Knowing how to clean your tongue may be tricky. In particular, if you just use your brush. A few of us can usually identify when the tongue is too filthy, but we may miss small buildups.
Plus, if we don’t cover all the angles during the brushing, the chances are that some bacteria will survive. But we all know that the brush by itself may not be enough to get to the whole tongue.
That’s why tongue scrapers have become a popular device these days. They promise a clean tongue for the best oral health and fresh breath.
But does tongue scrapping work for cleaning the tongue? Let’s look at the device and its functionality.
Tongue scraper what is it, and how does it work?
The tongue scraper is a device developed exclusively for the optimal health of your tongue. There’re a few types of tongue scrapers. They may be:
- Made of metal or plastic
- V-shaped, like bent in half. This is the simplest model
- Or with a rounded handle at the top, for the most ergonomic model
The goal of this product is to literally scrap all the buildup and debris from your tongue, leaving it smooth and free of bacteria.
How to clean your tongue with a tongue scraper
The process to clean your tongue with a tongue scraper is similar to that of the toothbrush:
- First, you stick your tongue out (the most, the better)
- Then, you grab and place the scraping part of the scraper as back on the tongue as possible.
- Next, you press the scrapper and start bringing all the debris accumulation straight to the front of your mouth.
- Make sure you work on all of your tongue angles for complete cleaning.
- Wash the scraper and your mouth with warm water. Don’t swallow the water, so you can spit all the rest of the bacteria scraped from your tongue.
- Then repeat if needed and clean your scraper for next time.
As a plus step, you could use mouthwash to complement the tongue cleaning and get the best result and a fresh breath!
Does tongue scrapping work? Benefits of tongue scrapping
Tongue scrapers not only work for cleaning your tongue. According to some studies, it’s the best way to do it.
This method was designed specifically to clean the tongue and provides many benefits to your health. Let’s quickly review them:
- Enriched food flavour: according to a previous study, scraping the tongue leaves the taste buds free for fully tasting everything you consume.
- Prevents unattractive white tongue
- Removes the bacteria that cause tooth decay and bad breath
- Better general oral health: without the bacteria and buildup roaming in your mouth, there’s less chance to get gum disease, tooth decay, or cavities.
As you can see, tongue scraping is the ultimate tool for cleaning your tongue and works better for that part than brushing.
Even so, that doesn’t mean it can replace a nice teeth-brushing, as the tongue scraper actually can’t do anything to remove bacteria adhered to the teeth.
