Lets cure bad breath…

Did you know you can improve and sometimes totally cure bad breath by scraping your tongue?

The vast majority of people never consider scraping their tongue, after all did you mom ever tell you to clean your tongue as well as your teeth? I know mine didn’t but by doing so on a regular basis it can have very beneficial affect in the treatment of bad breath, in fact it is possibly the single most important regime change they can implement right away.

The front of the tongue is constantly in firm contact against the hard palate and this contact produces a cleaning action which helps prevent any substantial bacterial accumulation. The rear area of the tongue however by comparison has only gentle contact with the soft palette during tongue movements and this contact fails to result in sufficient friction to result in significant cleansing. It should be no surprise therefore that bad breath caused by bacteria is typically related to the rear of the tongue and that is the area that is the most important to clean or scrape.

How to scrape your tongue?

There are many ways of cleaning the rear of the tongue but each method aims to achieve the same effect, to scrape away the debris and bacteria that have accumulated on the tongue surface.

You should aim to clean the tongue as far back as possible however gagging can be a problem but it’s a natural reaction that with regular practice will diminish. Using a toothbrush or a specialized tongue brush start as far back as possible and make brush strokes outward and toward the front of your mouth. Apply pressure but not too much that will result in tongue irritation

The use of specialized toothpastes can increase the effectiveness of your tongue cleaning regime, specifically toothpastes that contain Volatile Sulfur Compounds neutralizing agents such as Zinc or Chlorine Dioxide will greatly help. using toothpastes that contain anti bacterial agents will dislodge and kill odor causing bacteria in one go.

An alternative is the use of a tongue scraper, an added benefit is that many people find the urge to gag is much reduced when using a tongue scraper rather than a brush. Before buying a tongue scraper it is easy enough to experiment with the technique by suing a spoon, a small spoon works better than a large spoon, so to get started invert the spoon and try scraping. Place the spoon as far back as is comfortable and draw it forward, be firm but again not so firm as to cause irritation.

If you find tongue scraping acceptable you can source professionally made tongue scrapers that will be easier to use than a spoon and radically more efficient than a spoon