Geographic tongue: sensitivity to the environment.

The prevalence of geographic tongue was assessed among 102 atopic patients with extrinsic asthma and/or rhinitis and was found to be significantly greater in these patients than in an asymptomatic, nonatopic control population. However, there was no difference between the prevalence of geographic tongue among atopic patients with extrinsic asthma and rhinitis as compared to a group of patients with asthma and rhinitis who were not atopic. These findings suggest that geographic tongue is a sign common to those patients who have a tendency to develop recurrent acute inflammatory disease on surfaces in contact with the external environment (for example, asthma or rhinitis), whether they are atopic or not.