable tablets.
i woke up this morning(glad for that)and noticed after spitting into the toilet that my spit was black.i walked over to the sink to summons up more spit and it was still black.i snorted and snooted up more spit and the more i spit the more it stayed black.in fact even my tongue was black.i tried brushing it away but it wouldnt dissapate.i panicked because i also have kidney issues and started thinkin i was a gonner.then i googled “why do i spit black” and found listings for black rappers.im a white rapper so i searched again ,rephrasing the question and found this posting.whew! what a relief! see, i also chewed a tab last nite – a cheap knock off i stole from work called “pink bismuth” instead of pepto bismal, and woke up with a mudmouth. im better now though,thanks to this site… p.s the moral of the story? steal better stuff from work!
Ohhh yes, those perscription mouthwashes can cause the black tongue.
Good Grief…Black tongue is some scary stuff!!! I stuck my tongue out and said “OMG” what in the world is that? I thought to myself “What in the hell did you eat”? Then thought long and hard and figured I hadn’t eaten anything because my stomach had been bothering me and then remembered the only thing I had was Chewable Pepto Bismol. I couldn’t believe that the PB was the culprit. So I hopped on Google and sure ‘nuf the PB was the culprit. So now I’m off for some vigorous tongue scrubbing!!!
Became a victim unknowingly last night. While getting the kids ready this morning and brushing my teeth I noticed it and so did my son. Have taken pepto chewable before but this is the first time black tongue happened. Something new every day!
WOW! thank you for that. I literally just finished brushing my teeth and I saw i had “black tounge”. i’m sick so i was like “wtf”… but i took pb last night too!! thanks haha
Oh thank goodness for this site. I woke and realized I had black stuff on my teeth so I brushed and didn’t think anything past that. I figured it was something left over from dinner, I don’t know what. But as I was going to work I realized the taste hadn’t left and when I looked in the mirror at work I saw my tongue and started freaking. Then I came to the computer and looked it up. And what do you know, I took a bismuth chew tablet right before I went to sleep cause I was naseaous. Ha. But seriously, thank you!
Hey! The same exact thing happend to me this morning and i have been freaking out ever since then until i read this! I took the chew tablets right before i went to bed last night. Thanks a lot!
I woke up one morning and noticed something black in between my teeth then I opened my mouth and noticed that my tongue was black. I got really scared because I thought my tongue was turning black from all the weed smoking and I thought it had something to do with my lungs being black or something. That was the first thing that came to my mind because I got a canavis card and I smoke everyday. I brushed my teeth and everything came off my tongue. I didn’t want to ask any1 about it because I was embarrased.. Thanks to google I realized it was because I had took some pepto bismal the night b4 right after I got the munchies……..
all i could think was “our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,…”. woke up 3 days ago with a tongue that looked as though it might belong to zorro, began planning my funeral. it was going to be lovely. after i stopped crying, i began to ponder whether all the antibiotic meds i had recently stopped guzzling like pez might be the culprit. also considered the gerd. then i recalled reading about candidiasis or something like that. don’t have pepto bismol but i did take an alka seltzer about 4 days before i looked as if toronado had galloped across my face while i slept. don’t know if alka seltzer combined with the scrips may have produced a peptobiz effect or not. one thing i do know: few things in life are as frightening as waking up to a black tongue. thank you so much for posting this. go easy on the pepto folks.
I have a friend who also has stomach problems and has been told by his (doctors) to take PB and now he has a black tongue. I called his spouse this evening (or should I say this early morning) to let them know, what I found out, I hope it relieves them.
My tongue turned black after using Plus White Xtra Whitening toothpaste. I should have been leary of trying it as a couple of years ago, my tongue turned back from Listerine Whitening mouthwash.
Does one just have to wait it out until it goes away?
I just discovered my black tongue today but don’t take Pepto….I do take Gaviscon tablets (same purpose) and also do a listerine rinse every day.. Has anyone else used these products and gotten the dreaded BT? I thought at first it was coffee stain……….
iv hd a black tongue for yearsss nw..i dunno wat causd it or wat 2 do to get rid of it :S
Bless you! I thought I was dying as well, now I am happy to be alive and still love Pepto!
Well done for spotting the side effects of Pepto Bismol, I too woke with a black tongue, yesterday and today, thought I had serious internal problems. It just goes to show we don’t read information leaflets as we should do! Not sure if it’s available in the U.S. but ‘Pepcid Two’ is another great indigestion remedy and no black tongue! Thank you
Wow, Tina looks like you have helped A LOT of people, me included! Totally freaked out this morning, and thanks to you I feel a lot better. Thanks!
So..my stomach was feeling a bit on the nauseasted side. I took me some pepto chewables, cherry flavored. I popped them tablets like candy all night long, I was that nauseated. When I woke up in the morning, the taste in my mouth was a nasty funk taste. Like worse than morning breath itself. So I go and brush my teeth, and when I spit…I saw all this black..and I’m thinking…”jesus christ, MORE PROBLEMS.” And I saw that it was black allll the way in the back, too. Unfortunately, I’ve got god awful gag reflexes and I kept heaving after trying to scrub the back of my tongue raw.
But then…thank god for google. And
’s blog. Or I would be taking pepto for shitting my pants.
So, I am one of the lucky few that woke up with black toung, but I did know that this was a side effect.
Comming from the package of chewables “WARNING[...]This medicine may cause temporary and harmless darkening of toung or stool.[...]“.
It’s on there, but I am relieved to know that so many people have shared the same experience
Wow the same story happened to me last night i was super sick took 2 pepto chewables ….and i woke up i ate then i looked in mirror and saw black i freaked i was like omg im dying so then i googled it and yea (: all better
THANK YOU! I took two chewable pepto last night and woke up with a black tongue. Although I also have bumps all over the back of it that have not gone away…
Thank you so much for the answer. This morning I woke up with a little bit of a cold, then when I brushed my teeth I noticed the brown on my toothbrush. I thought that it might be a virus. I googled and found various answers but nothing that described my symptoms very well. I had to go to work and I was so worried all day that my cold felt a lot worse than it actually was. As soon as I got home I came back on line for info about this, and there you were! You had the answer that made sense. Lastnight at bedtime I had a little bit of a tummy ache, so I took three pepto tabs. Now I know that this can happen and I can pass the information to others. Oh by the way, now that I don’t think that Im dying, my cold doesn’t feel that bad anymore.
Hi,
, thanks for posting this it’s really helped lots of people. I don’t have a black tongue but i came across your site and just had to say “good job”. Thanks Tina. 
hey Tina I got an idea.. Lets sue pepto bismol! LOL. no really.
Thanks soo much for the posting. My daughter woke up this morning with dark tongue and stained teeth which shocked me, I was just about ready to call the nurse advise line when I decided to look it up on the net and hurray, I found your posting addressing the issue. Thanks a bunch – Mau
OMG i’m so glad i found your site…i was totally freaked out this morning with my black tongue..i thought i had so totally alien infection in my mouth..ha ha
thanks
I found your blog when I found out that one of the searches which leads to my website is: “im sick why is my tongue black?”
I don’t believe in coincidences but I don’t know what to make of this one! Cheers.
P.S. And, no, my tongue has never been black and I hate black licorice. It has been that awful, sickly white, however.
Wow! This, according to the comments, is more common than I thought! This is my second or third time waking up with a black tongue, and I thought it was one of my asthma meds that makes me “wash my mouth after use”. But now that I recall, I took a chewable pepto before bed every time it happened.
THanks!!
I want to thank you for finding out what caused black tongue. I woke this morning and thought I had been poisioned, so something was seriously wrong. I took Pepto-Bismol last night. What a relief to know it was nothing serious!
Thank goodness i know how to deal with this now. Last year (2007)my son got it once. Never seen it before. School nurse said to use tongue scrapper, it will go away. It did. Then I got it some months later. Now last week (2008) I got it for the 2nd time and freaked out again. I don’t like it. I keep thinking maybe it’s something in my carpet that vacuuming and shampooing can’t get out. It’s only happened at my home that I’ve lived in for 4 years now. But I took note that when it happened I had a bad tummy ache and took pepto bismol and went to bed. I woke up with black tongue. I hate it. Then it happened a couple nights after that but it wasn’t a stomach ache. I had a late night ice cream sandwich followed by heartburn so I took pepto bismol again. Woke up with black tongue again. I couldn’t scrape my tongue hard enough. Now that I read info on a few sites on google, including yours, I have a better understanding and better idea on how to deal with it. I won’t freak out too much anymore. I just hate it. I am however glad to know that I’m not a freak and people do go through this. I’M NEVER BUYING PEPTO BISMOL AGAIN!!! MYLANTA BABY!!
OH MY GOD I WOKE UP WITH A BLACK TONGUE AND THOUGHT I WAS CRAZY OR SEEING THINGS. I’M SO GLAD I SAW THIS BLOG NOW I CAN REST ASSURE IT WAS JUST THE PEPTO TABLETS I ATE!!
thankyou so much for this info.
i was freaking out when i opened my mouth to find a black tongue.
I have been going from doctor to doctor (gastro, dentist, dermatologue) looking for an explanation for the black tongue that I discovered about a week ago! All the specialists told me not to worry, that it’s probably because of taking antibiotics or Pepto bismol, and they did not know really what it was.
Actually, the only new thing I had taken before getting the black tongue was Listerine Whitening Quick dissolving strips, I don’t know if that’s what caused it but I certainly stopped using the strips. It’s been about four days now, and I’m hoping to get my old tongue back soon, it’s become an obsession and I’m checking all the time in the mirror.
thank you so much! i was about to not go to work today because my tongue looked like i had eaten dirt! i’m so happy this is “normal”
A huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. Pepto Bismol!
My theories included: (a) years of red wine abuse resulting in my tongue absorbing it like a sponge, (b) a deadly fungus, (c) something worse.
Thanks!
Wow, I woke up this morning with black tongue! scared the crap out of me. I brushed the hell out of my tongue and it mostly came of. Goggled black tongue and this is it,I had two chewable pepto’s right before bed. I have since thrown the the rest of the box away.
Thanks!!
OMG I am so happy that I found this site. I have been having stomache problems and last night I took a chewable pepto type pill and woke up this morning with a black tongue and freaked. My doc. thinks I have a gall bladder issue and will be getting an ultra sound tomorrow but at least the mystery of the black tongue is resolved my doctor didn’t even know what caused it.
So funny as long as we can all laugh at ourselves. 2nd time in 2 weeks I woke up with this. First time I’d been working with some stuff that was very powdery and thought it was from that….now I know the truth..and the truth shall set you free
Thank you. I am in China for work. The black tongue happen to me three or four times. It freak me out but I blamed it on pollution. But this morning when I woke up with black tongue I decided to ask some of my Chinese co-workers we talked about how the weather is bad and I ask if they ever had a black tongue they all say no. I thought I am sick. I start searching on the net here I am what a relief I took pepto bismo cheweable candy before I went to bed.
Thank you everyone! Had funky taste in mouth this morning…saw black tongue in mirror — ran to google — and I too had a pepto bismal cherry chewable last night before bed — PHEW!
Jay; I found the cause of black tongue
Black tongue in my case is caused by use of peroxide mouthwash for long period of time. I have been using peroxide mouthwash to clean my implant (which has been poorly done)and to keep infection down. I should not have gone beyong a week but I did. Hydrogen peroxide kills bacteria and this fungus starts growning in the absence of good bacteria in the mouth.I am quitting today and hope it will get better. I also brisch and clean the tongue at least twice daily now.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, i could go on…I woke up with a black tongue this morning and I freaked out!! I immediately called my husband and we were both trying to figure out… good thing for google and your site or i would probably still be trying to figure this out. Yeah I also took a Pepto chewable tablet last night…Good thing its that and not something else….
WOW!!! Thank you so much for posting this. Like several other people I thought I was dying too. I think I’m getting bronchitis which si when I coughed & saw a little black I freaked out. Then I went to look down my throat and my tongue was back. I freaked out. I took (2) pepto chewable tablets before going to sleep last night. So happy someone else did too.
Thank you- I seriously thought I was stricken with some horrible disease. I took Pepto about 3 hours ago and went to brush mt teeth before bed and scared myself to death
This site will allow mw to sleep tonight, thx!!!
Yeah, that happened to me today! Lol, my tongue was black and my mom was freaking out. I showed my sister and she screamed……. anyway I had pepto last night! So, now I’m not worried anymore! Yeah, it’s good to know that I wasn’t dying of disease! haha.
Isn’t it funny that over a year later, people are still using this post to diagnose their freaky black tongue disorder?? Thanks for saving the day. I thought I was going to have to call into work!
Well, thank goodness for those of you who have gone before me…I too had a black tongue this morning and thought the worst. Pepto tabs it is!!!
A tad scary here guys! I had a friend freaking out with a black tongue this morning. I googled and landed straight here. When I asked about the Pepto.. again, mystery solved.
Thank you for posting this!! I woke up with a black tongue this morning but wasn’t too worried b/c my hubby had one a few weeks ago. I brushed and rinsed with diluted Peroxide and Googled it, of course. I did take a Pepto tablet last night before I went to bed! I called hubby and he said he thinks he had taken one too. EUREKA!!
I freaked out this morning because my tongue was black and yes, I did take the pepto tablets before I went to bed because my stomach was hurting…. gland I know what caused it and that something more serious wasn’t wrong
THANK YOU!!!!! when i woke up in the morning i noticed that my mouth tasted funny. So i look in the mirror and there it was “THE BLACK TOUNG!” i started to friek out. no one in my family has ever gotten this. they thought it was because i drank cherry cocacola. well i found this web site and then realized that i did have a pepto bismo last night!!! THANK YOU, now i dont have to worry about going to the doctor.
thank the LORD! i was abt to freakin die if i didnt find out what this was!
I am so thankful to have read this post. I thought my teeth were rotting out of my head or something.
Thank You, Thank You,Thank You!! I am so glad I clicked on this web site. I too woke up with a black tongue. I started feeling ill yesterday and last night I took a Pepto Pill. PINK they are PINK not black.. So this morning when I woke up with a black tongue you all can imagine what I was thinking. OMG what is it now?? Thanks to all of you I now know I am OK and don’t have to call the doctor. Whew
Whew am I ever relieved! Thank god for your info and the internet…it’s true….we’re all connected. No one is alone any more. When I noticed my black tongue last night, I almost freaked out and was imagining all kinds of death related illnesses. I realized that I had taken Mylanta tabs for bloating and gas 2 nights earlier, followed by my usual dental care/brushing, rinsing, etc. Whatever the cause of black tongue seems to stay quite long in your system, even after brushing the tongue.
i thought it was marijuana res coming up from my lungs. i was like holy cow.
Thank goodness! I had a black tongue this am..I thought I was getting something really weird..totally upset..so I looked it up..sure enough I took Pepto Bismol tablets last night…but I wonder…why when I took pepto bismol liquid it never happened…why is that? Anyway I am so relieved that it is just from the tablets andnothing freaky is happening to me
THANK GOD I WAS REALLY VERY SARED WHEN I WENT TO THE REST ROOM AND I SAW MY STOOL BLACK THEN I SAW MY TOUNG AND IT WAS BLACK TOO ,I ALSO HAD TAKEN PEPTOL BISMOL CHEWABLES, WELL THAT GOT ME SCARED I THOUGHT THERE WAS SOMETHING WRONG WITH ME I NEVER HAD THAT HAPPEN TO ME ,WELL I CALLED MY HUSBAND AND TOLD HIM ,HE TOLD ME TO GO INTO THE HOSPITAL TO SEE WHAT THEY TELL ME, BUT BEFORE I DID THAT I LOOKED IT UP ON THE NET AND FOUND YOUR WEB AND I WAS RELIEVED THAT IT WAS NOT ONLY ME THAT IT WAS HAPPENING TO THANK GOD I’M OK AND THANK YOU TINA FOR YOUR WEBSITE PLAESE KEEP ME UP DATED !
thank god cuz i took one of the tablets yesterday!
OMG! That happened to me today and I freaked, b/c I couldnt figure it out. Good thing for google!!! Now i’m relieved b//c yes I did take two Pepto Right before bed. Pheeew!
Hi guys! got a black tongue too, let’s make a community of black tongers. does anybody know how long does it last, this state of black tongue thing, does anybody know any medicine or solution?
Thanx guys
This happened to me twice, once in Guatemala and once in Cozumel, Mexico. I never knew the cause. Thanks! I had a stomach ache the night before both times, so I probably took Pepto. I thought it was the pollution in Guatemala City.
I also took two chewable PB tablets right before bed last night and woke up with a black tongue. Proceded to FREAK out, cry, call my best friend and tell her something was terribly wrong with me etc. My tongue also has little bumps all over it now and down the back of my throat. I’ve never had this happen (but I’ve also never taken PB before). I’m so thankful for google and finding out I’m not going to die. Has anyone had the bumps as well as the black tongue?
Thank you so much for these postings. I too thought something was seriously wrong with me. I took 4 pepto bismal tablets last night.
Two days ago I had an upset stomach and took one pepto chewables and the next morning when I go to brush my teeth I have a black tongue and all that black stuff was in between my teeth. I freaked out and obviously thought I was seriously ill. Im so glad I googled this, I feel so much better now that I know Im not the only one. I am NEVER EVER taking pepto again. They should definately post it under side effects.
OMG! Thank you so much. This happend to me about 3 months ago, and i was trippin’. Then this morning it happend again. I had a wicked stomache ache last night and reached for the pepto chewables. Thank goodness i figured this out. I thought for sure i was eating monster sized giant spiders in my sleep!
Thank you for the information! I thought I had a fungal infection to the Nth degree and panicked. I thought that the BCAAs that I took yesterday were tainted until I read your post(last night was the second time I ever used Pepto-Bismol). I was going to go to the hospital and tie-up our health care system (I’m in Ontario, Canada), but thankfully I now don’t have to waste their time and mine (due to very long waiting times). I’m going to contact the makers of Pepto-Bismol. They should be sued by those who’ve had to pay for pointless medical expenses!!!
My wife woke up with a coating on her tongue it was black she freaked out. So did a search, guess what she took a pepto chewable last night. It happen to me one time, I didnt worry about it, likely cause I am a guy and nothing else happen again…so just to check it out I am going to take one tonight and see if I get the Black tongue. Hey this could make a good joke on a friend….hee hee yeach give then a pill and then in the morning go..”OH my GOD your tongue is BLACK!” Have some fun with it…hee hee
I woke up with a black tongue the other day and just assumed it was from the liquid pepto I had taken in the middle of the night. I got most of it off by brushing, but for 2-3 days now my tongue has been SWOLLEN and the inside of my lower lip has felt really rough (kind of like it feels after eating a whole bunch of sunflower seeds, which I hadn’t done). Also, the bottom sides of my tongue are sore. The swelling seems to be going down now, but I WAS WONDERING IF ANYONE ELSE HAS SUFFERED FROM THE SAME????
My black tongue was not due to Pepto Bismol, as I never took it. So I don’t know what caused it. But lately I had a soar throat and was given antibiotic (pennicelline) and it cured the black tongue. It must mean that it is a bacteria that causes black tongue!
Anyway, I’m very happy it went away!!
I woke-up this morning with a black tongue. I was really freaked out. I was thinking am i dying of cancer then I found this web-site. what a releif. I did take pepto. I’m just glad i’m not the only one.
My black tongue was caused by whitening toothpastes and whitening mouth wash. Never took Pepto Bismo.
Hey Tina,
That is good news to hear. I am studying in Cairo and have found myself with a black tongue on a number of occasions. I thought maybe I caught something here but after reading this, it gave me much comfort. You see, I have been chewing Pepto Bismol like its going out of style to control my stomach from all the new and foreign food. Didn’t know it caused it until I read this so thanks a lot!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! This was the 2nd morning in like 2 weeks that I had woken up with a black tongue….I WAS FREAKING OUT!!! So before I packed up my 2 kids and went to the E.R. I decided to check out my old trusty google, and here you were. Each night before bed I took a Pepto chewable, viola, a black tongue!!
i also have been suffering from “the black tongue” for 6 years now ,i will try some of your tips.
i freaked out a bit , but now i am used to it , even my sister and my brother has “the black tongue. the freaking part is that , I DONT EAT THOSE PEPTOS .
