A tongue scraper or tongue cleaner is an oral hygiene device designed to clean off bacteria, food debris, fungi, and dead cells from the surface of your tongue. Our Lorne Park Dental hygienists highly recommend tongue cleaning and hope that you make it part of your daily oral care routine.
Reasons to Scrape your Tongue Every Day:
1. Fresher breath
Scraping the tongue significantly reduces odour from the mouth. Our patients are surprised at what comes off when they clean their tongues! The film that develops on your tongue while you sleep, can be thick, clear, white, yellow, brown or even green.
2. Improved ability to taste
Removing build-up from the surface of your tongue will expose your taste buds more. This will lead to better enjoyment of the flavours of your food.
3. Improved dental health
By removing bacteria and toxins, you are contributing to better dental health. The bacteria that you remove from your tongue can be responsible for gum and tooth decay problems.
How to Scrape your Tongue:
Tongue scraping should be done on a regular basis, preferably in the morning. Usually it involves using a long, thin, flat piece of plastic (sometimes metal) which is bent in the shape of a 'U' to scrape the surface of your tongue. To do this, extend the tongue and place the scraper as far back on the tongue as is comfortable. Scrape from the back of base of the tongue using one long stroke, until you have scraped the whole surface. Rinse the scraper and begin again. Scrape firmly. Do this until the tongue is clean and is free of coating. Wash the scraper well after each use with soap and hot water.