Your mouth is teeming with bacteria and although that is perfectly normal, it is important to keep it under control with a thorough brushing ritual. Bacteria not only collect between and around your teeth, but also on your tongue, for example through food residues. Yet we often skip the tongue when brushing or scrub it quickly with the toothbrush. Is that bad?
“A healthy tongue is beautiful pink, without bulges, discolorations or deposits. If that is the case with you, then cleaning your tongue is not necessarily necessary,” says Annemarie, dental hygienist at Praktijk Frederiks. “However, if you have bad breath, gum problems or a dry mouth, I recommend that you also clean your tongue. Eighty percent of bad breath comes from the bacteria on the tongue.” You can do that with a tongue scraper, she says.
Annemarie does not see tongue scraping as the standard, but more as an aid if you already have mouth problems, such as bad breath. According to her, cleaning your tongue can do no harm.
A tongue scraper is an instrument with which you can scrape the deposits off your tongue. It can be plastic, metal or copper. You shouldn’t confuse it with the rough back of your toothbrush, which is sometimes advertised as a tongue cleaner. A tongue scraper is a tool in itself and you can simply buy it at the drugstore.
Did you know that tongue scraping has been done for thousands of years? A set of toiletries from the ancient Romans was already found from 100 AD, which also contained a tongue scraper. Tongue scraping is also a fixed ritual within Ayurveda, the ancient Indian traditional medicine.
In any case, use the tongue scraper during your first brushing in the morning. At night, a layer of bacteria has built up on your tongue. Brush and floss your teeth first, then get to work with the scraper.
Stick your tongue out as far as possible and place the scraper at the very back of your tongue. Make sure it stays comfortable: you’re not supposed to gag heavily.
Slowly scrape forward, so that the batter on your tongue comes off. Do that about 10 times and rinse the scraper with water in between.
Rinse your mouth with water and don’t forget to gargle. This way you also wash away the residue on the back of your tongue and tonsils. Then rinse your tongue scraper well, possibly with a disinfectant.
Tongreiniger from Lactona, €9.14 for two pieces.
Annemarie: “This tongue scraper has a handy size, so you can easily reach the back of your tongue without it becoming too uncomfortable”.
Lactona tongreinigerBeeld Lactona
This article originally appeared on Libelle.
Libelle – Emma VerweijGetty Images7 September 2023, 09:30
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2023-09-07 07:30:11
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