Well, thank goodness! I thought I was turning into a Chow!
Started brushing my teeth (and tongue) daily with a mix of hydrogen peroxide and baking soda, after a friend’s suggestion. She’s used it for years with no ill effects, but after a week or so my tongue turned black! Stopped and went back to toothpaste, and it went away with two days. Have never used Pepto, so definitely was this mix.
I am SO glad to have found this site. I have been experiencing black tongue off and on for a year now. I had my upper wisdom teeth decay due to impaction and it left half open sockets. I also smoke. I thought I had gotten some kind of cancer and had been terrified to google it lest I find the worst. I have been keeping it quiet trying not to freak myself out more. When it happens it leaves a thick black coating on my tongue and teeth. It tastes like your mouth is rotting and stinks worse than morning breath. I finally got the nerve to google it today and Im astounded to find out it is Pepto. I ate two tabs last night before bedtime and had it again this morning. I never had the problem until last year WHEN I STARTED TAKING PEPTO. I feel like a huge burden of stress was lifted off my shoulders. Thank you so much everyone for posting.
I was thinking..if Pepto does this to our mouth..what is it doing to our insides? Gross.
Wow, this post makes me feel soooo much better. The black tongue happened to me this morning after I took pepto bismo last night, and it’s happened before, but I had no idea what was the cause…. so thank you for making me not worry!
wow
i was kinda scared…..i just woke up and i was gunna brush my teeth so i opened my mouth and in th back of my touge was all black at 7:39 am…..when i went to google i started getting scared but i shoulda took a picture of it before brushing it off all the way…
i had an upset stomach last nite so i ate a pepto tablet and this am black tongue. thought it had something to do with feeling a little under the weather this week and reading this will save me money i was ready to call my doctor
thank you
Yes! I woke up yesterday and today with black tongue and I was sitting there going, “WTF??” Well I took a Pepto tablet both nights. Only after reading this did I look on the box and read that black tongue was a possible side effect.
Thank God for this website. I was getting ready to take my almost 7 year old son to the hospital this morning. I kept asking him what he ate that he wouldn’t get into trouble if he tells me the truth. I never would’ve imagined that the pepto tablet would make his tongue black instead of pink. I thought it was his blue mouthwash from last night. Does anyone know if this happens with the liquid?
Oh shit! This morning I was brushing my teeth and my toothbrush turned black! I was so surprised that I spit out all the toothpaste and to my dismay it was all black aswell. I started freaking out and looking in the mirror at my tongue, brushing at it furiously and using listerine until most of it went away (there’s still a little at the back) until I realized i remembered reading on the pepto package that it “may cause temporary darkening of tongue or stool”.. it’s never happened to me before so I was so scared.
Thanks for the info, I took a tablet last night and woke up with a black tongue. I thought something was seriously wrong. I have taken pepto more than once in the last month. But decided to google this time to see what was wrong.
Now I can relax!
Oh my GOD. I thought I had cancer or something when I woke up with a brown tongue. Thank you so much. I took Pepto yesterday. You have made me feel so much better.
OMG, i took 2 chewy pepto bismol tables today and when i got home i thought i had black tongue, thank god for that.
I had the same thing. i was about to freak when i remembered hearing on a show that that happens.,
thnks so much i did the same thjing and evryone was so worried THANKS
Thanks for the site. Freaked me out when I saw my tongue this morning. 2 pepto tablets last night, black tongue this morning? I think I will keep the heartburn!
[...] I found out what causes a black tongue!! |
’s Blog I’d try grape juice or purple kool-aid tho. Not black, but dark. Maybe licorice candy? I also noticed that when I eat Altoid mints, it dyes my tongue whatever color the mints are… freaked my dentist out that I had a green tongue! __________________ I’m a Halloween Bride! 10/31/2002 Where there is no imagination there is no horror. ~Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [...]
Thank you sooo much!
Last night in the afternoon I took 2 chewable pepto tablets, when I woke up my tongue was fine. This morning I took two more, went out for a bit came back and spelt until just now. I woke up and saw my tongue was black and started freaking out! I hadn’t eaten anything today so no food could have done this. I went on google and searched “What made my tongue black” and your blog came up. I’m so releaved it’s not something serious!!
Thank GOD!!! I woke up early this morning and my teeth were black around the gums and my tongue black. I freaked out so bad I thought my teeth were rotting away or i was coughing up blood in my sleep! I did brush the hell out of my whole mouth and searched the whole house for more floss! That damn peptobismol!
thank very much.two dr appointments later and thinking i had cancer or worst…….I TOO HAD PB….I’m thinking I’m dieing of god knows what….Just think of all the other med’s we take that cause some kind of reaction that we run to the Dr for……
thank you very much for taking the time to post this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My husband has been sick and woke up with a black tongue this morning. I too googled it and saw the thing about pepto but he hadn’t taken any. However he did take Mylanta and they have the same main ingrediant. I think I found the culprit.
Thank god for this website!!! I was first sick with an upper respiratory infection went to the doctor and was prescribed Amoxicillan…yuck!!!…i then had an allergic reaction and thought i was going to die, terrible stomach pains and vomiting so I….took Pepto Bismol chewables and thought this would solve the problem..only to wake up this morning thinking i had some horrible stomach disease..THANK GOD FOR GOOGLE..my mom freaked out and called the doctor who said this would happen due to the allergic reaction but…What do they know?! Its from the pepto!!!
Im not going to die after all!! WooHOOO!!!
thank god to google! i was freaking all day….but yes i had a pepto before i went to bed…it brushed off pretty well…
I woke up with a black tongue this morning. I had gone to bed sick on Halloween night and thought I was either coming down with something I’d never heard of before–or had eaten poisoned candy! I consulted my medical book and was surprised to find such a think as “Black Tongue”, but it said the cause was unknown. That’s why I jumped on the internet.
Yep, I had taken PeptoBismol chewables before bed. Catastrophe diverted. Thank goodness for Google.
I woke up with a black tongue, did not realize it till my roommate told me on my way to the coffee maker! She was freaked out more than i was i guess until i saw it in the mirror myself. I googled my black tongue and saw your blog. What a relief..peptobismol…who’d have thought!
Hey, I woke up this morning after taking one chewable Wal-Mart generic equivalent of the pepto chewable pill. I usually do the liquid brand name Pepto if my stomach is a little upset, but this time I couldn’t find it in the house, so I used the tablets I had for back-up. I was horrified as my whole tongue and some of the inside of my mouth was BLACK the next morning. I found this site and it answered my question as to why it happened. But, I also want to tell everyone how I got rid of it. I brushed my teeth 5 times and my tongue REALLY WELL every time, along with drinking lots of HOT water. The black came off almost all of my tongue. So, brush the teeth and tongue well, drink warm to hot water and rinse well. I hope this doesn’t happen in public after I’ve chewed one of those. Perhaps I’ll just stick to the liquid and see if it ever happens to me again.
The literature for Pepto-bismol does say it may produce discoloration of the tongue by the way — BUT it doesn’t say “may turn the tongue black”. I don’t usually think of discoloration as jet black, perhaps mildly redder than usual. Thanks everyone.
hi im an 11 year old ive had a tongue that is blackish and greenish im worried about it but i soon figured out that pepto did this yikes ive also had bad stomach aches so i think the black tongue thing is from the dumb ass pepto
this morning i woke up after taking like 5 to 7 pepto pills last night when i got up to make my coffee i went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and take a shower for my new job and my tongue was all blackish greenish and i thought i was food poisoned so i called my boss and told him i was sick and i couldn’t make it to work! i stayed home and looked up black tongue all these different websites came up the websites included black hairy tongue i was so worried i went to check my tongue nope no hair thank goodness! I finally found this website and thank God i was not going to dye it was just the pepto! yahoo i screamed im not going to dye! wow thanks for posting this oh and p.s there are some pretty nasty things on this website!
You have no idea how relieved I was when I read your blog and all these posts! I thought it was a symptom of something really strange and then I started watching Grey’s Anatomy and was even more freaked out thinking I was either crazy or about to be a medical miracle or something. I think I’ll stick with the liquid from now on…and maybe wash it down with some water!
I woke up with a strange taste in my mouth and I knew it had to be from the PB but when I was brushing my teeth I was noticing that my toothbrush bristles were turning black and I started to freak out a little bit. I then looked and my tongue was SO black. I knew it had to be from the PB, but I didn’t know if that was normal. Thank goodness for this site calming all of my fears!!
yeah lol… did the exact same thing last night.. stupid pepto bismol lol…
Oh thansk you so much for answering my question! I thought it was all the drugs I had been doing!
Do the pepto people know about this? I think that they should work it into their next marketing/comercial campiagn
OMG HAAAH! Thank God for The Internet!!!! Hocked up a loogey in the sink and was freaked out by the black gunk that came out of my mouth. Looked in the mirror and nearly lost it! If I were a trained doctor, I’d not have panicked. But since I am just a stupid regular person, at least I have Google. And sure enough, like a beacon of light in a sea of black (LITERALLY) there was your blog.
And yes, I popped a Pepto Bismol table before bed last night.
THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.
this happened to me too. i realized just now i brushed my teeth. i calle my sister. she said someone did witch craft on me so i googled black saliva and this site came up. hahaa
my saliva was black gross!! haha. and i had some pepto bismol b4 going to bed last night tOo.
I woke up this morning with black tongue. I was worried until I searched the web, and found your blog. You solved the mystery. I had heartburn last night, and grabbed the trusty Pepto Bismol, and lo and behold “Black Tongue” in the morning. Thanks for the info, I dont have insurance, and was scared I was going to have to make a trip to the doctor. Thanks again…..
Thanks for the post!! I’ve woken up with “The Black Tongue” on two occasions. I had convinced myself I had eaten some oreo cookies before went to bed and somehow forgot. My lady was convinced I drank too much Pepsi the night before. Well, turns out that I did have Pepto both nights!!! THANKS. Now I know I’m not slowly transforming into a giraffe.. which is a relief.
Today is Wednesday. Sunday morning I awoke with a black tongue after having a chewable Peptobismal tablet the night before. As much as I tried to scrub it off with my toothbrush and mouthwash, et. during the day, it really didn’t lighten. It was pretty gross–and quite a concern. I Googled “black tongue” Sunday night and none of the causes seemed to pertain to me. (Peptobismal wasn’t mentioned in the first 5 Google sites. Monday morning I Googled again and this time I clicked on your blog. My suspicions were confirmed. Peptomismal was the culprit. I phoned the 800 number on the bottle and was told that “yes, it is quite common to get the side effect of a black tongue”. I was also told that there is a warning on the packaging of all Peptobismal products regarding this. Mine was an older bottle and had no warning. I was told that it is harmless and would go away in 2 or 3 days. This is the 4th day and it is 99% gone. I checked with products on the shelf in the drug store and I was glad that the warning is now on the bottles and packaging. Thank you for posting this on your blog.
Sunday morning I awoke with a black tongue after having a chewable Peptobismal tablet the night before. Scrubbing with my toothbrush, etc. was no use. It was pretty gross–and quite a concern. I Googled “black tongue” but none of the causes in the first 5 sites seemed to pertain to me. (Peptobismal wasn’t mentioned.) After Googling again the next day, I clicked on your blog. My suspicions were confirmed. Peptomismal was the culprit. I phoned the 800 number on the bottle and was told that “yes, Peptomismal products can cause a black tongue” & that there is a warning on the packaging of all Peptobismal products regarding this. My older bottle had no warning. I was told that it is harmless and would go away in 3 or 4 days– which it did. I was glad to find that present products on the drug store shelves do have this warning and it is now on the bottles and packaging too. Thank you for posting this on your blog.
diddo, did the same thing…it was the second time, the first i thought i was allergic to something i ate. but it was the pepto both times……..THANKS!!!!
i did take pics though
wheew yea solved my prob… bc i did take peptobismol chewable last night too and this happened b4 too and wondered what the hell… and my mom wiged out so thanks for the information
I Woke up this morning and while brushing my teeth I noiced my tongue was black…I freaked and showed my husband…I took two pb tablets last night before bed. I told my husband maybe it’s the pb because that was the only thing I had before I went to bed..He said your crazy pb wounld’nt of done that..Thanks for posting this I feel better now..
oh shoot! i was hoping my black tongue was something waaay more debilitating so I could call in sick to a presentation at school today…
thanks for the diagnosis..!!
Google is my friend. My 16 year old daughter just called me at work and said she woke up with a black tongue. She stayed home from school today because she was sick and she had took 2 Pepto’s last night. As soon as she told me I freaked out, but she calmed my nerves by telling me she googled it and found out it was from the Pepto Bismol’s she took yesterday evening. I thought I was going to have to take the rest of the afternoon off, go home and shoot her to the emergency room.
I also woke up this morning with a black tongue. I had no idea what it was because before I went to bed my tongue was pink. I brushed my teeth and then I got heartburn. I went into the medicine cabinet and took two chewable peptobismol tablets. When I woke up the next mornig not thinking about the tablets I got nervous when I saw my tongue. I then brushed my teeth and rinse with mouthwash, but that didn’t work, so I brushed my teeth and tongue again and some of it came off. It is hard to brush way in the back but I got a lot of it off so that when I talked or smiled you couldn’t see the blackness. I suffer from heartburn and I normally do not take pepto because I don’t really like it, but last night for some reason I took one. You can believe that I will not take another one again because I do not like the side effect from it. I wonder does this only happens with the chewable tablets. I knew that when I googled black tongue that something would come up…Thanks
I WOKE UP AND BRUSHED MY TEETH I SEEN THAT MY TONGUE WAS BLACK I CALLED MY BOYFRIEND AND SHOWED HIM AND WE BOTH FREAKED OUT.HE ASKED ME WHAT DID I EAT I TOLD HIM A SANDWICH AND THAT WAS IT.I THEN CALLED MY MOM AND SHE FREAKED OUT TO AND SAID GO TO THE HOSPITIAL RIGHT NOW,BUT I HAD WENT TO A INTERVIEW THAT NIGHT AN HAD SOME JUICE AND I THOUGHT THAT MAYBE THE BUT SOME THING IN THE JUICE.MY STOMACH WAS HURTTING AND I POPPED TWO CHEWABLES OF PEPTO BISMOL AND WENT TO BED.I AM SO HAPPY ABOUT HEARING ABOUT THIS I THOUGH I HAD A MOUTH DISEASES OR SOMETHING THANK YOU FOR YOUR THE ANSWER I WAS ON MY WAY TO THE DOCTOR FOR NOTHING THANK YOU GOOGLE
Thank goodness for google. i sent a note to my cousin at work today asking her about black tongue, i sent an email to my friend i work, she goole it and come up with the answer for me. i thought i was going to die. I had taken Pepto bismol chewables before bed. Never again, thank you google and Vanessa Reed, good job friend
Well, about 35 years ago, I too woke up with a black tongue. My mother took me to the Dr, and they thought it was a reaction/side effect of penicillian. They gave me meds to take care of it, and it did go away..(would have in time). Did it again a few days later, and then I discovered it was the pepto…Had no computer to check on it back then, and have been telling everyone I run into for the last 35 years who have had a black tongue about the pepto. Glad to see it is still the cause. Thanks guys!
Thank you so much for posting these! I was so worried when I woke up this morning. Thanks to Pepto Bismol too for having that side effect and not warning people.
Thank you all very much! My nine year old daughter woke up this morning with a black tough. Her stomach had been hurting her yesterday so I gave her a PB chewable tablet before she went to bed last night.
She came in my room this morning as I was getting ready for work and said “Mommy look” with her tongue hanging out of her mouth. She looked so scared. I couldn’t help but to look at her like she was some sort of alien. Just kidding, but it baffled the hell out of me. She asked if she should brush her tongue again to see if it would come off. I just shook my head yes as I was trying to run back in my head what she had eaten last night. We were both relieved to see that it was coming off.
I asked her if her tongue was hurting and she said no. I told her that I would make her an appointment to see the doctor today anyway, but first I wanted to Google black tongue. We all know Google is the answer to everything lol. I sent her off to school and ran to work to Google black tongue. Thank you all so so much!!! :o)
We went out for my company’s holiday party last night. He came home with a terrible belly ache. So, naturally, I tell him to take some Pepto tablets and go to sleep… He woke up this morning screaming for me to come into the bathroom. I assumed it was something on the menu last night.
Thanks to this blog, I just cancelled his doctor’s appointment and they will not be getting a co-pay out of us! And the Pepto is going into the trash!
I am so relieved……I was panicking….I woke up with black tongue scariest thing ever I took 2 pepo tablets went to bed at like 5am woke up at 9am with a black tongue today……I am confident about going to my doctors appointment tomorrow….thats crazy they need to put a warning on the label!! WARNING may turn you stool black and your tongue causing you to freak out
Holy cow! Whole thing, ditto on me. Pepto-chewables, too. Thanks! You saved me from a vast amount of anxiety.
thank God for this post. i woke up today with that and i freaked but i ddi take pepto bismo last night the tablets the chewables wow
My Pharmacology Professor told me that usually the tongue will turn black if you’ve eaten something with preservatives in it such as sulfides. This could include wine, pepperoni, lunch meat, etc. So, if you’ve taken Pepto before and didn’t get “black tongue” but you’ve just eaten something like pepperoni pizza with an antipasta salad, and now you need a Pepto, you could get black tongue in the morning but it isn’t a guarantee. Good Luck!
Just noticed black tip tongue. Late in pm,- not like the majority of posters who woke up with it. Also have not taken any PB. But DO take Nexium – a Px for healing esophogeal inflammation, etc. Wondering…? Finding it amazing the large numnber of people commenting here. Tina? Forward it on to the PB folks!!http://www.pepto-bismol.com/index.php
thank you so much, my daughter woke up w/ a black tongue and i freaked out. went to webmd, but didnt find anuthing on black tongues. thanks again
Funny how many people are relieved by your blog post here instead of reading this on a professional medical site. I had the problem too just now. Didn’t think too much of it since it comes off just as it does from after having a couple glasses of a rich red wine. Nonetheless, great to quickly diagnose this as pepto.
Does anyone there have a black tongue NOT caused by pepto bismol?
Well Steve, I tried looking it up on medline and webmd but got no hits on the search for “black tounge”. So I googled it and this was the first result I saw.
So yes, thanks! This was a big help after waking up this morning with a black toungue. I was sure I had a horrible disease. I had taken Pepto tablets last night just before bed.
THANK YOU!! This happened to me twice. The first time I thought I had some freakish disease that you keep “in the closet”. I scrubbed my tongue with my tootbrush and then poured peroxide over both (tongue and toothbrush). The second time I remembered I took some chewable Pepto tablets the night before. I was still freaked out but had a sneaking suspicion about the Pepto. Thanks for setteling that for me. Now I can stop checking out my tongue everytime I go past a mirror!
My sister called me, upset because she woke with a black tongue. I did a Google search, and came to this blog. When I mentioned Pepto Bismol to her, she screamed, ‘Yes!!!’ that’s it! I took those last night, before I went to bed. I love the Internet, and thank you for this posting! Happy holidays everyone!!!
OMIGOD I woke up with black tongue today and freaked right out. My co-workers think I have something wrong with me. I’m so happy to find this website! I was shaking in my uggs today! Thanks so much
What a relief. I woke up with a black tongue and as it turns out, I took Pepto Bismol last night! Thank you!
