Try a couple of things...
Repair permissions
According to Apple, occasionally the user permissions associated with files or applications become damaged, which can prevent a file or application from working as it should.
See this article. So, you might want to try to run Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility). Open the application, select the mounted volume for your hard drive and click "repair disk permissions."
If that does not help, then...
Font cache
Font cache could be causing the problem. Go to Applications > Font Book. Make sure you have "All Fonts" selected on the navigation left-hand side bar. Then go to File > Validate Fonts. The software will let you know if any fonts are corrupted. You can then read the report Font Book generates and see if you have any trouble font(s).
Browser cache
If that doesn't work, you might try a good maintenance program, such as
MainMenu,
Cocktail,
MacJanitor. Eliminating font and browser caches could clear the problems.