Tongue Scraping: Tending To Your Tongue

Even if you are an avid twice-daily brusher, floss on the regular, and maintain routine dental visits, you may be missing one important step in keeping your mouth fresh and healthy. Have you considered tending to your tongue? Tongue scraping is a fast way to remove bacteria, food, and other particles from the surface of the tongue, and only takes a few seconds!  Read on to find why many have added this simple step to their daily routine.

Over time, the tongue collects debris, bacteria, and dead cells that can lead to bad breath and have a negative impact on one’s overall health. While brushing the tongue can help, tongue scraping is proven to be much more effective at removing this buildup.

Benefits of Tongue Scraping

• Improved sense of taste. Clearing the surface of the tongue improves the ability of our taste buds to distinguish between bitter, sweet, salty, and sour, as well as enhances the overall flavors of food.
• Reduces bad breath. Many odor-causing bacteria like to accumulate on the tongue, and more specifically at the back of the tongue. Tongue scraping removes this film of food, bacteria, and dead cells, and promotes fresher breath.
• Improved appearance of the tongue. Build up of excess debris can cause the tongue to take on a white, coated appearance. Daily scraping helps maintain a healthy, pleasing pink color to the tongue.
• Removal of bacteria. Research shows that daily tongue scraping helps reduce the presence of the two key types of bacteria that cause tooth decay and gum disease.

How to Scrape Your Tongue

Some people struggle with the idea of tongue scraping because they have a sensitive gag reflex. A good way to work with this is to begin by scraping from the middle of your tongue to the tip. Then, gradually start from further back as you become used to the sensation, until you are able to cleanse the entire tongue.

If you consistently tongue scrape and notice that your tongue continues to have an irregular appearance, such as a white coating, black hairy texture, significant redness or variation in color throughout, reach out to your dentist to have it evaluated. Sometimes an unhealthy appearance of the tongue can indicate deeper problems within the body.

Overall, we give two thumbs up to introducing tongue scraping into your daily routine; it’s so simple and has numerous benefits! Tongue scrapers are easy to find – you can pick them up at the grocery store or online. Go ahead and grab a few for stocking stuffers this Christmas!