Thank You. This saved me alot of time. I woke up took a shower went into the bathroom and at some point noticed that my tongue was black. I started brushing and rinsing my mouth, very nervous…. Yeah… Took Pepto Tablet last night.
the last 2 days I have been waking up in the morning with black tongue.The first day I was freaking out and I called my sister at the hospital were she worksand I told her what happenedand she told me that she was going to talk to a doctor she is a triage nurse herself.the first day I thought it was because I had gone for dinner at my aunts place and we had chicken and purple rice,that night my stomach was upset so instead of taking rolaids my wife told me to take pepto bismol the tablets and I went to bed .The next morning the tongue was black when Iwent to brush my teeth.By the end of the day my tongue was back to normal.That evening we had a party at my house ,we had dinner with freinds in the evening before going to sleep I took a pepto bismal tablet again ang guess what morning my tongue eas black again.started to panic Igot on the computer and started searching black tongue found the sightand started to read up on it I was more calm now .I will call my doctor and ask him about peto bismal.Thank you everybody for posting your stories.canada.I will call pepto bismall headquarters and ask them .
I thought people with black tounges have like some mystical powers or some shit, w.e it is mine looks like a little disease growing i hope i dont die
same thing happened to me! took to pepto chewables woke up with a black tongue and freaked out because i’ve had a fear of hairy black tongues even before this whole thing happened.
As I read the comments left on your page, I can tell you helped a lot of freaked out people. I am one of those people. I ate a couple bismo tabs and woke up thinking I was going to die. It is funny how quick the mind is in jumping to the worst case possible. I couldn’t find much info online until I came to your page. Now I feel silly but thankful that you were smart enough solve the BLACK TONGUE epidemic.
THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE INFO.. JUST GOT A FRANTIC CALL FROM MY SON AT COLLEGE. THANK GOD HE CONFIRMED HE ALSO TOOK PEPTO BEFORE BED.. NOW WHAT IS THE BEST PROCEDURE TO REMOVE THE BLACK FROM ONES TONGUE!!
I nearly crapped myself. I was scrubbing my tongue with my toothbrush and mouthwash and on the verge of crying when my mom looked this up. They should freakin put that on the bottle!
Thank goodness I am not alone! I was totally freaked out this morning when I noticed my tongue was black! With my over active imagination and watching way too many episodes of House, I was preparing myself for the absolute worst. Knowing I can blame it on the Pepto that I took last night makes me feel a bit more at ease with the whole situation. Thanks for the information
thank you so much for putting this out. i totally freaked out, I went on web md and put in black tongue, and it came back with cancer. more freaking out. I found your site and remember I had pepto last night. thank you so much. I am nice and calm now and don’t have to call a doctor.
I had a phone call from my wife she was at work and tolled me she had a black tongue so i looked on the internet and found this site so i phoned her back and asked her if she have bp last night guess
what she did take 2 pb tablets last night
I too took Pepto tablrts lastnight before bed and didn’t realise my BLACK TONGUE till I went to brush my teeth to go to the dentist. I totally freaked and ran to the computer to search it. I phoned my dentist and the receptionist had heard of it at least we had a good laugh and appointment was reset. Now I can laugh after I figured out what was wrong.hahaha
Thanks for posting, hehe, now I feel silly.
This same thing happened to me this morning while brushing my teeth. I noticed my tongue was black and immediately panicked. I actually went to the dentist and she thought it was something I ate. I had two pepto bismols last night. Thank God I’m not dying. Thanks for posting this.
Wake up dis morning after skipping my class, go to the mirror, put the paste on the toothbrush open my mouth stare at my tongue for 7 seconds then BLACKOUT!!IM GONNA FREAKIN DIE!!!With the thought that one of my internal organs had bursted. Find my Health Insurance card when I realise it has expired, pack all my medical crap in my backpack and as Im about to leave I check out google and dis comes out. Wow……….I’m an idiot.
Loved finding your site!
I have been on antibiotics for weeks and assumed the brown tongue (did freak the first time!) was from a yeast/fungus reaction to antibiotics.
But, I was only getting it now and then…never dreamed of the PB tablets from Mexico as the culprit.
Thanks….I travel all the time and it is harder to get into a doctor on the road. I planned to stop at Walgreen’s and ask a pharmacist. Now I don’t have to!!!! Have a great day.
Hey, I experienced black tongue this morning when I woke up. I freaked out!! I was thinking of everything that could be wrong. Then I started thinkin bout the last thing I ate or had in my mouth before I went to sleep–exactly a Pepto-Bismol chewable tablet! I then brushed my teeth and it faded a little bit. I rinse my mouth with peroxide since I as out of mouthwash, then rebrushed my teeth and it was gone. I’m still freaked out about it!! No more Pepto for me!!
oh myyy goshhhh
thank the lord :|
i actually thoguht i had a disease!
and i was picturing my teeth falling out on the floor
i took a pepto bismol chewable last night though so that explains it
omg reading this blog was such a relief!
I ACTUALLY LOVE YOU RIGHT NOW
Hahahahaah I woke up with a black tongue this morning!
I thought I had eaten a bug or something, but it was all the damn pepto bismol!
Heartburn, indigestion, upset-stomach, nausea, diarrhea!!
HEY PEPTO BISMOL!!
I also woke up with a black tongue after taking the “pink stuff” OMG I had tears in my eyes!!!! Now I can laugh about it
You have helped me alot.funny story actually..I woke up a little late than usual..and only because i was feeling hungry.So, before i eat i must brush my teeth, i headed to the bathroom and started brushing my teeth, but when i spit, black stuff came out…i was half scared to death when i looked in the mirror….I started screaming and called my mum who is a nurse…she was at work.I told her i was going to die and i was freaking her out even more by that, coz i never call her when she is working. I began to think that maybe someone poisoned me at night or a ghost maybe, coz i dont remember eating anything black the whole of yesterday…so after i explained to her, she told me to taste salt and see if i felt any pain..and i didnt, so she told me there was nothing wrong. most probably its because i took pepto bismol…and indeed i took it last night…so i googled the stuff and walah, i came to this site..so i am as relieved as ever…hope it goes away coz it just happened today…i actually started praying to God for help…thankyou whoever posted this article or whatever
Thank u for your blog. yep Black Toung and it scared me!
What a releif! 
OMG, same thing happened to me this morning. I woke my husband up to show him lol. He thought I should go to hospital. Thank god I google everything first. We should all write letters to pepto company to add this side effect to package!!!!
I have taken Pepto loads of times but never had this happen to me before… this morning I woke up with a black tongue and was in a bit of a panic!
Thank goodness for the internet and the ability to find reasons for theses strange occurrances!
I am SO relieved that I’m not the only one that had this problem. I took a tablet last night and woke up with brown tongue. Thank you google!!
I woke up this morning with a black tongue and I freaked out, I kept running over the things I had ate and I couln’t figure it out. I thougt maybe my diet was really bad and it was a sign from God, to give up the crap. But now, since I have read that pepto bimol is the answer, I am so relieved.Thank you so much for taking the time to write this blog.
I had the same thing… took two pepto tabs last night in the middle of the night. Woke up to brush, spit, and voila! Mystery solving time. I had no idea what could be causing it but thought maybe I had eaten an ink squirting bug in my sleep (my biggest fear is eating a bug in my sleep lol). I actually threw up a little I was so grossed out. I had spit and spit and brushed and brushed… most of it came off though. It does say on the pepto box that I have “a temporary, but harmless, darkening of the stool and/or tongue may occur.” darkening? No. It was BLACK. So glad I found your site on google
. Thanks!
This happen to me this morning I thought it was something crazy like cancer lol!!!! I’m glad I looked online..
I didn’t actually notice my black tongue until half way through the morning when I touched up my lipstick… and have spent all day freaking out poor unsuspecting friends and family….. pondering the cause with each of them! It wasn’t until I Googled it tonight and the cause became clear when i found this site. I’d forgotten I had taken two Pepto Bismol before going to bed! Thank you for solving my problem.
My daugter has a black tongue and she has not taken pepto at all. She had dental surgery 2 weeks ago and was given a mouthwash, chlorohexdine gluconate. No probs. She developed an infection in her wrist where she was given the anisthetic and was given an antibiotic. her stomach was also upset from the ibuprofen she had been given to take so the doctor advised gaviscon. I bought more mouthwash, Dentyl. I think it’s safe to say its a combination of the gaviscon, anti-biotics and the mouthwash that has caused the black tongue. Reading some of the comments I found this very funny as we freeked out. The thing that disturbs me is I have spoken to qualified doctors amd dentists now just to make sure nothing is wrong from the surgery and none of them had heard of this side effect! I agree that a warning needs on be put on mouthwash etc because someone with a week heart etc could end up very ill or worse from the shock of finding your tongue black. I am going to contact companies and let them know the trauma caused by this. i will end by saying I am gratefull that this was available to me and certainly has stopped me from completely freeking at tis situation. Left to the professionals I would never had got to the bottom of this. I hope tis helps someone else in the same situation in future,
blessed be all
thank god..i was going crazy for a while until i read this blog…
now that i knw its pepto bismal i can relax
Another in what seems to be a long series of people who have discovered thier tongue has a black stain. I just returned from two weeks in the Amazon and I better get some information before going to the clinic for treatment.
After finding this site I went back to the Pepto box, they do have a warning on the box, for the few people who bother reading the box. It reads as follows:
“When using this product a temporary, but harmless darkening of the stool and/or tongue may occur.”
I actually discovered in the shower that something was wrong because I was spitting black and I got out and looked in the mirror and my whole tongue was black. I took pepto tablets the night before. The thing that scares me is Reye’s syndrome. It’s deadly and black tongue is one of the symptoms. But from seeing everybody’s posts, I’m a little more at ease that I don’t have Reye’s.
Hahahah i was in the bathroom scrubbing my tongue to get rid of the black on it…
Thats exactly what i did i too 1 tablet of Pepto last night, it was pretty late last night lol, and i woke up with a black tongue… that was just way too freaky. i was thinking i needed to goto the doctor to find out whats wrong!
thanks again for the cool blog…
James
p.s. you were # 1 on the google search for
** tongue had black stuff on it when i woke up **
how’s that for a specific search
brilliant just woke up and was intreagued many thanks!
OMG! I woke up wit the black tongue thing this morning 2! I was freaked out! I ran in the room after brushing my teeth n told my husband….he thought maybe it was frm this new acai & pomegranate juice we bought cuz it’s really dark. I told him it couldn’t b that cuz his tongue wasn’t black n he drank some of that juice 2. Well immediately i came 2 the comp n googled it….lol….dnt u jus luv google! So thanks 4 the advice cuz i took a chewable pepto last night b 4 i fell asleep. I never thought pepto could do this….crazy….i thought i was gonna b visiting the hospital or something haha. ~Teena~
I am an other victim of the “Black tongue” mistery….I am traveling in China, woke up early for a video conference with USA…I washed my face and brushed my teeth and in the foamy residu, noticed lots of black…suddenly, I looked in the mirror only to find this black stuff all over my tongue like spilled ink…I keyed in the symptom to the google doctor, and wamo,….
’s Blog, first on the search….you suffer from “Pepto-Bismol” reaction. What a relief that my stomack was not desintegrating in liquid form and coming out of my mouth not to mention my %$&#……I lived and now to face my audience “Black tongue” and all….
PS..Silva, Coinsedence? i don’t think so…
I NEVER HAD A P.B. TABLET IN MY LIFE . I DO HAVE HEART PROBLEMS & THIS IS A SIGN OF ANGINA
Thank you all for posting and explaining this horrific picture in the mirror I faced this morning after eating 2 pepto bismal tablets at bedtime!
Thank goodness for the internet. Same thing happened to me this morning. I would have never thought it was the pepto.
Yay! I got scared for moment! but, I ate a PB chewable tablet before bed too.
I am so glad you wrote this blog! I had noticed a crumb on my lip after breakfast and touched it with my tongue – and my tongue was black! I momentarily paused and stared at my tongue and wondered what in the hell was wrong with me. Then I tried to brush it off. I thought it was from the chocolate milk shake I had after dinner and figured it wasn’t that dark. Then I ran to the computer and found your blog. I had taken Pepto before bed…the chewable tablets and normally I drink water but I hadn’t last night. So THANK YOU for rendering me normal and calming my fears!
Took anitbiotics about 1 month ago, noticed black, or almost brown tongue. Wasn’t worried after googling. has been one month and still have brown on the back of my tongue. so bad that feels like something stuck in my throat, decided to try to scrap it off and the most disgusting crap is coming off my tongue. it looks like spam. I took a small piece of metal strip and bent the end into an l shape to use as a scraper. what the hell, should black tongue last this long?
If you are are doctor or know something about this besides peptol bismal please respond, thanks
wowww…. i woke up with a black tongue, too… i was freakin out hahaha xD
OMG!….This was the 2nd time this happened…but I googled and low and behold…I do not have the EBOLA VIRUS or MAD COW DISEASE..Lol…I took the Pepto Bismol Chewables last nite…YA THINK THEY COULD WARN YA???……I was all freaked out and grossed out…being that it was all over my braces too….I was like man…did i chew some dang Oreos in my sleep…..but..ok…crisis averted….the world is right again!!
OMG!!! Yes i am so relieved as well. I’ve been having sum issues with myself tryin to quick smoking and when i saw that my tongue was black i thought for sure i really needed to stop smoking if the tar is all on my tongue like that. I did have a stomach ache the nite b4 and i took sum pepto tablets and yes the black tongue. It really relieves me but wont stop the issue that i need to stop smoking!
I wanted to say thank you all for your postings. To the owenr, your posting were the number one on google search with “black tongue”, and it really helped. Man, I was so worried this morning when I saw my tongue in black, I was scrubbed it 3 times to get rid of those black thing. I was not sure if it was the curry I had or was it because I was sick. I had diarrhea last night, so I took 2 (chewable) tablets of Pepto. Whew, now I know the cause. I am relieved!
haha heyy, the same happened to me this morning! i went to brush my teeth and my teeth were all black too! it freaked me out because i brush my teeth everyday except for last night because i was reeeeally tired. i didn’t think anything weird like that would happen because i missed brushing my teeth once! i brushed it off and then noticed it was also on my tongue. so i pretty much brushed out my mouth for twenty minutes to get it all off. then i googled “black tongue” and YAY your blog came up! i had a few wal-mart brand pepto last night and probably won’t ever again hahaha.
thanks so much!
This just happened to me this morning my sister said it was called scarlet fever and that i was going to died. Thank God i found out what it really is. And bye the way i did take Pepto. But im not gonna tell mommy what it really is.
I had the same thing happen & my friend Kayte (a nurse) told me I may have yeast infection in my mouth!! I lost my mind & was gonna go to the doctor today untill I read your blog & realized that the last thing I ate before I went to bed was pepto bismol tablets!! Thank you so much
I had the same thing happen with Pepto. They should put a warning on the on the bottle. I didn’t know what to think. Thank god for the internet
I had just watched CSPAN last night about the plegue being in china so when i woke up and saw that my tongue was black i thought i was going to die!!then i found this blog and i was like PHEW!!! it was the pepto bismal!! i brushed and rinsed and it came off. thanks so much!! u saved me a trip to the ER because i was on my way!!
Thank you for posting this. I was freaking out about my black tongue x2 days. You have saved me stress this morning =)
Glad i didn’t look up the black and hairy tounge site first! I was trying to think of everything I ate last night. I didn’t think it was the ice cream, forgot about about the Pepto. Two years late your site is still saving people. Thanks.
OMG! the samething happenned to me this morning. I took a Pepto Bismol chewable at 5AM and when I got up at 9 I saw my tongue in the mirror and it was black. I brushed quickly and it came off. Im glad that I googled and found answers.LOl
I am at a huge conference wining and dining potential customers and this morning i wake up with a very black tongue…thanks pepto! i thought i would post that last night i had fish for dinner (grouper) , raw fish (ahi tuna) for app, oysters and clams on the half. i wonder if there is a correlation between food and pepto as i have taken chewable pepto tablets pleny of times and never had this happen. i have a hunch there is a high sulfer content in some of the sea food i ate last night. good luck.
THANK YOU THANK YOU for posting this! I woke up freaking the F out cause my tongue was black! I was about to haul my ass to the hospital until i decided this might be a good idea first…Damn the chewable tablets!
I havn’t taken pepto bisma. I think the black tongue is associated with using the Brita filter system. Some of the charcola leakage into the water,thereby, turning the tongue black…from the charcoal…
I had major oral surgery about 10 days ago complete with stitches and a bone graft. This is the beginning of an eventual dental implant. Today, I came home from work and my tongue was BLACK!!! I was planning to go away for the Labor Day holiday and had already made my reservations so thought something instant and dangerous had happened. I think it was the Rx mouthwash I have been using–PerioGard. Now that I’ve calmed down and read these posts, I think I’ll be okay. Wow! Scary! Bio-chemical reactions in one’s body.
OMG! Thank you for this post. I too woke up with a black tongue this morning and started freaking out and trying to brush it off. I did in fact have 2 chewable pepto bismal tabs last night before bed. SO weird!
I took some pepto Bismol tab last night and also have a black toungh this morning, i was worried so came on the net to find out why, glad it’s just the tablets, i usually take the medicine and i have never had the black toungh before so will go back to the medicine, bu thanks for the imfo i was getting worried as i knew i hadn’t eaten anything black.
OMG!!!!!! I was about to leave work at 5 instead of 730!! Contemplating my slooooow doctor versus the ER! This thing had me going. Could not concentrate, wondering if i was food poisoned etc. Thank God and thanks to all you “black tongue experts” lol. I feel a weight and load lift off me. Jesus!
I’m laughing but still want to cry. The black tongue thing is soooo scary. I also took PB and am even more sick to my stomach now after fearing I am about to die from some strange mouth cancer. I mentally prepared myself on how to survive without a tongue! Why oh why are we not warned about this prior to taking it? I will never be able to survive such a scare again.
Yeah, happened to me this morning. I thought The Grudge was coming out of my mouth. I freaked out and brushed my tongue 4 times until it was all gone, then googled and found this post. Yep, Pepto tablet I took last night. Ugh. Never again! I’ll stick to the liquid – that has never happened with the liquid.
Guys
Same thing happened to me last night…I had a pepto bismol and slept. Morning I was shocked. Thought I was dying of a disease. I googled and found this site. Much relieved after I read all the postings. I am now so embarassed to go to work with a black tongue !! It does not disappear how much ever I scrap it
My daughter was sick all night so we gave her 2 pb tablets. Woke up this morning with a black tougue…..thought she had the swine flu!!! Called the doctor, made an appointment, and then google….thanks google….saved a trip to the doctor!!!!!!! When I called the doctor to cancel they had ever heard of pb causing this. Who needs a doctor when you have google!!!!!
Haha, In Puerto Rico on vacation and wake up with a black tounge. Scared and wondering what I could have done in a drunken stuper that my have caused my tounge to turn black I panicked.
Eventually I googled like everyone else and was relieved. I too did take two pepto chewables last night…
Thank you
Thank you, thank you. I woke up this morning and freaked out when I looked in the mirror at my black tongue. I immediately googled “black tongue” and found this website. I was so glad to see that Pepto Bismal was the cause because I took the generic (Equate) brand during the middle of the night. I had also started taking Flonase & Claritin D for tinnitus in my ear and thought perhaps I was having internal bleeding. What a relief to read this website.
Thank god for gor Google!!
I was a little scared when I woke up tihs morning, I got up, went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth…and found out that my whole tongue was black!! First thing I did was was call my dad, than tell my boy friend. They both thought is was strange too. I did floss my teeth befor I went to bed last night, but I also took two Pepto- Bismol chewable tablets. Thats strange I thought. Maybe they should but that on the WARNING symptoms. I wonder what it’s doing to my stomach!
I have also experienced this somewhat scary experience, even though I didn’t freak out I could imagine how some people react. At first I thought it was what I had to eat that day or that my body was telling me to finally stop drinking alcohol and partying so hard. It didn’t make sense I woke up feeling great and ruled out any poisoning. Then I thought maybe one of my fillings was eroding and causing the colour. Anyhow I did take 2 pepto tablets before going to bed and from what I read here I guess it is common.
