Red lesions on tongue

My girlfriend's tongue sometimes has red lesions on it. She's really embarrassed about them and won't show them to me often, so a lot of the time for me to get a somewhat decent look at them I'll have to spit my tongue out at her jokingly, and see if she'll do the same.

Anyway... they look somewhat painful, but she says they're not. They're on the edges of her tongue, mostly at the front. They're red and it almost looks as if skin is coming off. Her breath also smells sour when it happens.

It's not surrounded by white. They're just painful looking red marks. They're also kind of large. It can sometimes be only, say, on the tip of her tongue, or sometimes all over the front. They come and go randomly. There one day, gone the next.

If you have anymore questions about them, hopefully I'll be able to answer.


Thank you! Want to figure this out for her, she's too embarrassed to go to the doctor's. Which I know we'll have to do if it turns out bad.

I'll use her personal data, not mine.