What are the symptoms of irritated taste buds?
For me, the symptom is an isolated taste bud that’s tender and irritated. I usually “worry” it with my teeth. If I look at it closely in the mirror, it’s whitish and somewhat enlarged when compared to the neighboring taste buds. I don’t know what causes it, but I suspect it’s a kind of herpes infection which is, as I understand it, a neurological malady of nerves and nerve endings. What are taste buds, but clusters of specialized nerve endings? I’ve had this condition all my life and it recurs maybe a couple of times a year, lasting for two, three or four days. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have it and then I did. I’d say I remember noticing it at least since I was 9 or 10 years old — maybe younger, maybe later, but thereabouts. It’s always been irritating but never outright painful. I don’t know that I remember ever having more than one irritated taste bud at a time, but I think there have been times when two were bothersome at once. It’s usually near the very tip of the tong
