# Why are there tongue depressors in a dermatologist's office?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-tongue-depressors-in-a-dermatologists-office/265214
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 21, 2004, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-tongue-depressors-in-a-dermatologists-office/265214 "2004-09-21T00:03:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2004, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-tongue-depressors-in-a-dermatologists-office/265214/1 "2004-09-21T00:03:42Z")
So I am sitting in the examination room, waiting for the dermatologist to come in, when I notice a glass jar full of tongue depressors. In a dermatologist’s office? Why would they look in someones’s mouth? No other doctors in this office either, it is a dermatology clinic only. What up?
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### Author:  [@quiltguy154](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy154)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2004, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-tongue-depressors-in-a-dermatologists-office/265214/2 "2004-09-21T00:15:09Z")
A dermatologist is a M.D. who specializes in treatment of skin disorders. Sometimes those diseases, conditions, etc. will manifest themselves in the mouth, on the tongue, etc. Have to go in and take a look, and that pesky tongue sometimes gets in the way. Additionally, TD’s make great applicators for salves,unguents, et al, especially the greasy and nasty-smelling types. Say AHHHHHH!
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### Author:  [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2004, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-tongue-depressors-in-a-dermatologists-office/265214/3 "2004-09-21T00:41:04Z")
Hmmm. Is the lingual epidermis normally the realm of the dermatologist, or the ontolaryngolist? I would think the latter, but it’s not unreasonable that for some things the former might serve just as well.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2004, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-tongue-depressors-in-a-dermatologists-office/265214/4 "2004-09-21T00:57:21Z")
> [@Loopydude](#):
>
> Hmmm. Is the lingual epidermis normally the realm of the dermatologist, or the ontolaryngolist? I would think the latter, but it’s not unreasonable that for some things the former might serve just as well.
Overlapping territories.
Lots of good derm pathology manifests itself on the tongue, gums, soft palate and retropharynx.
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2004, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-tongue-depressors-in-a-dermatologists-office/265214/5 "2004-09-21T01:04:31Z")
And my dermatologist HAS used a TD in my presence to mix stuff up and/or apply it to rashy bits. But maybe he’s just weird?
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### Author:  [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2004, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-tongue-depressors-in-a-dermatologists-office/265214/6 "2004-09-21T02:28:25Z")
I’m an M.A. in a derm office, and we go through lots of tongue depressors. We use them to mix and apply ointments, such as for use in a UV lightbox. We also use them to make a “slush” which is liquid nitrogen mixed with acetone, wrapped in a gauze, and held by the tongue depressor. We wipe this solution over the acne cysts that we incise and drain. Plus the doctor uses them to look inside the mouth.
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### Author:  [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2004, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-tongue-depressors-in-a-dermatologists-office/265214/7 "2004-09-21T02:44:45Z")
They are ubiquitous in medicine. They are used for everything from, as **trublmakr** , **Broomstick** , **Qadgop the Mercotan** & **quiltguy154** said, mixing and applying, to splinting fingers ouchies, and even as arm splints for IVs on premies.
The world of medicine would come to a grinding halt without tongue blades.
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### Author:  [@PosterChild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PosterChild)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2004, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-tongue-depressors-in-a-dermatologists-office/265214/8 "2004-09-21T04:11:48Z")
While I have not been training in Derm long, I use them mostly (only- so far) for examining mouths and included structures.
PC
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### Author:  [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2004, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-tongue-depressors-in-a-dermatologists-office/265214/9 "2004-09-21T06:47:29Z")
When I went to a (non-specialist) doc about a fungal infection, he used what looked like a tongue depressor to lightly scrape a sample.
Of course, this is the same incompetent pinhead who misdiagnosed a malignant tumor as a simple knee injury for almost a year, so I can’t gurantee that that’s proper procedure.