So anyone in the future that wants to take pepto tablets before bed I suggest brushing your mouth after the use of the tablets I assume any residue left in your mouth will cause this plague of death looking black tongue!!!
I woke up this morning to BLACK stool and then looked in the mirror to find a BLACK tongue. Istarted to plan for my funeral. The night before I had chewed two generic Pepto Bismol tablets.
I knew that it causes your stool to turn black but I never had the issue with a BLACK tongue.
Thanks so much!!!
Thank God!! I thought for sure I had mold or mildew growing up from the depths!! I thought I might die! I have learned to Google before Panic and sure enough….I had a pepto tablet last night after eating some spicy food! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
The plague continues… thanks for your post! I pop two chewable Peptos last night as well, and woke up with this wierd iron-like taste in my mouth. I noticed some of the black stuff in my teeth, and when I saw my tongue, I freaked!!! Thanks for the post… way creepy stuff!
Last night I had heart burn real bad took one pepto tablet before going to bed and had a glass of milk hoping it would reslove the heart burn. Well this morning I woke up went and brushed my teeth and tongue and they were back. I said oh my god what happend. So I asked my boss and she said why dont you look up black tongue cause she didnt know what it was. So im online now and OMG I do not want this to happen anymore…I will just deal with the heart burn….But all in all this is funny….
oh my god. this happened to me in the middle of the night last night. i woke up and noticed that my mouth tasted funny, so i went down stiars and brushed my teeth. i noticed that there was an odd color on the tooth bursh so i looked in the mirror and saw that my tongue was black. i freaked out! i kid you not, i thought i was being possessed by a demon or something! i had a hard time going back to sleep but at work today i decided to find out why my tongue was black. and voila! it was the freaking pepto-bismol tablets that i took last night.
OMG that is so weird & so common!! I thought i had mouth cancer or summat (ex-smoker!) but googled it & of course ive been taking pepto bisol. Taken the liquid quite a few times (suffer from mild IBS) but this has never happened. Started taking tablets & woke up this morning with a minging black tongue! Deffo shd be on the label!!!
omg this just happened to me this morning. i have been stressed out all day til now. now if the yankies would win 2 nite everything will be back to normal
I thought I was being punished by God almighty when I saw my tongue! I started to apologize to God for some of the things I said to my roommate lately! After researching this morning and found the wikipedia mention of peptobismal, I felt relieved but still couldn’t get the image of my tongue out of my mind so I searched again and found your awesome blog! I enjoyed having a laugh while reading the other postings so wanted to add to the list…thank goodness there is an easy solution, just brush your teeth and tongue. I’ve brushed four times today!!! Don’t think I’ll be taking the chewable tablets ever again. It really should be taken off the shelf for having such a strange and alarming side effect!
Thank you! My little girl noticed my black tongue before I did and it freaked her out. I too took 2 Pepto-Bismal tablets before bed.
Thanks! This is the second time I woke up this year with a black tongue, it freaked me out. I didn’t know why but in both cases I took a pepto bismol tablet before bed. They should warn you about it!
Talk about scaring me. I have been taking Pepto Bismol all of my life. I usually keep close at hand because it works so well with an upset stomach. Never in 48 years of using Pepto have I ever had a reaction with it.. Imagine my surprise to wake up this morning with my tongue being almost completely black. Of course I took a cup full of Pepto Bismol last night before going to bed. I am relieved to see this has happened to others and that I am not sick with some desease. I just can’t understand how this has just happened after using Pepto for so many years. I must have been those peanuts I ate last night. Who knows? But hey, my upset stomach was gone when I woke up.
thank you so much for posting your statements. I woke up this morning with a black tongue and teeth and i finally looked into what the cause was on the web. I’ve been taking peptobismol chewables for the last couple of weeks so it was great to know that’s the cause and not something worse.
Haha. Same thing happened to me, this morning. I had taken 2 PB chewables last night, and didn’t really wash it down with any water. I woke up this morning and brushed my teeth, noticing that my backwash and toothbrush were BLACK! I thought my wife had played a dirty joke on me, then I began to think, what else could have caused it.
I thought about, how (following taking PB) after pooping, your feces is black. So, it must have just settled on to my tongue and turned it.
Glad I didn’t wake my wife up……at 5am lol.
i took 2 pepto chewables woke up this morning and as i was brushing my teeth i spit black stuff i looked at my tongue and started screaming and crying hysterically (hahah) cause i thought i was dying and my tongue was going to come off. thankfully i had my sister quickly google what was wrong and this article saved me. THANKS
Black poop and black tongue.. this is exactly what happened to me
I did not take Pepto, but a generic chewable tablet from the ‘equaline’ brand called ‘stomach relief’. The active ingredient is the same as Pepto-Bismol: Bismuth subsalicylate (262mg)
I took two of these tablets the next night after going to a buffet. Little did I know what surprises were waiting for me.
In the morning my tongue was completely black, not just a bit here and there, but fully black. I kept on brushing and spitting and somehow I was reminded of the main character on the movie ‘District 9′ when he gets infected with that black goo. My spit was like that.
The next morning the tongue was back to normal, but the day after I was in for another surprise. I went to relieve myself only to find that all my poop was black. Not ‘kind of’ dark, but really black. I did not panicked, but found this amusing and strange since I follow healthy eating habits and I’m a non-drinker/smoker.
Now I know what causes a black tongue and black poop.
What a relief!!! I took a Pepto last night and woke up this morning with a black tongue and entire inside of my mouth. I was told that my body was toxic with metals so off to the Naturopathic store and they gave me a free Heavy Metal screen test kit which I have to fast for 36 hours from minerals etc.. In the mean time I will consume another Pepto tonight to prove the Pepto theary..
so did i and its scary
Whew! Thank God for the Internet. I have had a black tongue all day, and it’s freaking my kids out. I took a chewable Pepto last night. Shoot fire. What a relief. Thanks for this post.
Wow!! I have been taking pepto chewables for the last couple of days & that’s exactly when my brown/black tongue appeared. I was freaking out too… but now i feel much better!! Gotta love Google.
Sheesh!!?! Thanks a lot I thought I had gaingreen of the tongue! That gall darn pepto, a friend in the light an enemy at night! Google once again saves the day!!!
Thanks so much for this post! I googled “black tongue” and thankfully, this was one of the first links to come up! Now I am off to do a thorough scrubbing…. stupid pepto! LOL
omg thank goodness for this blog that happened to me this morning and i freaked out.
Thanks for the post. Looks like I’m another unsuspecting nightime Pepto pill popper who woke up the next morning with a black tongue. I had flashbacks to the movie “In the Name of the Rose.” Guess I won’t die today and I might have some time left to read Dante’s Divine Comedy afterall.
Happened to me this morning!
Same thing happened to me twice… Then again I took pepto tablets twice… I was oober freaked when it happened the second time, though! Thank goodness I found this, otherwise I’d be completely freaking out right now!
Okay…I am so thankful for the info! I took two pb chewables (maybe the off brand) last night, but I brushed my teeth about an hour later with no residue. It was not black the next morning, but more of a light brown…so apparently brushing after you take the pills does help some! Also, it must take some time to turn your tounge that color or I would have seen it that night!I I was freaking out…Ive told everyone to watch out for those pb chewables
BLACK TONGUE: COMMON CAUSES AND TREATMENTS
While it may be a shocking experience to see a black tongue looking back at you in the mirror, the most common causes of black tongues are not something to become alarmed about. In many cases this is a temporary condition that will go away without any treatment.
Pepto Bismol (and similar over-the-counter medications containing bismuth subsalicylate) is one of the most common causes. This treatment for whatever digestive complaints you may have can also cause your tongue to turn harmlessly black. This is neither harmful nor is the treatment difficult.. Simply stop taking the Pepto Bismol. Typically, it will take your tongue about 3 days to return to its normal color.
Not too surprisingly, smoking can also turn your tongue black. Smoking can alter the chemistry in your mouth, allowing normally harmless flora to get out of control. Effective treatments include brushing your tongue with a soft toothbrush, and using mouthwash. This is not likely to be a permanent cure unless you discontinue smoking.
Some antibiotics can cause black tongues. Once you complete your course of antibiotics the black tongue should go away on its own. If the black tongue seriously interferes with your life and you are considering discontinuing antibiotics, consult your physician first.
Some asthma inhalers may cause a black tongue in certain individuals. Your physician may want to reduce your dose or switch you to another type of inhaler.
Usually black tongue is caused by a bacterial or fungal infection. The first step in the treatment will be to remove any of the causes of irritation that are listed above. Medication changes should always be made under the advice of your physician. If the black tongue persists, your physician may prescribe an anti-fungal or antibacterial medication for you.
One uncommon but potentially serious disease that can cause black tongue is Sjogren’s Syndrome. If the simpler treatments for black tongue are not effective your physician may want to evaluate you for this condition.
Most of the time the cause of black tongue is not as serious as it may first appear. Usually the causes and treatments are very straight forward once you recognize the source of the problem.
Wow! I was so freaked this morning. I was brushing my teeth and then spit and saw black (you know, like after you eat a chocolate or something dark and then immediately brush you teeth!!). I looked at my tongue and it was really black, but with some scrubbing some of it came off (I can’t reach the very back stuff… I’ll puke — sensitive gag reflex). I was like, “WTF??! and my boyfriend came to see what was going on and was kind of grossed out. He thought I was turning into a zombie and that would be kind of cool in his mind (right, I’m the Zombie Queen!). So I get to work and ask one of the nurses in my office if she has ever heard of this, and she has no idea. Ok… so maybe I am the Zombie Queen. I then get a chance to check google and this pops up as the first response after I google “black film on tongue that can be scrubbed away” and this blog pops up. I am relieved that I’m not poisoned, or mouldy, or have some strange disease (but am a little disappointed about not being the Zombie Queen now — I was starting to enjoy the thought.). So… thanks for posting this… it really solved my dilemma and is going to lead me to not sit in some stinking waiting room in a walk in clinic for the next 4 hours! Awesome!
Wow! Thank you for your article! Indeed, I ate some Pepto Bismol tablets before I went to bed last night. All I found were articles about “Black and Hairy” tongue. My tongue is not hairy! Now I know what this is.
Thank you, Tina.
i am SO glad this was one of the first things that came up when i google searched “black tongue.” i swear, the pepto should come with a warning!
my boyfriend and i arrived home from an out of town vacation last night at around 2 or 3AM. i was exhausted, and i was having really bad heartburn. i took two pepto bismal chewables and went to bed. woke up this morning to brush my teeth.. and found that my toothbrush was looking as if i had dipped it in some shoe polish!!! he and i both freaked out… almost went into a walk in clinic. so glad i didnt have to………. THANK YOU
While the life-expectancy gap between men and women has decreased, it’s no secret that men still need to pay more attention to their bodies. Several things work against men. They tend to smoke and drink more than women. They don’t seek medical help as often as women. Some men define themselves by their work, which can add to stress.
There are also health conditions that only affect men, such as prostate cancer and low testosterone. Many of the major health risks that men face – like colon cancer or heart disease – can be prevented and treated with early diagnosis. Screening tests can find diseases early, when they are easier to treat. It’s important to have regular checkups and screenings.
Wow.. when my son woke up with the black toung.. I freaked out.. he had already chewed 2 peptos. I rushed him to the E.R. and they convinced me that my child had put black marked n his mouth… he cried and cried saying no. That’s not true… I didn’t believe him… I feel extra bad for not believing him now… imma take this info back to the E.R and give them a piece of my mind… thanks tho for the info… very helpful
I woke up with a black tongue, but unlike the majority of posters here, I did not use Pepto. I am taking antibiotics and on the 2nd round (first was azithromycin for 5 days which didn’t kill the sinus infection, and in fact, now bronchitis)… So now I’m on the 4th day of takig Cipro. I don’t actually look at my togue everyday, so I’m not sure when the black tongue started. Hopefully it will go away when I’m done with antibiotics.
i woke up this morning and started brushing my teeth when i noticed it.. the first thing i thought of was to look it up. thank you so much for preventing a freak out;
I woke up with a black tongue twice. The first time I thought it was from kissing a guy that smoked, so I just brushed my tongue and moved on. Then it happened again months later. So i called my mom (because she always has the answer) yea this time she didn’t till she googled it. Finding out it was because of the Pepto-Bismol tablet! I think I’ll just stay away from that from now on. Waking up to a black tongue….yea not very fun and brushing it off..I get bad gage reflexes. So I’ll find another pill that does the same as Pepto-Bismol
That’s funny. I had been sick for two days with a stomach virus. This morning, I was finally able to get out of bed. When I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth, my tongue was black. It scared the hell out of me. I thought that I might be sicker than just having a stomach virus. I brushed my teeth and tongue and then went immediately to the computer. I googled causes of black tongue. I was relieved to find that Pepto causes this. I have been taking Pepto for the last two days. Thank God!
On the 13th I posted that my tongue had turned black and hopefully would be normal after I’m finished with antibiotics for the sinus infection…and YUP, the antibiotics are done with and my tongue has returned to normal, thank god! (although I still seem to have a stuffy nose, head and bronchitis!) dang, hope I don’t have to get more meds
yep so i had a horrible stomach ache last night took a chewable pepto besmol pill and woke up to a black tongue whiel brushing my teeth i waslike wtf! thought i had some sort of disease. i almost started crying.
Very thankful for this website – woke up with a black tongue this morning (and it has happened a few times in the past) and really started to worry. After reading this I realize that everytime I have woken up with a black tongue I have taken chewable pepto tablets during the night!!!!
thank you so much for this post. i was starting to really freak out but I too took chewable pepto before bed last night.
Hey, interesting post! bookmarked
lol I was so releaved to find this. I was freaking out. Thanks so much.!!!!!
Thank you so much for this article my boyfriend was having the worst stomache pains ever last night and was practically in tears it was horrible o hear him in that much pain. I gave him some of those tabelts then he soon fell asleep waking up with a black tounge he quickly ran to the computer and searched for causes of this and Divertickulitus popped up it runs in his family. THANK YOU SO MUCH we are relaved.
Thank you so much. I totally just freaked and nearly began crying. I thought I had some sort of disease or something. They really should put a warning on the bottle or something.
thanks for posting this. this morning was my third time waking up with black tongue…the taste is gross. the first time i thought it was cuz i ate chocolate and didnt brush before bed…but i hadnt had anything like that last nite…and theres the black tongue again. thanks so much!!
Thank goodness I wen to google this mornig. I had the xact same thing happen to me today. I woke up with a black tounge and said what did I do during the night? DId I eat bugs or something to have my entire tounge black… and saw this post. I did take pepto-bismol chewable tablets before I went to bed. I hardly ever take them, but was feeling sick all day from indegestion. It worked, feeling better… but when I saw my tounge this morning, I couldn’t believe it. I brushed my tounge over and over with my toothpaste and it all came off. No worries and I’m glad it came from the pepto-bismol and not a disease! Thanks!!
Hhaha That always happends to me!! And it happend to me this morning but yesterday I took the tablet. Thanks for posting and finding it out!! Also another way to get rid of it is NOT drinking but swishing around in your mouth some Hydrogen Peroxide and it gets rid of it. But dont swallow it. (: Stay healthy everyone!!
I too woke up with the horrible look of black tongue, I have scrubbed and scrubbed all day, I did not take pepto lastnight, im not on antibiotics i use regular mouth wash, can someone help me? Am I dieing there has to be other reasons for this??????????????????
i was googling black tongue’s and i just found this post. I woke up with a black tongue this morning and i was really worried. And now I have the answer. I am soo relieved. I took two of those pink chewable Pepto-Bismols last night. Thanks.
Hey there! I just wandered upon your website, and this morning I freaked out too because I woke up with a black tongue too! And I also too pepto Bismol Chewables as well, so thank you so much for putting up this post!
Funny thing- I woke up two days with a black tongue, and was searching myself for what may have caused it…and found your article along with a few others saying the same thing. Took a chewable pepto before bed myself and woke up kind of freakishly wondering what in the world…. so thanks I feel better knowing.
Hey guys I so happy 2 know I’m ok! Thx,
I havent eaten in ages cos my stomach hates me, then I got a black tongue. I thought, I am dying for sure,,,so,,,I took a pic and brushed to see if it was permanent. but no. came right off…I also thought poison or voudoo. black tongues are really freaky.
Thaks soo much for this as it happened to me and after reading, I am relieved!!!
i dont take bp tablets, but i have been given this mouth wash called chlorhexidine gluconate antiseptic mouthwash and after a few weeks, not only my tongue, but all my teeth have gone black. does anyone out there have the same problem? thanks
OMG Im so glad I found your blog, this has been happening to me and I just realized that everytime it has happened I have taken 2 pepto chewables before bed. Thanks alot because I was freaking out!
Girl! I was in the process of moving to OK and had a night of dry heaves so I took some Pepto tablets to settle my stomach. I woke up the next morning with a black coating on my tongue and was sure that I had developed some stomach disorder due to all the stress of moving and my fiance was starting to freak out thinking I surely had some severe health problem. I’m soooooo glad I found your blog!
thank goodness, I was really freaking out this morning, thankgoodness for google!
Wow! What did we ever do before the internet? Can you imagine all the people running to the hospital with their black tongue hanging out of their mouth? Thanks for posting this…I had my coat and my runners on…
Um, great – I have not had Pepto Bismol – but have a black tongue. Saliva is also black. Now we have a touch of fear about this.
Lol i just woke up this morning after taking a pb tablet last night and freaked. i brushed my teeth like 3 times and most of it is off, but that’s disgusting. And that disgusting taste wont leave my mouth.
I thought I threw up in my sleep or had liver problems, or maybe overproduction of bacteria…
Thank God for google… I really thought the end was near :P
Thanks! I was freaking out this morning. I took Pepto-Bismal chewables last night from food poisoning in Playa Del Carmen.
This shit is crazy, I woke up with a black tongue after I went down on my wife. It freak us out I thought I would have to pull a lorraina bobbet on her lol. I told her to google black tongue and don’t. Panic we will get sum answer thank god for google nomore pepto
I didn’t notice my black tongue for a really long time but I kept wondering what that awful taste was. I even brushed my teeth quickly without really paying attention.
After half an hour I went into the bathroom and stuck out my tongue and AHHHHH black. And not just black like I ate a sucker black, but little specks in the crevices. I instantly thought of WebMDing it to make sure I wasn’t dying or something.
But no. I found your site first. thank you thank you thank you. I was beginning to think it was because I ate brownies last night.
Thanks for this article. I took two pepto tabs last night and woke up with a black tongue this morning. Kind of freaked me out.
HAHAHAHAHA.That’s so funny, thank God for the internet!!!
Me and my wife are spending our honeymoon, everything had been going great, last night she we were having a little stomach ache, after having savored the Hawaiian cuisine; so, for that effect we chewed those pepto things.
Later we went and had some seafood. Everything was good until this morning…bam: she discovered she had a black tongue… she really freaked out, and suddenly she believed that she almost dying, she felt a lot of things, until, she found out that I had it too and I wasn’t feeling anything.
Of course I was scared too, but now we can keep as a funny moment thanks o God and to the internet.
For a moment we thought we were going to have a Romeo and Juliet ending.
I woke up this morning with a black tongue and almost lost it.. I immediately ran to the computer to google it and found out Peto can cause this problem, which I took a chewable before I went to bed. I cant tell you how relieved I was.
whewww.. the same thing happened to me!! took to pb went to bed and screamed bloody murder when i saw that i had a black tounge!! so relieved i wasnt dying and to find out it has happened to other people… thanks google.. and thanks to everyone else lol
I woke up with the black tongue disease, and had a HEART ATTACK LOL Thank god for this website!!
i always thought it was something random like i ate a spider in my sleep, considering the human person eats at least 8 spiders a year in their sleep
Well, I’ve never used Pepto Bismal, but I sure have a black tongue. I also notice the teeth of my partial denture look black. What the heck!!
