Tongue Scraping: What Is It And What Are Its Pros And Cons

January 11, 2022

  

Tongue scraping is an oral hygiene treatment that involves cleaning the coating of one’s tongue, in order to remove bacterial particles and germs. There are many benefits associated with tongue scraping, from a reduction in bad breath caused by bacteria to fewer germs in one’s mouth.

It is possible to have tongue scraping performed professionally in a beauty treatment center or one can do it oneself. Before making an appointment or ordering a kit, here are a few pros and cons of tongue scraping for you to consider:

Pros

• Improving oral hygiene:

One of the most obvious benefits of tongue scraping is that it improves one’s oral hygiene. Unfortunately, due to the excess of fatty, sugary foods included in people's diets today, oral hygiene is on the decline. Tongue scraping eliminates leftover bacteria, introduced through excess sugar and unhealthy foods. Out of all of the tongue scraping benefits, improved oral hygiene is definitely the most notable. In addition, when you clean your tongue, you’re more likely to take greater care in cleaning the rest of your mouth.

• Reduced bad breath

Bad breath is a big problem for a lot of people, especially people who are prone or more susceptible to tonsil stones. Often, the cause of bad breath is bacteria that are left to sit on one’s tongue. By cleaning your tongue, you directly attack the leading cause of bad breath, improving your oral health and breath. In combination with cleaning your tongue, you should floss, use mouthwash, brush your teeth two or three times a day, and if your breath doesn’t improve, chew peppermint gum.

• Eliminating bacteria

Bacteria is always present in our mouths, it’s an unchangeable fact. However, by scraping your tongue, you eliminate the number of harmful bacteria that are present. If your mouth is overrun with harmful bacteria, then you are more likely to get infections when cuts or scratches occur within the mouth. Oral infections can be very hard to treat, so in this case, prevention is definitely better than cure.

Cons

• Gag reflex

When you are cleaning your tongue, you are almost definitely going to stimulate your gag reflex [unless you don’t have one, that is]. When you stimulate your gag reflex multiple times, there is a chance that you might throw up. If you have a particularly sensitive gag reflex, then you should scrape your tongue with a soft-bristled brush, delicately.

• Cutting tongue

Another problem associated with tongue scraping is unintentional cuts and scratches. Some people are very rough with the way that they clean their tongues, and this leads to them cutting themselves. Cutting yourself while scraping your tongue can be very painful. In order to avoid this, follow our previous advice and use a soft-bristled brush, or scrape gently. Another way to avoid cut is to pay attention. Most cuts are caused when people are simply not paying attention to what they are doing and press too hard on their tongue, causing pressure.

DIY Or Professional Cleaning?

If you think that tongue scraping might benefit you, it’s important to work out whether you want to do it yourself or have it cleaned professionally. If you are going to do it yourself, then you need to be very careful. You can also buy little machines that make tongue cleaning much easier, which are something to think about.

Scraping your tongue is a great way to eliminate bacteria and germs from your mouth. If you care about your oral hygiene, then you definitely need to take up tongue scraping.

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