How to Properly Clean Your Tongue

I absolutely hate bad breath! I’m just like one of the girls that are in the movies that you see rushing out of bed first thing in the morning so they can brush their teeth.

That way when their guy wakes up she has fresh breath to greet him with. I’m not trying to be prissy. I just really do hate foul morning breath.

Bad breath is the one problem that I would really like to get rid of. I hate it when I am talking to somebody and feel like I need to take a couple of steps back so that I’m out of range of their bad smelling breath.

Just the other day, when I was brushing my teeth, I happened to notice that there was a thick layer of white stuff covering my tongue. I looked at it closer in the mirror.

Then I noticed there were little cracks and fissures in my tongue. I caught a whiff of my own breath. It was terrible, despite the fact that I had just brushed my teeth. What was happening?

Geographic Tongue

Isn’t that a great name for such a disgusting problem? Geographic tongue is what they call a tongue with many little fissures and cracks in it. It’s kind of like how the earth’s surface has cracks.

Inside those cracks in your tongue, there are all kinds of germs and bacteria living there. They are able to multiply because they don’t ever get rinsed or brushed away.

Whenever there are bacteria living inside those little cracks on your tongue, they can take root and then grow as well as spread to the other areas of your tongue.

If they start taking over your tongue, the next thing they can do is move onto your throat, gums and teeth. This can lead to full blown halitosis.

Fortunately, scraping your tongue is an excellent method for getting rid of that white stuff that’s on your tongue. It can help with dealing with the bacteria and your bad breath also.

Why You Should Use a Tongue Scraper

You are probably thinking that using a tongue cleaner or tongue scraper to scrape your tongue is a weird idea. However, it really is one of the best methods for keeping your tongue and mouth clean.

Here are five reasons why scraping your tongue every day is necessary:

1 – Improves Your Dental Health

Yes scraping your tongue can help improve the health of your teeth.

Whenever your tongue is full of bacteria, there’s a good chance that the bacteria will spread to other areas of your mouth.

It could cause a gum infection, or get inside the cracks that are in between your gums and teeth. This could result in cavities and other kinds of problems.

Also, bacteria might spread into your throat, causing a throat infection. It could even pass through into other parts of your respiratory system.

So basically, using a tongue scraper to clean your tongue is one of very best ways for keeping your whole mouth healthy.

It’s important to get rid of all forms of bacteria, including the kind that lives on your tongue.

2 – Deals With Bad Breath

Did you realize that halitosis (bad breath) is really the smell that is released from decaying food cells?

When you eat food, it coats the inside of your mouth with small particles. Usually saliva washes them away. However, if you have bacteria that are living on the inside of your mouth, these bacteria begins to eat away at this food.

When the food cells are broken down, a natural chemical reaction is caused. A horrible smell is released by the oxidative process.

The bad smell is released from the decaying of millions of food cells that are being broken down. This is what causes bad breath.

When you scrape your tongue, it helps get rid of food cells stuck inside the cracks. It also can scrape bacteria away that are living in the cracks.

When you brush or scrape your tongue, many of the bad smells are eliminated.

3 – Heighten Sense Of Taste

That white film that’s on your tongue also diminishes the sense of taste.

Whenever the nasty white stuff covers your tongue, your taste buds don’t get the chance to savor the good food you’re eating.

This thick white coating is what prevents the taste buds from being in contact with the nutrients flavoring the food. You just have a general taste of foods that you eat.

Scraping your tongue, however, helps you get rid of whatever is interfering with the healthy functioning of your taste buds.

Clean tongues have a great sense of taste. You will be able to enjoy your food more easily since you will be able to taste it so much better.

4 – Prevent Toxin Reabsorption

One thing you really don’t want to do is swallow toxins your body is attempting to excrete.

Whenever you’re sleeping, your body attempts to rid itself of the toxins and chemicals in your system. Much of that white film covering your tongue is actually toxins.

Your body wants to get rid of them. So when you swallow the stuff in the morning, it just sends the toxins back into your system.

To help prevent reabsorbing those toxins, your body is trying to eliminate, scrape your tongue first thing in the morning.

The funky chemicals and toxins will get eliminated with the dried bacteria and saliva that’s on your tongue. So you won’t need to worry about these toxins getting back into your system.

5 – Stimulate Your Organs

Yes, if you clean your tongue it helps with stimulating your organs.

Just like massaging the soles of your feet stimulates different systems, glands and organs in your body, the same happens with your tongue’s nerve endings.

So when you scrape your tongue, it helps stimulate the internal organs in your body.