I think I may have found another cause for a black tongue! I’ve been using chlorhexidine mouth wash for a small ulcer, and it was after that, the blackness crept upon me! Sure enough, it can be one of the side effects, so I’m stopping the dumb stuff and see what happens.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. My partner was in the process of cancelling his 6:00am flight ino order to take me to the emergency room. I decided to google as he dressed. Yes the two peptos did it. He is now on his way and I am scraping my tongue and calming down from the beat down i was about to lay on him
OH MY GOSH! Thank you for posting this!!!! This happened to me last night! I completely FREAKED OUT!!! So did my parents! Thanks a bunch!
Oh thank gosh for this site! I went camping for the first time ever last night and woke up with a black tongue. I FREAKED out and have been thinking all day that I ate a bug!!!!! I am so releived to hear it was the pepto tablets I took last night!
I had black tongue this morning and I DID take a pepto bismal chewable last night. I thought it might be related, and now I am sure of it. Thanks!
thank god lmao i thought it might be cancer!!! i brush my teeth while showering so hadnt noticed the color of my tongue but then again, what kind of moron regularly checks the color of his tongue?!!! took the pepto last night, went aaaaalllll day with a bad taste in my mouth and a weird feeling on the back of my tongue almost like tartar build up on your teeth so thats here it is 3am the next night/morning and found my black tongue. i couldnt get to the computer fast enough to google it! this was by chance the site i chose above all others to find my problem and i have yay!
Thank you.. cause i woke up also this morning to a black tongue.. and i’m like what the hell and there was also a nasty taste to my mouth also..
and i had also taken two chuable pepto bismo’s last night..
thanks for wrighting what you did, cause i was starting to think something wrong was happenning to me…..
omg i cnt belive it!! i had a bad stomach last night to 2 pb n my whole tongue was black! im so thankful to whoever found out that it is a side effect!
You are my hero, i was so scared this morning, i thought it was cancer or something so i rushed to my computer and found your first post where u said u didnt know why it happened, then i scrolled down to your comments and fonud this post, thank you so much i did have 2 peptos before bed… phew…
THank goodness for this site. I woke up with dark brown tongue. So embarrassing since my boyfriend noticed it first as we were getting up in the morning. Not very attractive! Phew, atleast I feel physically fine, I would’vebeen worried all day if I hadn’t read these posts!
holy crap….i just freaked out..i happened to open my mouth in my mirror and noticed i had black streaks in the back of my tongue…i started thinking of what i ate or drank and none of it matched up..than i started thinking my liver was bad or something..even started thinking of how many girls did i kiss etc this last month etc…
thank the universe for google…
i than recalled i ate 2 or 3 pepto bismal chewables early this morning as a precaution (im lactose) from eating ice cream last night…
mystery solved…
cheer
thank you soo much for this. I was so freaked and though I had some serious illness as it has happened so many times before. Then decided to google and there it was>>>>pepto-bismal. I have heartburn a lot so I live on pepto….thank you soo much…phew
I thank you for posting this, as I had woken up lately TWICE and saw my tongue to be black. I figured it was a smoking affect and my lungs were somehow bringing up tar or something while I was sleeping. Scared, I looked it up on google and found your posting. Funny thing is, I have been having tummy aches and took pepto bismol chewable tablets before going to bed and I had the same thing you had.Once again, THANK YOU!
Lolz~!
OMG!! I am so0o0 glad i saw your blog.
I woke up this morning freakin out! my tounge was BLACK!
So i Googled it, and your blog poped up.
As soon as i read that you took chewable pepto, i took a sigh of relief.
I had chewable pepto lastnight before bed!!!
AHHH, now i can chill’
Thanx for the info!
I woke up this morning with black teeth and my tongue was black too! I was so scared and freaked out, I called my husband at work, thinking I had some sort of fungus or mold growing in my mouth. He of course told me I should brush my teeth and tongue and see if it came off – so I did – and it did come off mostly, but I was so afraid of it coming back. I looked up online, and thank goodness for your blog! I had remembered I took pepto chewables just before bed last night! WHEW no fungus in this mouth! THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!! <3
OMG thank you so much for this great info. I was so freaked out and scared specially that my stomach was killing me the night before. I thought there was illness going on with me. And I actually took the liquid pipto and I my whole tounge was black this morning . Thanks again…
Would you have believed you are still helping people after posting your information three years ago!! Like so many other I woke up this morning went to the bathroom to do my morning hygiene routine and when I opened my mouth to floss my teeth I had this black, black tongue. Yes, I freaked and was scared to death. I wanted to google but I said no I really don’t want to know because I know something is really wrong. I didn’t even tell my husband this morning. Nerves got the best of me and I decided to google. I clicked on your info first and yes I too am so grateful for this post. I took two chewable peptos last night because of an upset stomach. I think I scoured my tongue too much because it’s soar now but I am so thrilled to know that this is why it was black. God bless you, three years later.
I woke up this morning with a black tongue and I was scared to
Death because last night I went to a movie and on the drive home
I had a horrible stomachache and could nearly sleep. When I woke
Up in the morning I was so scared that I was going to like die or
Something because my tongue was pitch black and it had such a bad
Taste and I got up and brushed my tongue for like ten minutes then
Decided to google it and I found this site and now I know what happened
To my tongue from taking pepto bismo
Thanks so so much bye
Ok good joke by pepto to not inform the public of it’s tablet side effects.
Thanks to you I know what caused this to happen and don’t have to look like a chow chow with a colored tongue.
I woke up this morning and saw my tongue started tripping thought about the food I ate I was like ok what is wrong with me I gotta go to the doctor then I was like let me goole it soon I put I’m what can make your tongue turn black and pepto came up I was like thank God cause I had some pepto last night soooooooooo happy thx for having this cause I didn’t know what was going on.
Hey it is as strange a sit sounds!!!A clerk in a store told me and WOW I was so embarassed, then I was worried and now I am thinking about taking a picture of my tounge and posting it !!!!It’s just from pepto bismal so it’s harmless….. but it is so strange.
I woke up this moring with a black tounge now my tounge starting to grow bumps in hurt a lil
you have got to love the internet! it’s so much easier and cheaper than going to to doctor
now i know that if i take pepto before bed i need not freak when my tongue is black in the morning. i thought i had some horrible disease lol
Wow this is really good to know! I took some morning glory seeds to take a trip and one of the common side effects is nausea so i took some peptol bismol chews before i peaked. lol then i peaked and noticed my tounge was black! In the midst of a psychedelic trip this is not something that is good at all, Im glad to see that its just the pepto
YUCK!!!I woke up with a yucky taste in my mouth. My tounge was black and my spit was too my mom told me to google it so I did. hey turns out i took 2 pepto bismal tablets last night. I was really freaked out but not now. Im still going though scrubb.
I came across your post because the same thing happened to me this morning! Know I know! I took a PB tab last night!
wow this is so weird my sister came to me this morning showing off her black tongue actually freaking out i thought she might of went to bed with some kind of candy or mint or gum, she said no i took a chewable pepto bismol and went to bed and woke up like this i said that couldn’t be it. so like always when we don’t know we google it thank god for GOOGLE….and this came up we are totally shocked but her’s isn’t brushing off but is looking better how long till it goes away and wll it do this everytime she takes one??
hey thanks this was the first thing that came up on google and it totaly answered my question thanks again!!!
Funny, this exact thing just happened to me, and i was looking on the internet for some Web MD help, well this is a relief. Thanks!
OMG! thank you, last night my stomach hurt and i took a chewable peptobismo thing and this moreing my tounge was covered in black dots and i freaked out and googled it yur thing poped up so glad you posted it! i thought it was mold or something! LOL!
Amazing! I was worried too this morning when I saw black toung while brushing, actually gorgalling because my throat felt kind of dry. So, when I spit it was black, I thought it is because of chocolate I ate last night. But, hey I remembered I ate Pepto bismol too. So, it was because of that.
Thanks guys, it did helped.
That is crazy, i woke up this morning and my tongue was black, i went to work and asked my nurse what that meant, she didn’t know, i was scared cuz ive never heard of it before, i have acid reflex so i took 3 pepto bismol chewables last night, dah, i would of never suspected that pepto would turn your tongue black, i feel better now that i know its nothing serious.
thank You lord for the internet what would all of us done?
some of us would have very scary day
possible Heart Attack over PEPTO
http://pdbsinesssoltion.com
Thanks!! I am so relieved. I had indigestion when I went to bed last night and chewed a couple of pepto bismol tablets and returned to bed. Then I woke up feeling hungry so ate a banana and half a glass of milk. I hadnt turned on the lights in the kitchen and when I woke up with a black tongue this morning I thought, yuk , I must have eaten a rotten banana but of course it didnt make any sense. It made me feel so sick and I brushed my teeth this morning till I almost felt ill. I remebered the PB I had chewed and thought it had to be it! And I am so glad it is! Thanks!!!
Omg i guess i had a black tounge in the morning as i woke up becuase i was in school and they told me i have a black tounge so i came home and looked at it i was so scared i scrubed it with toothpased and my toothbrush it came off a little and yes i did take Pepto bismol that nite
i was so scared and i ran into my moms room and she laughed at me…..so i went to google to solve my problems…..thanks god i found something cause i think i never would have made it throught the day i would have been so freaked out!!! Thank you google!!
Thank you so much. I have been sick with a stomach thing and my mom made me take two pepto bismol tablets before I went to bed. Well i took it with water then i continued to drink my mcdonalds frappe because i was feeling better. I fell asleep. I wake up in the morning to my mouth having that DISGUSTING taste so i decide to go brush my teeth. Im brushing my teeth then i look in the mirror and screamed for my mom. she came in and about dropped on the floor. We had no idea. So i just brushed it off with the toothbrush thinking that i vomited in my sleep and i was going to go to the dr. but then i read this and now im still gonna go to the dr. but i dont have to worry bout my tongue
I woke up with a black tongue! I thought maybe I was dying because I have been sick, googled it and found this! Haha thanks!!!
Hey Guys,
Nobody here in England has ever heard of Pepto Bismol, let alone tried it!
However, even one glass of heavy red wine or Port will blacken your tongue & after a few, even serious brushing with a good toothbrush will not completely remove it.
I have a blackened patch on my tongue several weeks after my last glass of red vino…….I scrub every day & only have drunk beer (real ale) since the wine-stain appeared!.
Nick.
Wow. Googled saved my life once again.
Hahaha. Google FTW! Thanks for letting me know….
One more user who has been saved by the power of Google!
lol thank you for this ur blog ive had this happen to me twice and i have been scared out my mind thank you so much again.
Thank God for the world wide web. I thought something was wrong with me too. I felt so relieved when I saw this post. The tablets cured my problem, but I didn’t know about the side effects. I’m just glad it’s harmless and nothings wrong with me. It pays to have good info on tithe blogs!!
have a black tongue, never took pepto. WTF????
maybe I really am dying????
Omggggg I woke up and had a weird ass taste in my mouth and I was in the shower and spit and it was black so I jumped out and looked in my mouth and it was all black. Talk about freak out. I could NOT figure out WTF it was. So before driving myself to the er I googled and sure enough it’s from pepto chewables. Thank god for google!!
Wow, thank god for Google! This was the second time I had woken up with my tongue/saliva black, and I was so freaked out both times, but this time my boyfriend suggested I Google it – Pepto Bismol was the culprit! You’d think that since this is such a common side effect they would put something on the label about it, so people like me don’t wake up thinking they have lung cancer!!!!
I usually use baking soda with warm water for heartburn. We were going camping with two other couples, so I bought PB in case of heartburn or whatever. One morning I volunteered to do the eggs for breakfast. I went in to our little motorhome to get pans and while I was washing my hands I glanced in the little mirror and gave one of those big grins to check my teeth and much to my horror, my teeth and tongue were just disgustingly black. I had brushed my teeth, but hadn’t looked in any mirror. I spent half hour trying to clean my mouth up before going back out, feeling so ashamed that the others had seen my black mouth and been disgusted. I tried to think of anything I’d eaten that was out of the ordinary, and could only think of chocolate, so blamed that, initially.
They must have thought I was just trying to avoid doing the eggs. I sure didn’t want to explain the gross condition of my mouth…if they hadn’t noticed. Anyway, as we were eating differently than usual, I kept needing a PB tablet in the night, and my black mouth was a constant concern even though I quit eating the chocolate stuff. We came home and the problem has been off and on for a week or so. I was pretty worried about what could be causing it…going through all the scenarios that the other posters have mentioned. Finally, I clued in and decided to Google it. Immediately I landed on this site. What a bloody relief!
Pepto Bisol has to know about this side effect…why the heck don’t they warn people? Anyway, I’m sooooooo glad the black mouth wasn’t a symptom of some horrible fatal disease.
Oh yeh, one more thing…..the diluted hydrogen peroxide is the quickest, most effective way to get rid of the stain, that I’ve found. I’m going to contact the PB people, as well. The product does work, but who wants to spend hours cleaning their mouth before they can go to work, and imagine waking up next to your partner and smiling or yawning…….”Good morning, honey”……..yikes!
OMGAR how are you STILL getting comments on a post this old?! I wish I got this many comments on one post alone…
LOL yes. I haven’t closed this post because of the fact it happens to sooo many people and everyone likes to share their little experience. Plus, it’s fun reading everyone’s little “death scare” until they find out what caused it. heehee.
Needless to say, I for one, have completely stopped taking Pepto-Bismol chewable tablets since it first happened to me.
I NEVER WANT TO SEE A BLACK TONGUE AGAIN!! >_<
Another life saved. My fiancé was convinced he had been poisoned this morning. I thought he must have inhaled something strange….like posion. But … It’s just the classic PB scare. Nice. They really should put a warning on the box or at least this blog address. Thanks for the post!
Thank you for this post! The same thing happened to me this morning. Last night it was the first time eating meat in a long time, so my body was naturally very unhappy with me. I took a Pepto-Bismol chewable, felt better after a while and went to bed.
I was freaking out because I thought it had something to do with the meat being tainted, as I have taken the tablets before without getting a black tongue, some deadly disease or some horrible black magic-esque/omen or something rather because I broke my vegetarianism.
Thank you for saving me from calling my boss (he’s a pharmacist) in panic this early in the morning.
Tina, thanks for leaving this open, I had this happen this morning and almost went to the doctor! Your post is the first one that comes up when you google “woke up with black tongue + cause”! :-)
When I was brushing my teeth this morning and was rinsing, I noticed the water was brownish/black that I was spitting out. I looked at my tongue and sure enough it was a brownish/black color. I back tracked from the time I brushed my teeth and couldn’t figure out what caused it. I just chalked it up to alien abduction or something along those lines. I did, however, take a couple Pepto Bismal tablets last night. Phew! Crisis solved! I was getting a little worried there for a second.
OMG! You saved my freaking out today! I woke up while on vaca with this nasty black film on my tongue and I thought something horrible! But I did indeed chew pepto before bed! Thank you so much!
Add me to the list of those who have suddenly noticed a black tongue after taking Pepto! And also relieved that it’s just a chemical thang that happens from time to time. Though I have taken Pepto for years and this is my first black tongue.
my husband got a black tongue after eating dinner. We were discussing black tongue at dinner with a guest who had an allergy and got a black tongue. Now my husband has one. Could this be an allergy?
I’ve experienced black tongue a few times and assumed it was something to do with my sinuses. I have a black tongue as I am typing. Awesome to see I am NOT a freak!!! I did chew two pepto tablets today!! Thank you for solving this bizarre experience!!!
Please keep this post open, if only so us clueless can figure out what has happen to us or the people we love. This morning I was getting pretty frantic because my husband woke up with a black tongue and he is one of those people that refuses to go to the doc. I was just about to beg him to go to the emergency room because he sleep walks and I was affraid he had gotten into some cleaner or something last night and swallowed it. He never has before and he is pretty awake when he sleeps (I know contradiction right) but I was scared. Then I thought Google! and lead me to this site! And we had Mexican food last night and he had PB before he went to bed. Thank you all for sharing.
[...] Therefore I assumed I had contacted Black Death, also known as the Bubonic plague. My symptoms actually did not fit that diagnosis either, but it sounded better than Black Hairy Tongue, so I was about to officially go to the ER with my diagnosis until I stumbled onto this:
’s Blog. [...]
AWESOME! Thanks for this info. I googled black tongue b/c my daughter has one this morning that mystified us. And it turns out she did have a Pepto-Bismol chewable last night.
I had an very painful stomach cramp episode last night with nausea. I thought it was caused by my inlaws potatoes salad I ate. I took 2 chewable PB and went to bed. For hours my pain stayed with me. I woke up with a black tongue and still minor pains. I too googled the black tongue and this is what I found. I think I would rather believe it was the BP too.
What Is Dyspepsia?
Dyspepsia is a pain or an uncomfortable feeling in the upper middle part of your stomach. The pain might come and go, but it’s usually there most of the time.
People of any age can get dyspepsia. Both men and women get it. About 1 of every 4 persons gets dyspepsia at some time.
What Are The Signs Of Dyspepsia?
Here are some of the signs of dyspepsia:
A gnawing or burning stomach pain
Bloating
Heartburn
Nausea (upset stomach)
Vomiting
Burping
If you have these signs, or any kind of stomach pain or discomfort, talk to your family doctor.
What Causes Dyspepsia?
Often, dyspepsia is caused by a stomach ulcer or acid reflux disease. If you have acid reflux disease, stomach acid backs up into your esophagus (the tube leading from your mouth to your stomach). This causes pain in your chest. Your doctor may do some tests to find out if you have an ulcer or acid reflux disease.
Read more: http://www.righthealth.com/topic/What_Causes_Black_Tongue#ixzz1Z3wk8xL6
OMG!!! Now I can breathe again! I didn’t know what to think. I had recently saw a segment of Dr. Oz talking about cyanide in apple juice, so I was pouring everything out calling manufacturer and began to google. Thank God I found this ad, because I too took pepto chewable before bed. Lol, at myself cause I was going insane.
Weight lifted indeed, Thanks Tina!!!
Thank you for leaving this posting up!!!! I have been sick for a week due to some BP meds and last night I too chewed some PB tabs…Black teeth and black tongue this am….I panicked since I’ve been so unwell…at least this mystery is solved…Thank you again…if I had gone to the Doctor they probably wouldn’t have figured this out!
I love my Doctor but they always want to send me off to a specialist.
Whew, what a relief. I had my once in about three month cigar last week and thought that it was tar. That freaked me out. I am still not sure if I am going to have a cigar around christmas though.
Just wanted to say a HUGE THANK YOU for posting this! I freaked out this morning when I woke up with a black tongue…and I took chewable pepto last night.
Good lord….I took 2 pepto tablets last night due to upset belly, and two more before I went on my 8 mile run. After showering, and putting on makeup, I looked at my tongue and just about had a heart attack. I started googling and found this post! Like several others on here I thought I was dying! That black brown tongue thing is messed up. Thanks for the post and now I’m not alone.
Shew!
Just saw this post, too and I’ve been freaking out the last hour or so, brushing ferociously and swabbing my mouth for any signs of something that could be wrong. Finally after going to google, I found this. I also took a pepto tablet before going to bed. PB needs to put this as a warning or something so people don’t freak out.
It happened to me too! This is a weird club to join. :0)
Woke up this morning freaked out cuz i saw my tongue all blackened! So I googled it and found your post. Thanks! really put my mind at ease. Chewed 2 nasty peptos last night! lol for a sec i thought i was mutating into an orc >.<
Thank you so much! I just freaked out because I woke up with a black tongue but now I know I’m not going to die! Haha thanks!
Wow…good for you. I have taken peptobismol many times but never got a black tongue from it though. Good thing there are people like you out there to share your experience so others don’t have to panic. Way to go.
Just this morning I woke up and had a black tongue. Sure enough I took chewable pepto bismol last night just before I went to bed. I’m sure glad that my first thought of…..Oh my goodness I ate a spider! wasn’t true!! I am so glad this posts has kept going for so long.
