Has anyone ever complained about your bad breath? It must have been an embarrassing event for you.
Maintaining oral hygiene is important, but the step most people neglect is tongue scraping!
Fortunately, your tongue won’t get any cavities soon, but it is definitely the root cause of bad breath and oral ailments.
Cleaning your tongue is important to keep that bad bacteria as well as food debris and dead cells away.
It aims to remove odor-causing substances such as bacteria, debris, fungi, dead cells and other toxins from the surface of the tongue.
This process doesn’t just improve oral health, but also enhances your overall health. Here’s how:
1. Better sense of taste
Tongue scraping twice every day can improve your sense of taste. It removes dead cells and other unwanted substances, keeping your palate fresh, so you can distinguish better between bitter, sweet, salty, and sour sensations.
2. Removes bacteria
Bacteria is the source of many of your oral health woes such as tooth decay and bad breath. Scraping your tongue could help maintain the right balance of good bacteria in your mouth. That’s because it cleans the food debris and dead cells that have accumulated in your mouth.
3. Better digestion
Digestion of food starts from your mouth. The enzymes present in the saliva break food down for easy digestion by the gut. Scraping the tongue is important for digestion, because it helps to activate relevant enzymes that are required for the digestion of the food.
4. Activates organs
Using a tongue scraper on a daily basis assists the body in eliminating toxins that have accumulated in your mouth overnight. It also gently activates and awakens the internal organs, ensuring you start your day feeling fresh and clean.
5. Removes bad breath
Dead cells, bacteria, or debris on your tongue can lead to bad breath. According to a 2005 study, it was found that using a tongue scraper twice a day for seven days reduces the overall incidence of mutans streptococci and lactobacilli bacteria in the mouth. These bacteria types are known to cause bad breath and dental decay.
6. Immunity booster
Tongue scraping is a method that improves oral hygiene, and your oral hygiene affects your immune system. The bacteria in your mouth has an immune suppression effect. When there is a build-up of toxins and bad bacteria in your mouth, it weakens the immune system by putting it to work continuously against the bad bacteria. Therefore, your tongue is the first line of defense in your body, and scraping aids the healthy functioning of the immune system.
How to scrape the tongue:
Tongue scraping is the third step of cleaning your mouth to maintain oral hygiene. After brushing and flossing, you should move to the third step, which is scraping your tongue. So, while standing in front of a mirror:
- Open the mouth wide and stick out your tongue.
- While holding the two ends of the tongue scraper, gently place it on the furthest reachable point on the back of the tongue, without gagging.
- Pull it forward gently to collect saliva and debris on the tongue.
- Rinse the scraper with water after the first pass.
- Repeat the scraping process as necessary, usually 3-5 times. Remember, after each scrape, remove debris from the scraper.
- Rinse the mouth after completing the process with water. Also, clean and rinse the scraper thoroughly and store it in a clean and dry space.
This entire process usually takes less than two minutes. You can also repeat this process throughout the day, as bacteria builds up continuously.