As an example, when you scrape the tip of your tongue, it stimulates your heart. When you scrape the sides of your tongue, it stimulates the liver, gall bladder, and the spleen. It’s like acupressure for your tongue!

Did you know that individuals who drink tea and coffee have a tendency to have chronic cases of bad breath? That’s because the insides of the person’s mouth are coated with caffeine particles.

That’s the reason why you tend to have yellow teeth and a yellow tongue when you drink a lot of beverages rich in caffeine.

How To Use A Tongue Scrape For Cleaning Your Tongue

Fortunately, it’s incredibly easy to use a tongue scraper. You can clean your tongue in only a few minutes each morning.

Here’s a small bit of history, before we get to how to scrape your tongue.

Tongue scraping actually originated thousands of years ago when it was used in Ancient India as part of Ayurvedic medicine.

Cleaning your tongue is one way to get rid of toxins that are inside your body. It helps with promoting detoxification of the body.

Toxins that have been secreted by your body and collected on your tongue are eliminated. This makes your healthier.

When you are scraping your tongue, here are a couple of things that you should keep in mind:

It isn’t necessary to scrape really hard. You don’t want your tongue to start bleeding. Go easy on your tongue. When you press down hard, it doesn’t get rid of any more of the bacteria.

It also doesn’t take less time for you to clean your tongue. Just apply a sufficient amount of pressure so that the scraper clears the top layer of the gunk from off of your tongue.

This isn’t the only cure there is for bad breath. Although having a white film covered, dirty tongue may cause you to have bad breath, there can be other things that cause halitosis as well.

If bad breath is something you’re worried about, then eat foods that help to fight bad breath, floss and brush your teeth on a regular basis and look into what else could be causing your problem. When you scrape your tongue, that’s just one possible solution.

Use a simple scraper. There are many fancy tongue scrapers for sale online. However, they tend to be unnecessarily complex. You just need to use a simple tongue scraper. They are fairly inexpensive. There are electronic tongue scrapers that you can buy. However, they are more expensive.

Scrape in the morning. Right after you wake is when your tongue will be covered with a white film. It is toxins. So scrape your tongue at that time. The best time to scrape your tongue is in the morning.

Weren’t those practical and simple tips? Okay, the following are the simple steps you need to take to scrape your tongue?

Step 1: Swish some warm water inside your mouth. That helps to loosen the film that’s on your tongue and will make it easier to get rid of it. Be sure to spit out the water. If you swallow it, that sends the toxins back down your throat again.

Step 2: Clean your tongue’s top layer. Make sure your scraper is totally dry. Begin to scrape the top layer of film coating or gunk from off of your tongue.

Begin at the back of the tongue. Go back as far as you can without gagging. Use sweeping, slow strokes to scrape your tongue, starting in the back and working your way towards the front. Also, scrape from left to right. This will ensure your tongue is completely scraped.

Step 3: Apply toothpaste. If you use good oxygenating toothpaste, it will help to speed up your cleaning process. Squirt a small amount on the head of the scraper.

Step 4: Clean a second time. Coat your tongue’s surface with toothpaste. Allow it to seat for approximately 90 seconds.

Also, try not to swallow the toothpaste. Instead, just hold it inside your mouth. After 90 seconds have gone by, scrape the toothpaste and gunk off your tongue, using the same smooth strokes. Do this until your tongue is completely clean.

Honestly, properly scraping your tongue is a simple process. So what should you use to get this job done?

Best Tongue Scrapers

Here are a few tongue scrapers you can purchase from Amazon. That makes it very convenient.

Dr. Tung’s Tongue Cleaner

This tongue scraper is made out of stainless steel and its design makes it very easy to use.

This scraper’s curved edge helps with cleaning your tongue a lot faster than a small plastic scraper would.

It is a lot easier to remove gunk from your tongue using this simple scraper.

Stainless steel is also bacteria-resistant in addition to being gentle on your tongue than plastic is.

Pureline Tongue Scraper

This tongue scraper is a simple and straightforward product. The scraper is made out of FDA-approved biocompatible plastic.

It’s easy scraping the gunk off your tongue using only a couple of strokes each morning. It’s easy to replace, disposable and cheap.

GUM Tongue Cleaner

If you’d like to freshen your breath and clean your tongue all at the very same time, then use this minty coated tongue scraper.

It will help with killing off bacteria inside your mouth as well as make your breath a lot more pleasant.

It has a scraper and bristles for brushing, proving that this cleaner has been designed for maximum efficiency and effectiveness. It is also very affordable.