I just happened to mention this to my chiro this morning when I saw him as it’s happened to me twice this past week. He asked me if I’d Googled it yet – and I hadn’t. Advised me to do so and to keep track of any other possible symptoms as a whole. Pepto makes sense now! *face palm* In retrospect, I took the chewable tablets the night before each time. [I can't eat spicy foods like I used to! Sucks getting old(er)]
Absolutely, positive if I had taken this complaint to my primary care physician (PCP), he’d have either written me a ‘script right away (‘cuz that’s his answer to everything else and we fight about it at almost every office visit) or sent me off to a specialist. Oh and the PCP absolutely HATES it when his patients come to him and say they’ve Googled their symptoms. He’s always sarcastic about how “everybody” thinks they’re a doctor now… and “what does Google know?”.
Well, Google obviously knows a lot more than he’s willing to give it credit for!!
Oh, and for those of you suffering from black, tarry stools? If you’re taking Pepto, that could be one reason BUT not necessarily THE reason. An overload of iron (either by supplement or eating habits) could also be the culprit. For that? You really should see your doctor as you could be ODing on iron and that can kill you!!
Oh Thank God, I did take a pepto bismol before bed, I woke up with a black tongue, and all thru my shower, I was almost having a heart attack, should I call into work, should I call my boyfriend and ask him to check his tongue, lol..what the heck was it…thank god…something so simple, YAY!!!
Thank you!! This happened to me this morning and I had taken 2 pepto bismols last night before going to bed. I was a little freaked out about it. Thanks for saving me a trip to the doctors.!!
THANK YOU so much… I too woke up this morning and freaked out… I did take Pepto-Bismol chewable tablet before bed last night and can’t tell you how happy I was to find your post and not something else… I thought I was doing some seious detoxing!! Thank you!!! It happened to me too… I don’t recall reading that on the bottle … wonder what other side effects it has!! Thanks!!
Omg I almost had a heart attack this morning when I brushed my teeth and saw this color on my toothbrush! You would think pepto bismo would put it on its box!
Omg….. Thanks when I woke up this morning I was freaking out about had a panic attack lol until I googled an saw ur post lol. Was about to call 911 about a black tongue haha! Jkn but thanks!
THANK YOU for posting this! Saved my sanity!
My daughter woke up this morning with a black tongue and I panicked! Then she remembered that I had given her chewable pepto bismal last night for her tummy ache.
Finding this post today was such a relief!
thanks,
a much relieved mom!!
Whew…thanks for posting this. It is now 2:03am and I got up to go to the bathroom, looked at my toungue in the mirror and my heart sank. I am a cancer survivor and all I could think of is “here we go again”. Thankfully, I found your post. And, yes I chewed 2 pepto tablets before hopping into bed.
I had a black tongue this morning! thought i had some horrilbe mold or bacterial growth, i too had pepto and beer mixture, guess its not a good one!!! black tongue problem solved!!
Thank you for your article, same as others. I had heartburn last night, took a tums, woke up an hour later close to throwing up my acid reflux was so bad. So I drank some water and took a chewable pepto tablet. Woke up this morning to a sweet taste and got in the shower…started brushing my teeth and my toothbrush came out black. I about had a heart attack. Leaped out of the shower and jumped on google, and up came your article. PHEW.
Well, there is nothing new to say so I’ll just go with thanks! My heart rate has returned to normal now knowing it was the Pepto that did it.
THANK YOU SO MUCH! I thought I had some kind of disease! But I too took a chewable pepto pill last night! Thank you SO much!!
I took two pepto tablets lastnight as well, came across this to find out y is my tongue black.. I thought this was the end of my life”gosh”.. Smh.. They should put All side effects on the warning lable. If I didnt have medical insurance I would have paid a grip of money on a visit to the emergency room….lawsuite
Yes i did freak out for a second because i didnt notice my tongue was black until i was already brushing my teeth and spit black! so i just started tryin to brush it away and then hopped on google then i came to peace reading this! haha dang pepto tablets!!!!
Omg thank u soooooo much!!! I thought I was dying!!
the same thing happened 2 me i took 2 chewable P-B yesterday morning then fell asleep what i woak up my tounge was white ,not black then i threw-up then my tounge went back to pink and this morning my tounge was BLACK!!!!!!! i tried to brush it off for like 10 mins. now i feel 10x worse
My wife woke up with black tongue this morning and freaked! Thanks so much for posting this. We were able to rush her to urgent care. lol!
Too Funny!!! Why is it we always suspect the worst?! We need a name for this club like … The Black-Tongued League! Although we would need Dr. Watson for this instead of Sherlock Holmes!
i woke up with a black tongue to!!! and i toke pepto bismol last night
Thank you so much for posting this. When I woke up with a black tounge this morning, I. also, thought that I had been poisoned, was dying etc. I had never heard this before and, like you all, took a pepto chewable before bed last night. You saved me alot of money not having to go to the ER….Thank you again
Thank you so much, I thought I got cancer!!!
I woke up today and went to the washroom. Idk y but i look really bad in pics when i stick my tongue out so i practised it lol. The first thing i thought when i saw that was “how the hell did i swallow my mascara last night??” after i was very sure i had the back death (plague) lol so i came to google and last night i had 1 pepto bismal chewy !! I was so suprised!!! Weird its never happened to me before!!
My gf just woke uP with one lol I thought it was the pepto, found this article an got confirmation lol thanks she was about to freak out.
Thank you I woke up for the pass two morning with a black tongue. This morning I was scared and about to call my Doctor. Until I Google this article; and remember both times I took a pepto chewable before I went to bed.
Aaahhhhomg I was freaking out this morning thinking I had tongue cancer. This old ass disscusion saved the day!
I was going down the list of things I ate last night, looking around the couch to see what I could’ve ate while sleeping. Even asked my wife what she put in my mouth while I was sleep. Those two pepto tablets are caused more stress than having diarrhea.
This happened to me.this morning and sure enough I took chewable proto last night before bed.
i almost died, i though i ate a spider or something phewph! thanks for that!
Mann,I got so scared because I am almost 9 month pregnant and I thought it was something going on with my baby. I was gonna call my doctor ’cause I even thought my baby was not moving,I made a hot chocolate to making my baby move. Thanks for this article it was very nice to read it. Waoo thanks for real.
Me too! So glad this post is here! Took Pepto yesterday – including a dose before bedtime. Woke up with a brown tongue (black/brown). Freaked out! I thought it might be the Pepto, but of course, I also thought I might be dying or have something serious going on. You all saved me an embarrassing visit/phone call to the doctor! Thanks to everyone else who has commented as well as the original poster!
exactly my boyfirends situation to a tea! tkx!!!!
OMG, i woke up today and looked in the mirror and i yawned and saw my tongue was BLACK! i freaked the hell out! first thought was that i must have a disease or something. i just googled it and found it that its from pepto bismol, i took some last night before bed. i almost had a freaking heart attack!!!
Im 14 and I just woke up with it and freaked out,and woke up my dad, and he told me to google it, as I did thank god, and what a relief because I took 2 PB tablets before bed last night of a stomach ache. Thank you.
And thanks again, lol. Took chewable pepto 3 hours ago, woke-up, brushed and egad – black tongue. Electric toobthbrush took care of it but nice to know what happpened
.
And thanks again, lol. Took chewable pepto 3 hours ago, woke-up, brushed and egad – black tongue. Electric toobth brush took care of it but nice to know what happened
.
I had the flu and had taken PB tabs for 2 days … Brushed my teeth and yeah noticed my tongue was black…. Glad I’m not alone on this, thanks for keeping this post up! Funny how we can all laugh about it now
First reply of 2012! I’m now part of the club. Just woke up this morning like that. I was so nervous. Thanks for the help on this! XD
Omg thank u..i woke up this morning with a black tongue after taking pepto … i was about to cry cus i didnt knw what was going on lmao!! ur a life saver!
I’m so glad to have found all these comments!!
I woke up this morning with a black tounge and freaked out!! I never take pepto bismal, but I did take a tablet before I went to bed and woke up with a black tounge!!
So glad to know that I’m not dying!! lol!!
Thank you for posting this! I had a little freak out this morning too!!
Woke up with a black tongue this morning. I freaked. Thank god for google and this article!!! Thank you!!! It was the chewable pepto!
Thank you so much for this posting! I was site I was dying and I am off to Turks and ccacos is in a week!
THANKS YOUUU GOOGLE that LEAD ME TO THIS hahahahah, was freaking out for a bit there!
I literally just woke up with a black tongue and I was freaking out so I looked it up and thank goodness for this website!
I did take pepto bismol tablets last night so thank you for clearing up this bizarre mystery.
THANK YOU. :P Thank God Im not dying lol. I was out on a date and I kissed her good night. I got home and My tummy started to hurt so I took some Pepto tablets. I woke up with a black tongue and all I was thinking was “THAT HOE GAVE ME A DISEASE!” lol. Im sooo sooo glad it was the pepto
Im happy I am not Dying.
oh my god, thank god for this website. i legit had a minor heart attack when i woke up this morning and decided to search on google and found this right away.. thank god ! i took pepto bismol a little while before i went to sleep..it alll made sense!! Thanks so much !
Same pepto thing last night. Same black tongue and black saliva. With my white night cream still on my face and the black tongue, I looked like the anti-Christ. Didn’t wanna be me that second.
I was cleaning my teeth with toothpaste when I noticed saliva was grey and there were black spots in it then saw that my tongue was black. I put on my glasses and saw that the handle of my toothbrush was black. It had a soft grip and was made in China. It had probably never dried out. I got rid of it and rubbed my tongue clean with peroxide until it was pink. Now three days later its looks a bit grey and my saliva is grey so the fungus is still lurking. No Pepto tablets involved.
Oh my goodness. I’m so glad I found this blog. This morning after getting ready for the day, I noticed my toothbrush was dark and when I went to spit, it was also dark. I read this and was so relieved because last night I took 2 Pepto chewables before bed. Thanks!
Yes i freaked when my man asked why was my tongue black and then found out my stool was too people started saying that must be intestinal bleeding thank god for google cause people tell u anything and having u going insane. Yes it was peptobismo whewwww what a releif!
I have the flu, sore throat & stomach ache. I decided to check out my tonsils to see if it looked like strep throat. I couldn’t see my tonsils at all, so adjusted the light to find out my whole mouth was black! It really freaked me out. I’d taken PB tabs before bed for the first and last time. Thanks for your post!
I was so scared, thought I had someting going on.. I ate some shrimp the night before, and thought I ate too much, or was bad. I took some pepto chewable, and was fine.. I woke up the next morning, and my tounge was black as can be.. I freaked out, but when I looked it up right away, was so releaved this is what caused it to turn black.. Wish I could post a picture..
I’ve been having some erratic stomach problems since catching a cold a few days ago, and when I tried eating a nice meal at a nice restaurant in napa last found that I couldn’t touch it after a few bites, my nerves began to unravel a little. Feeling uneasy I went to wal mart and bought some pepto chewables. Well waking up at 530 to go to the bathroom spit some saliva up like usual and proceeded to freak the %$#! Out when it was black. I honestly thought blood was in my stomach and I was gonna die. Thank jesus for this site
I woke up this morning with a black tongue, too and I just assumed it was something I ate, but then realized nothing I ate would have caused that to happen, I had a total freak out and was going to call my doctor, but I was already late for work! Now that i read your note here, good think i didn’t bug my docto about it cause, I too took pepto chewable tablets last night. haha, who would have know! haha
haha – this happened to me the other day. i thought it was from drinking my coffee black. but it looks like it was from the chewable pepto i took the night before! thanks for the post.
haha – this happened to me the other day. i thought it was from drinking my coffee black. but it looks like it was from the chewable pepto i took the night before! thanks for the post.
I woke up this morning with a black tongue too and freaked out…i started scrubing my tongue with my toothbrush and a wet towell, I even gurgled with hydrogen peroxide! I seriously thought I had some type of infection or something, but then I read this and right before bed last night I took 2 chewable pepto bismal tablets….what a relief!
Thank you so much for writing about what you found out about the black tongue. My 13 year old son woke up with a black tongue this morning, I kind of laughed and told him to brush really well but was secretly running through my head on what on earth could have done that. Even called my mom because he had spent the weekend with her, did she know of anything that may have caused it? So, of course, I google it…your site was in the top search results, I had multiple tabs opened up trying to find one that made sense to me. Yours was the best described as to what happened and what caused it. He had in fact gotten up during the night needing some Pepto Bismol, your blog gave me the information i needed so I could calm down.
thanks so much!! my daughter woke this morning freaking out because her tongue is black, haha!!! I looked at it and said let me google it and BAM! here it is. She is relieved now and she can go to work feeling better (Peto side effect) wow!! do they put the side effects it causes? mmmhm Imma check. but thanks!!!
My first reaction, omg I have tongue cancer and I don’t even chew tobacco or anything!! I was going crazy, almost in tears. I go to Google and first thing that shows up Black Hairy Tongue, D: I didn’t want to start planning my funeral so I kept scrolling and found this!!!! THANK YOU SOO MUCH!!! I don’t care if I have more stomach pains I’m not going to take PB anymore. I don’t want to wake up to a black tongue again! You’ll think the worse when you’re half awake and see that in the mirror. Ahah.
Same thing happened to me. Woke up with severe abdominal pain and took pepto bismol. Then in the morning I had the black tongue…freaky…thank goodness I know now what it was.
Thank you so much for keeping this blog open! I woke up with a black tongue today and went crazy trying to figure out what was wrong. After consulting WebMD I went to my favorite place on the web – GOOGLE and found your blog. What a relief I hadn’t remembered taking a PB chewable last night for heartburn.
I had no idea they could produce this condition. A warning from the manufacturer would be nice. You have provided a GREAT resource!
My daughter who is 13 woke up with the black tongue this morning and was totally freeked out! I had no idea what to do . She asked my to look it up and I found your post thx.
Omg I was freaking out this morning! Last night I too ate a chewable pepto bismol .. lol thank God it wasn’t anything bad!! Thank you!!!!
<3
So yeah, my girlfriend’s daughter came to me this morning freaking out because her tongue was black. Told her not to worry cause it is probably nothing but to be on the safe side I googled it and found this. Yeah, she took the pepto tablets last night. She was relieved when I told her what caused it.
Awesome post by the way!
Thank you so much for your information, ya i freaked this morning..first thing i did was google it…First time i ever took a pepto tablet, im so relieved…thanks
Thank you for posting this! Woke up this morning with a black tongue and completely forgot what I’d eaten yesterday. Reading this made me remember my fiance giving me two pepto chewables right before I went to sleep. Mini-heart attack seeing that indeed!
i seriously freaked out this morning, and i am so happy that you posted this! i am so relieved you have no idea.
Thank you so much! I had no idea why my 6 year had a black tongue this morning & the panic began to set in….yep I gave her a chewable pepto tablet last night!
Goodness I feel relieved… I woke up this morning with a black tongue and my family freaked Out. I googled It and this came up…
damn pepto!! had me freaking out this morning from the tables last night until I found this post! think they should put that warning in big BLACK letters on the front!
I took a table too n woke up to a black tongue it was gross
I couldn’t believe my tongue was black this morning. I had been vomiting last night from a stomach virus, very violent stomach virus (my 3 year old grandson had this week, poor kid) anyway I really am miserable. My daughter got it too, we thought she had food poisoning it was so violent. Anyway thank goodness for this site. I DID take a pepto bismol tablet before bed last night. Thank you, I thought I was dying lol.
Thanks for this info! Wow! Now I know what happended to me too. I woke up with Black tongue and spit and before I went to bed I took Pepto Tabs and liquid. Thanks so now I know! whew ho!
OMG!!!!! I love the internet…. I got up this morning and my tongue was black and like some of the other post I was thinking WTF… am I dying….. but like others I took two Pepto chewable so I am so glad to read the post that I have but now want to know why my tongue was black, what is that about. I know one thing I will not take them anymore I will go back to my tumbs (that the store did not have last night). Thanks all for sharing…. I feel much better.
Can’t believe how many people have has this same experience. Your site is the first thing listed when I search “black tongue in the morning”. Thanks for posting!
WOW, thank god for google and the one that posted this! I have been takin pepto for days and one yesterday i woke with a black toung and have had black stool for like 3 day……… No more pepto for me was just trying it for heart burn since nothing else works for me anymore!!! THANK YOU!!!
It happened to me twice. the first time I thought it was from the Hershey’s kisses on valentines day. Then again today. When I googled it the first article said a symptom of HIV. I was scared shitless. Then I found you guys and you gave me hope. Thanks black tongue gang.
I woke up this morning with a black tongue. I thought I was dieing. I am on Antibiotics for the flu as well I though there was a reaction of some sort with the Pepto tablets. Thanks to this blog I know iI am not going to die
I woke up this morning with a black tongue. I thought I was dieing. I am on Antibiotics for the flu as well I though there was a reaction of some sort with the Pepto tablets. Thanks to this blog I know I am not going to die
So for all or any of you, how long did it last. Did it go away suddenly, quickly, or gradually, like a week or so later?
Thanks….first result on google for black tongue is your helpful post.
Thank God, I just woke up with one…brushed it off, but then went to google and found this. Thank you! I did take two Pepto bismol chewable tablets last night lol
woke up with a dark bluish black toungue today! talk abt nightmare but i’m glad i came across this page..phew!!
OMG! I’m so glad this post was here. Woke up this morning wondering if I was bleeding internally. Lately some kind of wierd things been going on with my body n when i saw the black tongue it scared the lights outta me. Yes i did chew a peptobismal last night. But what also made me scared was the smell it gave me. Not saying I don’t have morning breath but not the way it smelled this morning. I do feel relieved yet still i will seek my doc’s opinion and advice in light of what’s going on with me lately. tks a million
Oh my goodness…lol, im so glad i found this article. i just brushed my teeth this morning and had dark green/blackish all over my tongue! lol i thought for sure i was dieing lol thanks for posting this. i took some pepto for an upset stomach yesterday evening.
THANK YOU!! I didn’t know what was wrong. It’s happened before… I was thinking something horrible!
Lezleigh
Thank you for your post. I woke up this morning with a black tongue and scared out of my mind. I am happy to no that nothing is wrong with me. THANKS
That happened to me this morning and I was trippin out big time wondering what could be wrong with me and I had tooken a pep to bismol chewable pill yesterday what a relieve…thought I would wake up like that everyday or something
Thank you!! I was freaking this morning, so glad it was just the pepto tablet
Thank goodness! I usually brush and use Listerine in the morning, and I wondered why I never noticed my tongue turning black on other mornings. An hour after brushing and mouthwashing, it was still black. Then I searched on the Internet, saw this post, and remembered that I had taken two Pepto tablets before bed the night before. This is a great post! Thank you so much!
Another Pepto casualty here! I wandered innocently into the bathroom this morning and … cue up Carmina Burana … I looked like an extra from Michael Jackson’s Thriller video.
Was it Bubonic Plague? Was it the same mold that creeps in in that corner of the bathroom? I was braced for something pretty horrible. But nope! It was just another cute little side effect that drug manufacturers failed to mention.
Thank you so much posting this! It spared me a trip to the doctor. Where would we be without the internets?
Cheers!
I hope no one ever takes this blog down. I was freaked when i saw my black tongue. I though an organ was failing or something. Phew!
another thanks. I gave my daughter a pepto chewable last night, b/c she complained of a stomach ache. Do you know how hard it is to stay calm when you’re just as freaked out as a 9 year old?! Thank goodness for google.
Glad I found this post too! My son woke up with a black tongue and even he thought it was the Pepto pill. I didn’t stress much because he seemed fine and I didn’t want to freak him out. I’m glad it wasn’t anything that serious.
I also took pepto bismuth one night. And woke up with a black tongue. Scared me to death. My sister-in-law told me to google it just before I was going to the doctor. And found out it was the tablets I took. Thank God for google, didnt need another doctors bill.
thank you!!! i thought it was like cancer or something! lol dang that pepto!
wow….so took a pepto bismol last night because i couln’t find the tums….must say pepto tastes horrible. i noticed that there was a weird taste in my mouth and when I looked at my tongue and it was a brownish black color. i freaked and scrubbed and scrubbed until i was gagging myself. then I found your post. Thanks so much for posting….its helped me and i won’t use pepto anymore…….thanks
man..i feel better now known what happen i was just about 2 call doctor and say something really wrong with me
I am so glad I found your blog! I woke up w/black tongue this a.m. and it’s only happened one other time before. Alas, I took the pepto last night! Wow. At least I’m no longer reaching for the xanax to calm myself down! LOL
Wow! Just brushed all the black off my tongue. I woke up noticed black in my teeth too. Flossed and thought it was just too much food and candy from Easter yesterday. Last night took 2 pepto chew before bed from nausea. Needless to say when I noticed my black tongue this am. I FREAKED OUT. Thank God for this blog or I would be in bed all day wondering why Im dying. Thank you
THANK YOU!!!!! I was like what happening with me Am I dying or something LOL
I too took Pepto Bismal last night and woke up with a black film on my tongue. The lady was right.
My husband and I both woke up with black tongues one day (like 20 years ago). Freaking out, we called my mother-in-law, who immediately asked if we had been playing with a Ouija board. We HAD! The night before. She called it “witch’s tongue” and scolded us for playing with the “black arts”. She then said it was really just a fungus and to swish hydrogen peroxide in our mouths and it would go away. It worked. I don’t recall if we had taken any Pepto Bismol recently. But just in case, we got rid of the Ouija Board!
I thought it was just Taco Bell that caused it…
OMg…….. Thanks for this info I defiantly thought I was dyeing lol… But yessssss I also had a peto before bed……
I am so glad i ran across this blog, thank you for posting. i had been reading all about BLACK HAIRY TONGUE, thinking my years of boozing and picking the low hanging fruit of women had finally caught up to me, but I live to do so again. damn those chew tablets.
I had a terrible stomach ache last night. My husband got up and said baby are you alright. I told him what the problem was and he was like hold on you need to take some pepto bismol. Now let me say I can tolerate pain. I don’t like medicine but since he was so nice I took it. LET ME TELL YOU when I got up to get ready for work this morning I noticed while brushing my teeth that in saliva was some type of black something. UGGGGH what is this is what I thought I must go to the doctor but now I know what caused it thank you for saving me the co-pay!!!!
Ohhhh my gosh. That is good to hear. I brushed my teeth after the pepto tablet last night, but not well enough I guess!
Thank goodness for this sight – I work up this a.m. w/black tongue and it really kind of shook me up – mainly because I’d been having some stomach issues. Yesterday I’d bought some Pepto Bismol tabs and had eaten two of them. Sooo glad to know the cause of my black tongue this morning!
Lmao. Thanks for saving my nerves.
I took 4 pepto bismol tablets last night and woke up this morning, freaked me out. Glad this blog was here to help!
Thanks for this article I was freaking out lol
YOU JUST SAVED ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I ALMOST DIES BEFORE I READ THIS! I WAS SO DAMN SCARED!!! THANK YOUUU
Wow so glad I found and this on google before I paid for a doctors visit. U saved the day..
Another scare saved by this post! I took Pepto chewable tablets last night and, sure enough, woke up with a black tongue! I knew I hadn’t eaten anything right before bed so my first thought was of that rumor that humans ingest, like, 5 spiders a year while sleeping or something. I thought a spider had crawled into my mouth in the middle of the night and somehow that turned my tongue black ha ha!
When I woke up this morning, looked in the mirror before brushing my teeth. I saw that HORRIBLE black tongue, and it freaked me out. I was almost afraid to type Black Tongue…fearing I’d find some kind of deadly reason. UNTIL…I read about the Pepto tablets.
I had an upset stomach last night….BINGO, and thank goodness for GOOGLE.
Brushed as usual, more effort on the tongue….back to Pink.
Maybe somebody should contact the makers of PEPTO tablets, and let them know about the BLACK TONGUE after effects?
No lie I just woke up now with a black tongue n freaked out a bit n brushed the hell outa my tongue till it all came off n I just googled it n I do had the chewable kind… This helped alot
Great! Feel better I thought it was signs pf slowly dying. Got scared, but didn’t think of it when i saw that it washed off. But was curious to know. I feel much better now.
Whew…..thank goodness for this post! Someone should forward this post to PEPTO BISMOL. I thought I had the big C or some weird disease…….I think I will feed my brother some now!
Thank you¡ After five years your advice still serves. I woke up right now I had black all over my tongue when brushing. Very weird but good to know I wasnt the only one. Thanks again
Wow… I woke up this morning freaking out. I thought is was maybe some bad sushi. Sounds like I’m not the only one who has two chewable Pepto tablets before bed. Thank you so much for this post and helping me keep my sanity.
Thank u! i was some nervous. i thought i was turning into a squid or something. i was about to cry but i noticed it went away when i brushed. Thanks to my sis she googled it cuz i was on my way to the hospital. i was blaming the taco bell i ate last nite. forgot all about the pepto i took. thank u God
Thank you so much !!!! Problem solved…….. thought that I had something really sinister when I woke up this morning with a black tongue
Yay!!! I’m so happy to know, I am not alone! #teamblacktongue
I was freaking out too. V Rt
I almost freaked the freak out this morning. I have taken pepto many times, but this time I woke up and my tounge was completely black! I thought I had some crazy disease now. HAHA. Thank you so much for posting this!
OMG! What a relief! I have had a raging stomach flu and was just uncomfortable last night and took a pepto bismol tablet. Woke up still not feeling well and called in. THEN went to wash up and thought that my stomach flu was really some stomach or throat cancer and I was totally dying!! It’s hilarious now! Please keep this post going!
oh my goodness…thank you so very much!!! I took a pepto bismol tablet last night and woke up with black tongue. This has happened twice before, but never related it to anything and was really starting to freak! whew…so very relieved!
My husband told me I was probably dying…and since my explosive diarrhea is still around, more pepto tonight….I am going to scare him tomorrow by telling him my tongue fell out!!
Wow, thank God for Google Websites, you are a life saver because I thought the worse. I had red beans, rice, corn bread, candy yams, fried chicken, cake and sweet tea; before I went to bed and I got an upset stomach around 2 a.m. Got up and took 2 pepto bismol pills and went back to bed. Woke up this morning with a black tongue and I just knew I was DYING! Thanks to your website I can live on. Wow, what a relief!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
wow.. this just happened to me. This morning i woke up with a black tong. I did take PB last night, I thought the worst… PB should advise this affect on the products!!!!
I just visited UCLA Medical Center yesterday and woke up with black tongue this morning. Thank you so much for the post… I did eat a Pepto before bed…
I’ve had black tounge and lost taste. It turned out due to mega dose of antibiodics I was on for a bad infection for appendicitis. I was told the antibodics killed the flora bacteria on my toung. It took several days before it looked normal and I could taste food again. This morning again black tounge not as bad and not on meds. Now I know as I did take Bepto last night. Relieved to know nothing serious. Thanks.
My Daughter came in this morning and I noticed she had black around her teeth, and she opened her mouth and her tongue was black, we were scared, I wanted her to make an apt. at the Dr. right off, I though she was bleeding inside, so I decided to google black tongue, and came upon this sight, thank you for clearing this up for us, she told me she took two Pepto Bismol, the night before.
OMG!!!! Thank u… I just started taking PEPTO BISMOL chewables last wk. Everytime i take it the next day i wake up brush my teeth n freak out by the black stuff coming off my tongue!! I thought maybe my kids wer playing a joke on me..lol.Im so glad to no its not something serious!!!
I thought I had some disease or something… Extremely happy it was the dang PB tablets!!!
OMG – Geez – thank god i just saw this blog. Felt like there was something on my tongue after the flu and have taken pepto chewables for the last two nights – FREAKED OUT until i saw this!
My wife just started screaming and crying and gagging and vomiting and yelling at me to find out what the heck happened to her and this site answered it all she had two chewable peptos last night black tongue this morning I tell her what it is and she starts yelling and screaming at me some more FML!!!
OMG I was freaking out – I thought I was dying or had some horrific disease! Thanks for this post – it’s the first thing that came up when I googled it.
Oh man – I couldn’t figure this out! It happened once before and I freaked, but just brushed it away.
I thought it was my pot pipe! lol
Then I googled it, the second time just to see and I totally ate a chewable pepto tablet last night and probably did that last time, too.
THANK YOU! I thought I had to give up the pipe :P
Feel much better after reading this post. I didn’t notice until after I drank my cup of coffee at work that my tongue was black. Proceeded to freak out in the office restroom and try to scrub then ran to google and sure enough….I took 2 Pepto Bismol chewables last night!
Thank you..thank you..than you…
I’ve been having a melt down trying to figure out why I woke up with a black tongue….after scrubbing it with my toothbrush until it hurts I finally decided to Google it… came across this fab post & YES!!! I took Pepto Bismol chewable before bed last night…Woot..Woot!!!!!!!!
Thanks again
Great information! I had a belly ache last night so I took 2 pepto bismol tablets. I woke up this morning with black gums and a black tongue. Naturally, I freaked. I thought my belly ache was a precursor to my black tongue and figured I was progressively getting sicker with some strange disease… anyway, feeling pretty good now. I wonder what my stomach lining looks like…
OH-MY-GOSH! I just woke up, went to the bathroom, opened my mouth to brush my teeth and I panicked! My mum is a dentist (but I’m in a different continent) so I immediately decided I was going to call her, I was thinking I had a mold (scary or what?) and I have a hangover from last night but I kept telling myself I wasn’t that drunk as to having done something I wouldn’t remember today….so I came to ask my friend google what was going on and voila, I found your post. You have no idea how happy your answer made me. Thank you so much for posting this, really, I was even crying already.
I am taking iron supplements for anemia and the iron turns my tongue black and stains my teeth. I take chewable tablets prescribed by my physician. I swallow them whole to no avail. When I wake up in the morning my tongue looks as if it has been coated with black, shiny tar. My teeth look as if I had never had them cleaned in my life. Due to the relatively high dosage, and the frequency, my tongue remains black all day. I am able to remove much of the dental stain with brushing and then about 30 minutes of scrubbing with baking soda. But stain remains between my teeth. Whitening helps but I can’t do the whitening every day! If anyone knows how to deal with this I would really like to know what to do. The doctors and vitamin manufacturers have no answers. They say they have heard of it, but it is rare. I my anemia improves I will have to take the iron for 6 more months, then back off to 1/4 the dosage I am taking now.
This morning was the 2nd time its happened to me and thankfully after reading this blog I have an answer. Both times I took pepto b4 bed. I’m so relieved and greatly appreciate the time that was taken to write about the subject!!
I too awoke this morning to black tongue! Thank you for this post as it was the first link I clicked on. As I was brushing the teeth. it all came off, but just got off the phone to dr.s office who had told me my cholesterol was too high, jeez I thought I was having liver failure! LOL I used the LIQUID pepto bismol last 2 days with food poisoning (shrimp/scallops), didn’t notice until this am (in bed mostly) the black tongue. I’m going back to bed…….better tomorrow I hope
It’s funny. I woke up with a black tongue this morning. It was the third time that this had happened to me inside of 3 years!!! So I was a little freaked out and jumped on the computer to do a search. Your site was the first thing I found. So I was reading your other blog about the first time that this happened to you, and the first thing I noticed was the pepto!! I took chewable pepto last night too!! So this confirms it. And thank goodness!! I thought I was eating bugs in my sleep!!! thanks for posting!
This post was right on time. I took two chewable pepto tabs last night and this morning while brushing my teeth, I noticed this yuk brown residue in the sick. I panicked. I didn’t know what was happened. I googled back tongue and this blog came up. I’m so relieved.
Thank You for this information I thought something serious was wrong with me. Cool it was just pepto bismo
LMAO!! Well I was watching “The Rite” last night and woke up this morning with a black tounge. I have to tell you I was pretty freaked out. Thank you for this! It was the first thing on google I read. Feels good to know its not a poltergeist! Haha
Thanks. I took 2 tablets last night. I was a little freaked this morning, only because I am having other medical issues. Glad to know this has nothing to do with the other. Appreciate it!!
Thanks for taking the time to do this blog. It help me so much. My 22 year old daughter was showering and found out she had a black tongue. She had had 3 peptobismol tablets the night before. This blog and the comments of all of you put me at ease instantly. Thank you very much. E.C.
OMG! Thank you. I was ready to go to the hospital buntit was the pepto pills I took before bed!
Thank you so much for this information. Scared the mess out of me. I was ready to go to the ER. Learn something new everyday. Thanks again.
another big thank you for this blog. Yesterday was my sons wedding and it was a very hot day, I guess the stress level had been very high but all went well and without a hitch. At the reception I started feeling bloated, gassy and nauseous and couldn’t eat much more than a mouthful of the great dinner. My son gave me a pepto bismal chewabal tablet but I ended up going home quite early in the evening to bed and being quite sick. I had gotten up to be sick and afterwards I looked in the mirror and checked my tongue (a habit that started after I had a heart attack 2 years prior) to just make sure it was not going blue….IT WAS BLACK and I was terrified…we were going to go to the ER but I took a tissue and saw that it was wiping off and I then knew that it was not something associated with my heart. Went back to sleep and googled black tongue this morning and was relieved to find this blog…..THANKS AGAIN
Omg thank u so much for sharing…last night my stepdaughter woke up with an upset stomach gave her a pepto tablet. This morning she tells me she’s still feeliing a bit sick but that her toungue is black. I started scolding her on the fact that she’s always putting her dirty fingers in her mouth. I thought maybe she had bitten into a black pen or something that died her tongue black….told her to brush her teeth, but noticed that it was still black. That is when I started freaking out thought maybe she’s feelig sick because its not just an upset stomach…thankfully before doing something drastic I GOOGLED it and came across this! Problem soleved thank u very much!
THANK !!!GOD!!!!!! OH MAN!!! I Was Like WTH!!!
i keep waking most mornings with my tounge stuck to the roof of my mouth, when i look at it in the mirror i have a brownish black tounge darker at the back coming down the centre i havnt took any pepto or any tablets, but i stopped smoking four months ago an ive just put it down to my chest clearing its self (i hope) just not sure how long it takes to clear… thomas
Have been worried all day since I woke up with a black tongue this morning after taking Pepto last night! Thanks for your post. {big sigh of relief!}
OMG I woke up this morning with a BLACK TONGUE after chewing the Peto Bismol chewable tablet. I freaked and then went to google when I got to work. Good to know I’m not the only one!! WHEEEEW lol
Suzam, what ever, man this is johnny on the spot, guess what i had a bad stomach on yesterday, i was shiting water every time i went to the bath room, i could drink a pop and go to the the bath room in shit come out faster than a loco motive,,any way, i went to the store and bough a Pepto-Bismol chewable tablet, chew it then went to bed, woke up my tounge was black, got to work and google it and BANG, here it is, thanks to all of yawl , hell i was bout to call the police, hell tthen no what to do, hell its still sum an the back of me tounge, thanks
love all yawl
Thank you so very much for this great info! This is exactly what happened to me, and I was afraid it was something dangerous. Your posting perfectly targeted my problem and provided the answer. What a relief!
Al
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I was so freaking out. I was afraid no one would believe me that I wasn’t just eating black licorice or something. Looked too freakish to be real.
Though this article is several years old, it solved the mystery of my black tongue this morning! Thanks.
I woke up this morning with a black tongue………….what a feeling at first. After a long shower and a good brushing, I thought I would look up “Black Tongue”. Boy, way I glad to see your comment. Guess what? Correct, I took couple of Pepto Bismol tablets before going to bed.
Steve
I don’t care what anybody says about google but thank god to who invented it. I woke up with a black tongue and thought I was dying or had cancer until I read this about pepto. And thankfully I took some last night.
Thank you for the info about Pepto Bismol, apparently you have been giving peace of mind to people for several years.. I am a nurse and I didn’t know about this side effect… To Kara black licorice will actually cause very green stools if you eat too many…..learned this from experience and solved the mystery on Google!
OMG i’m really glad i came across this article because this literally happened to me this mornin and i completely freaked out and my mom and i had been searching for hours trying to find out wat was wrong….. I took a picture of mine though
May your life be filled with happiness! Thank you for posting this and Thank you Google for having the thread come up as one of the first URLs!
This was very helpful!! I got sick last night throwing up and my mom gave me two pepto bismol chewable tablets, and when I woke up this morning my tongue was black and i had no idea why. I thought my filling was coming out,but thankfilly its nothing that requires a trip to the dentist.
I’m so glad to know I’m not the only one who totally freaked out when this happened. I told my sister I was ready to drive myself to the hospital and she laughed at me. So reading that so many other people were just as scared as me really helped me feel better. Thanks for posting this. Yours was the first thing that popped up in my search results, so I immediately felt better. :-)
Thank God there is the Internet, I forgot I had taken to Pepto-Bismol tablets last night, got up this morning to see I have been spitting up black saliva, got me worried to notice my tongue was black also, Thanks for being so Smart….. and finding out this :-)
Thank GOD it was pepto! i thought that I was DYING or had tounge cancer or somthing (no I dont know what tounge cancer looks like or even if its real) Never taking peptobismal again I’m gona stick to Tums from now on. lol Thank you so very much for telling me this!
My 3 yr old son’s tongue is black. I wasn’t freaked but remembered when I was 8 my tongue had did the same thing. So like everyone on here I Googled it and low and behold my friend had given him peto-bismol for his tummy ache. Thanks for having a common ailment and doing the research for us.
I woke up this morning and also found that i had a black tongue and thought it was a side-effect from my stomach virus and that i would die from a terrible black tongue disease but i freaked out inside my head quietly said what the hell happened to my tongue and silently went to the computer and did my research. and found out i wasn’t going to die… hallelujah!
I’m so relieved that it is just from the PB!!! Now it all makes sense! Thank you for posting this!!!
Thank you All!! OMG of course I’m thinking the worst. I took a pepto last night before bed.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I woke up this morning to a black tongue! I have been really worried all morning since I just came back from a cruise to the Bahamas and I really don’ t feel well today, my spirits are low, and I’m in a bad mood. I was wondering if I had contracted something; I couldn’t wait ’til I had a minute to jump online and google it.
I took 2 chewable pepto bismol tablets last night to stave off acid reflux! They should put a warning on the package…..Thanks again!
Thank you for this post! I woke up with a black tongue today. I was so freaked out til I saw this. I, too, took two pepto bismal tablets before bed. lmao
Thank You! Woke up this morning and was freaking out! Scrub my tongue raw wondering why it was black! Did take pb last nite for heartburn. Th
nx again for your answer!
What a relief. Thank you so much for the answer to the black tongue mystery.
Thank you because i just woke up today with the black coat and what you explained is exactly what happen haha. What a relief :-D
Thank you! Same thing happened to me this morning – relief : )
Thank you so much. I’m not dying!!
ia: 2x pepto chewable tablets.
Ha! Here’s to the power of Search Engine Optimization that continues to drive traffic based on a relatively unique query and user interaction (beaucoup comments!)
I too chewed a PB tablet last night, and I too awoke wondering on a black tongue – plague? cancer? licorice?
Luckily, Google (and your blog post) is our friend… I can now go about my day with confidence they’ll be a tomorrow :-)
Funny how the mind (and Google’s search algorithm) works
LOL
Thank. God.
I took two pesto chewables last night and just woke up with a black tongue and freaked the hell out. You have saved me from a major panic Gaza
yes! my husband just woke up with a black tongue and we were freaking out! pepto last night! thank you!
Haha, thanks! I thought it was the chocolate mousse but I was the only one in the family with a black tongue this morning. However, I was also the only one to take Pepto Bismal chewable last night. Mystery solved.
Thank you a million times over for your post!! My seven year old daughter woke up this a.m. with a black tongue. Although panicking inside, I kept my poker face for her sake and went directly to Google. You were the very first website I clicked on and I am so grateful!!
She too chewed pepto bismol tablets before bed last night. You have saved us from a Dr’s visit and allowing us all to enjoy our last few days of summer vacation!!! Many thanks!!
ha i woke up and when i saw my teeth with black spots i was weirded out then i brushed my teeth and saw black and my first thought was “i slept with the window open…did a bug get in here or something?!” i scrubbed my tongue like i was washing clothes in the old days! after reading this i am so relieved!
BINGO….I hit the jackpot. This has happened to me and due to having reflux, I too was a bit jolted by black tongue in the morning after taking a Mallox tablet the night before. Thanks for posting..
Oh boy- thanks for sharing this! I just awoke with a black tongue and freaked the heck out, trying to remember what I ate last night that could have caused it, and kept coming up with nothing. I took two Pepto tablets before bed last night. Phew!!
So, I woke this morning, had a bit of an odd taste in my mouth. Started the shower and leaned over to spit into the sink….much to my surprise it looked like I had just eaten chocolate! I opened my mouth and I saw the “chocolately-black” coating and it kinda freaked me out, as I am having a few health problems. I grabbed my phone and took a couple of pictures, just in case I needed to show my doctor…..Instantly I grab my toothbrush and a little mouthwash and start scrubbing my tongue to see if it will go away. Most of it did but not all!! GROSS!!! I get to work, GOOGLE and find your article first….so I read it! THANK YOU! I did take 2 chewable Pepto’s last night just as I crawled into bed. So that solves the mystery! Though it’s still gross!
After damn near fainting and then brushing my tongue to a nice shade of gray, google was my next step. Stupid pepto got rid of the stomach ache only to give me a heart attack!
Hey i just wanna say thank you for posting this. My stepson woke up this mornin with his mouth coated in black. He goes “did i eat something wrong last night” I said no it may be the pepto chewables. So i searched it and stumbled on your site which i read u to had the chewables and then that site led me to this site so i guess we all learned a good lesson with this one lol. Pepto chewables WILL turn your mouth black. Thank you tina for the info
THANK YOU for sharing this! What a weird side effect of those little chewable Pepto tablets. I was freaking out for a minute, racking my brains about what I could have possibly ate today. Relieved now. Seems to be a hot topic, lots of comments. Thanks again for sharing little lady!
THANK YOU!!!!!!! I was about to freak out and my family is on vacation. I was wondering how I was going to call them and say “hey, I’m taking myself to the ER!”
I chewed 2 yesterday!!! Your post was the first one of the google options I chose! Thanks again!!
I am very happy I chose this site first. Explained to me in perfect English! Thank you very much for posting this 5 years ago because I def freaked this morning with my black tongue. I checked the roof of my mouth and my throat and tonsils, but it only is on the tongue. I am happy to know that my tongue will not be falling off anytime soon. I usually have Tums when I hurt, this is the first time in a long time that I had PB instead.
Thank you so much for the post! I woke up this morning with a black tongue and did totally freak out! I had already planned to call the doctor’s office as soon as they opened. In the mean time I decided to google it and much to my surprise there is was!! I did chew pepto bismol tablets just before I went to bed last night! What a huge relief to find out it’s nothing to be concerned about! Thank you again!! You saved me much anxiety and possibly a visit to the doctor’s office!
Thank you! I had the same thing happen to me. I freaked for a minute, but then brushed it off. Then went to work and googled it and your post was VERY helpful. I had forgotten, but this has happened before… so now I know I am not sick, hahaha.
Glad to know; thought I was turning into a zombie.
Im now in the black tongue club…I to was so scared but reading these post took that away. Whoooooo I can breathe now
Thank you!!!
Wow! Happened to me this morning. Never had it happen before. I almost had a meltdown. I’m glad to know that I am not dying or something!
HAPPENED TO ME THIS MORNING!!! I WAS SO WORRIED, I ATE A PEPTO BISMOL TABLET BEFORE I WENT TO SLEEP. WHAT A RELIEF.
I have had this happen twice — both times I had been drinking wine in the evening, and then before bed, ate two wintergreen lifesavers. Woke up the next morning with blackish teeth and really black tongue. I didn’t have pepto, but I wonder if there is something similar in the ingredients of pepto and wintergreen lifesavers that can react with something (like residual wine) in your mouth?
I am so glad you had solved that mystery. I paniced because I thought it was something serious. It’s funny, I never take Pepto, but my husband brought it for me for my Heartburn. I woke up in the morning with a black tongue and really got scared.
Thanks Again
Gotta love the internet. I thought I might have lung cancer and the blackness was dried blood. The pepto mismol tablets are pink. I chewed one before going to bed. Thanks everybody!
HA! Yes, I Google everything too!! You were the first one up, amazing how many posts since 2007 & everyone has the same reaction!! So funny!! Thank you!
Holy cow I just woke up with a black tongue and immediately thought it was fungus! As soon as I read this, though, I stared breathing again, because I took two Pepto before going to sleep. Thank you for sharing this! (I think I need another Pepto though…
Thank you very very much for posting this information. I too woke up And freaked out this morning because my tongue was entirely black. Never happened to me before in my life. I decided to search for answers on google and found your article. I DID take two generic pepto Bismal chewables last night just before going to bed. You are a sanity saver. I was so freaked out. Thanks again for posting important info that the box does not tell you. Panic averted!
Make sure you thank your sister for me…I almost made a doctor appointment.
Thank you!! This happened to me a week ago and I did take Pepto tablets before bed. It went away after brushing my teeth but still secretly I have been freaking out thinking that a poisonous bug died in my mouth lol. I can’t tell you how much this has eased my hypochondriacal mind!
I guess I just joined the club! Posted this on fb in case any of my friends thought they were dying of cancer or something horrible like I did!
[...] I found out what causes a black tongue!!Jun 24, 2007 … After that though I’d think it’s really cool and then procede to show my tongue off to anyone and everyone.
says: Monday June 25 … [...]
Thank you for posting this!! I woke up and screamed when I went to brush my teeth! I had been worrying all the way to work. I then thought of google!! You saved me from a stroke and a $30 co-pay
I feel so much better after reading this. I woke up with a black tongue and nearly had a heart attack until I read this and realized I did take a pepto before bed last night. Thanks!
I’m a nurse and knew that Pepto does turn stool black but I did not know it tuens your tongue black. So after taking a Pepto chewable last night I was shocked to wake up with a black tongue. I figured the worse. I was already diagnosing myself with something fatal. lol. After coming across your post I remember telling patients not to be alarmed if their stools were black after taking Pepto. I felt dumb for not associating that earlier. My chest pains have stopped from the mini stroke I had.Thanks for posting it for us in the medical field.
Wow I’m so glad I saw this. I wole up this morning with a black tongue. I’m going to take some pepto bismal so I’ll know what caused it.
I woke up this morning, after I brush my teeth I brush my tounge. I looked at my tounge in the mirror and there was black crap on my tounge…I thought it was mold, i didnt remember eating anything black. I was like I totally need to look online and get some answers. Good to know!!!! I was freakin out!
I woke up with a black tongue this morning. Freaked out just a little. Called the doctor and made an appt. Then I googled it and found your blog. I took two pepto tablets last night. Mystery solved. I cancelled my drs. appt and stopped freaking out. Thank You!
I am so glad I stumbled on this post to black tongue. I thought it was the “big one” when I woke up this morning!! I am on new meds that make me nauseous so I took two chewable Pepto Bismol tablets before going to bed. OMG I was just about to call the Dr when I read this post. Thank you and you gotta love Google!! lol
Thank you soooo much! I was freaking out until I saw what you said about the pepto-bismol…..! And I DID pop two tablets before going to bed!!!!! Thanks again and a special thanks to goggle!
WOW!!! And 5yrs later, I too, must add too your relief comments =) Thanks so much for your post. My son had been sick all day yesterday with a head ache, vomit, & runs. So I gave Ibuprofen for the head ache & Pepto Chew Tablets for the other. He showed me his tongue & I started taking pictures and Google and amazingly your post popped up. I’m in “Relief Heaven” Thanks again =)
Yep, I’m another who was granted piece of mind thanks to this post. My gross variant: I noticed my loogies were all black this morning and investigated my mouth in case I had something lodged in there. Bad news is, I missed a movie matinee because I was afraid to leave the house. Thanks!
I can not thank you enough!! Waking to the panick of my teenage daughter that her tongue was black, I instantly googled.
This was the first thing I seen, sure enough I had given her pepto before she went to bed last night.
I can not tell you the drama you saved me, within 2/3 min I had the answer.
Thank You !!
OMG! I was so scared this morning when I woke up with a black tongue. I do know I watch too much “Monster Inside of Me” because I was thinking crazy things. Thank you so much for this post. I did take two chewable Pepto before bed. There was a really funny taste in my mouth sometime in the middle of the night. Do the pepto people know this happens?
Thank you for posting this. I got my boys ready this morning and even talked to my husband and the lady that car pools to school. Nobody said anything to me! I looked in the mirror and I about had a heart attack. I scrubbed my teeth and tongue with the toothbrush like I have never done before. I wear the clear plastic retainers to bed at night and thought maybe the pepto didn’t get all the way rinses out of my mouth and I had mold growing in there. Eww… Tall about wanting to vomit. But I got on google before calling the dentist or doctor. Thank goodness I found this post! I don’t feel so dirty now
So i too had the black tongue experience. I work industrial constuction and work at a lead plant sometimes. I had been working there and ended up getting sick. So i took some pepto throughout the day. Later that evening my gf notices my tongue was black. Needless to say we both freaked out. Good thing i did some research before going to the hospital. That wouldve been funny.
OMG!! this exact situation happened this morning, my sister woke up to get ready for school and freaked cause her tongue was black, I told her google it, and we found this article. I thought it was funny cause she did take pepto bismo tablets last night, but she’s still upset, she says how can I laugh at this when she was really scared.
Those darn tablets! I took one before bed too and I just woke up after a bad dream! I go to wash my face and my tongue is brown! >.< well anywayseven the medical websites didn't have reasons as to why tongue would turn brown it only said poor diet lack of fruits and veggies :/ thanks so much
I feel a bit better now!
Oh my….I woke up, brushed my teeth, and when I rinsed out my mouth I noticed the black stuff!! Looked up in the mirror and had a panic attack!! I kept thinking what in the hell I did the night before that would cause this lol It was the pepto tablets…ugh! So glad I didn’t have a date or anything!!
Thank you for this concise explanation. It answered our question right away!
OMG I FREAK OUT TOO BUT AFTER I’VE SCARED MY HUBBY HALF TO LIFE I GOGGLE IT AND BUT OF COURSE ME BIG SCARY CAT TOOK TWO PEPTO BISMOL CHEWABLE JUST BEFORE BED. HELPFUL INFORMATION THANKS GUYS
Thank you so much for this post. My daughter woke up with a black tongue and had no idea what it was. She had a tummy ache last night and took some Pepto. Thanks again!
YEP! Happened to me too. How crazy!!! I don’t know if beer adds too it but I had drank some last night as well. Thanks for posting, I almost panicked.
Genius!!! I panicked when I saw my saliva was black. I am in the Grand Canyon and thought it was the dust in the air! But of course, I had Mexican right before bed and chewed a pepto tablet! Thanks for the relief!
Thank god I read this… was thinking I had some sort of cancer or some crazy illness. hahaha and yes i took 2 chew-able tabs of Pepto-Bismol
Man I was scared to death, I thought I wil die soon and I will lose my tast buds. Pepto should be banned.
THANK GOD! I thought I had a horrible ulcer or something and was going to spend a week in the hospital (if not more). Good Lord!
Stupid Pepto.
Blecchh!! I took pepto bismol last night as well and woke up with a black tongue.. but mine had a nauseating taste to go with it. I’m never doing that again.. it’s disgusting haha!
WoW Thank You!!! cause all kind of things was running through my mind!!!
Woke up this morning with a black tongue. I just about died. Dang pepto! But scrubbing my tongue worked great to get it off. Thanks for posting!!
OMGOSH! I thought I was dying too! I freaked out, so I googled what causes a black tongue and was so relieved to find this because I chewed two of those stupid pepto tablets last night before bed! Thanks so much for this post!!!
Lol. I thought it was nutella that I ate the night before. But, pepto it was for sure. Gotta admit, was a bit worried.
i thought i was dieing from cigs or something. traumatic
I was brushing my teeth and when I brushed my tongue and spit, OMG freak out! I thought I was dying! Nope, just ate pepto chewables last night. Thanks for sharing!
This happened to me this morning im 24 I literally cried cuz I thought I had a disease.. It was really nasty with nausea taste.. and really really hard to come off my tongue I’m still trying to get it off now.. my mom said taking pills like that you have to drink plenty of water and I guess we all fell cause we all took the pill and just went to sleep and caught BLACK TONGUE!
thank you for having this posted i woke up by my wife crying her eyes out and im a big fan of Google search who isent so i came on and found this post and she did exactly what you did lastnight and she thought it could have been cancer or something but thanks.
I was so scared! then I remembered that I took a pepto pill before bed too. This was the first time that this has ever happened to me after taking pepto.
Yep, stomach was aching in middle of night and I took pepto tabs and voila, black tongue. I also took an ambian and when I take ambian I unconsciously eat. I was thinking that I ate something with chocolate like an oreo cookie, but we didn’t have anything like that last night, so I’m glad this blog was here. Thanks.
Holly crap I was freaking out! Good to know its nothing bad.
MAHALO for your post.
I woke up with black tongue today for the first time in my life which gave me a fright. I’m only 17 and I didn’t know what would have caused something so gross until I started seeing pepto-bismol (which I had taken last night before bed).
Very interesting!
omg…my husband screamed…first entry on google search. Thanks for making me laugh (once my heart started beating regularly)!!
Thank you my husband and I got this before work this morning and where a bit worried. I looked it up and found your post we both took peto last night and woke up with black tongues. Thank you for your answer…
I kept wondering what I had eaten the night before which would cause my tongue to turn black. Chicken wouldn’t do it and neither would applesauce. It didn’t smell so I just brushed my tongue and found out that Pepto will do it once I got to work and looked up the information. I thought I had come down with some type of oral infection. :P
Ty for ur posting of years ago. This happened to me this morning!! Sighs. What a relief.
Last Night I Was Watching Possessions Of People Playing Ouija & I Was Talking About How All Things Of That Sort Interest Me, & Waking Up With A Black Tongue Had Me Thinking Maybe I Was Possed At Night xD I Was So Scared xD
This happened to me this morning. I did a search on Google and it was too broad or something cause nothing good showed up. Then I searched for “brush teeth” “black spit” and this showed up. You have given me peace of mind. I did take a Pepto chewable right before bed. It was scary though, I thought my teeth were gonna fall out or something. This was very useful information. Thanks.
I had a scary experience with the Pepto tablets. I couldn’t imagine what was going on.Thank God for Google.
Pepto tablets should come with a warning label,May cause black tongue if tablets are taken at night.
Wheww!! Got me this morning. Brushed my teeth and started drooling black foam. Wiped my tongue on a towel and left an impressive streak. Swore I was dying. Had a Pepto tablet before bed last night. You sure helped ease my mind. Thanks.
15 minutes ago I thought I had a life-threatening condition (not really) but it was really, really weird! Goggle led me to your answer and voila! I’m a happy girl thanking you and Goggle!!
Like others, I thought I had a fungal infection or other serious (deadly?) ailment. Brushed my tongue raw and rinsed until it was clear. I kept checking my tongue throughout the day to see if it was black again. What a relief to read your blog and know I too was a victim of the “Pepto black tongue” side effect. Thanks for the info and peace of mind.
Same thing happened to me Scared the crapola out of me!!!!!
I know it happens if you take a Pepto at bedtime (thanks for that info). Does it also happen if you take one during the daytime?
Haha, thank you. I just freaked out, I too took a pepto bismal chewable last night before bed.
I am so happy I googled. In my medical profession Ive only seen this with GI bleeds but, knew my husbands medical history. So I googled it and sure enough he had taken 2 chewable pepto bismols before bed last night :0)
I was standing in the shower looking in the mirror i have for about 20 min thinking what in the hell did i eat last night to do this and nothing made sense… until now fewf
Thank you SSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOO much for posting this. I freaked out when I saw my tongue while brushing my teeth this morning. YIKES! I am so relieved that it is nothing. WHEW!
Hello I have woken up 3 times with black tounge don’t drink P.B. nor meds nor antibiotics so what could it be. Unfortunately your article didn’t help me.
I am so glad I found this. I was convinced something horrible was wrong but I did take a pepto chewable tablet and so this makes sense. Scared the hell out of me this morning!
Wow……scared the sh*t of of me….was thinking some kind of metal poisoning…hahahahahaha, chewed about 4 pepto tablets last night myself…….whew…thanks for the info!!!
Why don’t they put this “side effect” on the label? Freaked me out!
But I have to say, the PB tablet did help me sleep off my norovirus stomach cramps and nausea last night!
man i woke up this morning real cool brushing my teeth and when i was about to brush my tongue my eyes got huge and i even dropped my brush. it came off when brushed but still in panic mode. called my pastor and started praying to GOD that i dont die. but im so clad that it was just the separation of bismuth from salicylate, forming bismuth trisulfide (Bi2S3) in combination with the sulfur found in saliva. thank u JESUS.
Not gonna lie,I woke up this morning getting ready to brush my teeth to notice my tongue was black.I paused in fear thinking I was dying or it was cancer or somethin.this post really help me calm down so thank u.I did take pepto tabs before I went to sleep so now that I know,I ain’t so stressed.thank u again
Whew!!! Woke up this morning with black tongue and was a little freaked. As usual google saves the day. Thanks for the post and all the replies. It is kind of funny now that I know what caused it. Maybe the pepto company should put something on the bottle as to not freak out the users!!!
Just woke up this morning with a weird taste in my mouth so i started brushing my teeth and when i spit it was black! So then i looked at my tongue and it was coated in black… I thought i must have some kind of really bad bacteria in my mouth or something… but when i googled it i found this… and I had 2 chewable pepto tabs just before bed! thanks for the help!
Yep, same issue. I’m traveling internationally and was quite concerned this morning, but I also took a chewable pepto tab last night, so feeling MUCH better to read this. Contributing so this continues to show high on the list on Google. Thanks!
thanks !!!! i m a germafob and worry wart and when i woke up and saw my toungue black I freaked….then I goggled and so grateful for your post. I have reflux and took pepto tabs just before bed! They should put that on the box.
OMG! THOSE DAMN PB CHEWS NEED TO COME WITH A WARNING I THOUGHT SOMEONE HAD DONE SOMETHING TO ME!
Oh man… I just tried out my brand new vaporizer with some beautiful Cali medicinal marijuana. Woke up with friggin black tongue symptoms and was about to throw my inhaler away, curse it and go back to smoking joints. God bless for Google!
My stomach ache is better btw, thanks Pepto!
Wow!! It’s amazing…..this post has been helping people for 6 years! Woke up this morning…went to brush teeth and noticed my gums were black. Upon looking further into my mouth I noticed that my entire tounge was black. I scrubbing the hell out of my tounge and removed almost all of the black. Next stop…Google….oh thank you. Right before bed I took 2 pepto chew tabs for some heartburn. Whew!!!!! Thanks again.
My son freaked out this morning when he saw his lightly discolored black tongue. Rapidly I researched and called the pharmacy to fin out if it was the pepto he had and sure enough, you are correct. Great info!
OMG !!! Thank you ! Thank you ! I woke up the last two days with a black tongue and black stool, I was Freaking out on the second day, nervous as hell, but thanks to you all and Google, I feel much much better !!! Scary stuff for sure !!!!! Thank you all again your stories and info have helped me a lot.