How to Clean Your Tongue: Does it ever happen to you that even after brushing your teeth twice a day, you still have bad breath? Well, it may be because you have given so much focus to your teeth that you totally forgot about cleaning your tongue too. It must have occurred to you that how to clean your tongue properly?
It is very much important to take care of your oral hygiene. It can not only cause bad breath but other severe problems too. So, while you are cleaning your teeth then you should clean your tongue as well. People usually do not do that. They only end up brushing their teeth but leave the tongue cleaning part.
Your tongue plays a vital role in speaking as well as sensing different tastes. Just rubbing toothbrush on your teeth and floss is not enough for complete oral care. You would have to clean your tongue as well for complete hygiene.
If you would not clean your tongue properly then it can become a shelter to millions of bacteria. Even imagining this much bacteria is painful so do not let it turn into reality. Here is the complete detail about how to clean tongue. This information would save you for a lifetime and you would be able to take a good care of your tongue.
Why Tongue is So Important
The tongue is of course a very important part of the mouth. It not only helps us in sensing different types of tastes but also helps in speech and articulating. Like any other body organ this much is as important as the other ones. When it does so much to us then why we often forget to take a good care of it?
Tongue is basically not a single muscle but a group of a lot of muscles. It helps in chewing the food and sending it to the back part of our mouth when it can be mixed with saliva and break down further to get digested.
It is really important to ponder on how to clean your tongue when it has a lot of jobs to do in your life. This is really important to clean your tongue on a daily basis as much as it is important to clean the teeth.
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Why Should Your Tongue Be Cleaned?
We know that there would be plaque and cavity deposit on our teeth if we would not brush regularly. But does someone know that what can happen when you do not even know how to clean your tongue properly? Well, there can be various hazardous effects of not cleaning your tongue on a daily basis.
1). Just like there can be bacteria build up between the teeth which finally turn into plaque. Just like that, there can be bacteria build up on the tongue as well if not cleaned regularly. I hope you do not want to swallow bacteria along with your food.
2). There are tiny pores or bumps on the tongue which are known as papillae. If you do not know that how to clean your tongue then there can be the deposit of bacteria, food particles, dead skin cells and other harmful things between these pores.
3). This entire layer of bacteria is then covered by a layer of mucus. Because of this layer problems like bad breath, white coloration of the tongue and other tongue problems are aroused.
4). These bacteria on the tongue then can be redepositing over teeth which ultimately converts into plaque and tartar no matter how much you clean them twice a day.
All these problems make it really important for you to know that how to clean your tongue.
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How to Clean Your Tongue
There are some of the steps of how to clean your tongue that you must know. You should have proper knowledge about tongue cleaning and the tools that you are going to need for it. You just cannot use anything to clean up your tongue. Everything must be perfect and made up with perfect material too.
Here are some of the points to clear all your doubts that would revolutionize that, how do you clean your tongue.
Knowing the Present Condition of Your Tongue
It is really important to know the current status of your tongue so that you can know it well that how to clean your tongue. The current hygiene of your tongue can tell you that how much cleaning it requires. There are some of the points that you should totally consider while looking at your tongue.
1). You must know that the bumps, pores and grooves on your tongue can harbor a lot of bacteria than you can ever imagine. So, that is the part which requires most of the cleaning.
2). You must check out that your tongue should be pink in color and it must not exhibit some different color. Most importantly it must not be of white color because it is a sign that there is a deposit of bacteria over your tongue.
3). You must visit a dentist immediately if you see a sudden change in the appearance of your tongue.
4). To know it well that how to clean your tongue, you should totally keep in mind that the coating over your tongue must not persist for more than two weeks. It can be really harmful for you to have the continuous bacterial infection over your tongue for a long time.
5). If you are suffering from some kind of pain on your tongue then you should immediately visit an oral hygienist rather than using home remedies over it.
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Deciding Over Tongue Cleaning Tool
It is very important and probably the most important thing to be taken care of while understanding how to clean your tongue. This is really important that you pick right kind of tool for the cleaning procedure. There are a lot of types of tool but choosing the one you are most comfortable with is really important for oral hygiene. Here are the tips which will surely going to help you over this.
1). There are different types of tools which are used by people according to their comfort for cleaning the tongue. Some of the examples of such cleaning tools are tongue brushes, tongue cleaners and scrapers. Among all the tools scrapers are used the most for the tongue cleaning.
2). You can use either of the tools as scraping and brushing have the equal effect over removing the bacterial deposit from the tongue.
3). There are now toothbrushes available which have tongue cleaners on their back in form of small ridges.
4). To know the procedure of how to clean your tongue well, you should definitely go for scrapers as a beginners as they are easiest ones to use.
5). In recent days, you can find the toothbrushes with scrapers attached to them. They would work as the wonderful and perfect oral cleaner for you.
6). Apart from all the tongue cleaning tools, you should use a good quality toothbrush too which can move around 360 degree in your mouth for over all cleaning.
7). You should also compare the prices of the different brands of the tools to find out the best one for you.
Material of the Tool
You should also know that whatever tool you are using, they are available in more than one type of materials. And you should better grab that one you find comfort with. How to clean your tongue when you know so little about all the tools and procedures? That is the reason that we are listing out the types of materials cleaning tools are available in.
1). Some of the common materials which are used for making tongue cleaning tools are metal, silicon and plastic.
2). Usually scrapers are made up of copper or stainless steel. The safety about these metals is that you can sterilize the tool made up of them easily in the hot water.
3). There are plastic scrapers available too. They are cheaper than those of the metal ones but they have some drawbacks. They are not as durable as the metal ones and they must be replaced regularly. Apart from it they tend to get deteriorate with continuous sterilization.
4). Apart from the steel and copper, silicon scrapers are also a good idea. Generally in these scrapers only the edges are made up of silicon and they really help in some good cleaning. This information is really important to learn how to clean your tongue.
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Procedure of Cleaning
This is obviously the most important part where you would finally get to learnt that how to clean your tongue on your own. Now, that you have known enough about the cleaning tools and their material, it is the time that you should know about the procedure of cleaning as well. This is not a rocket science or something else like difficult. You can learn the procedure of tongue cleaning through these steps-
1). Now that you have known enough about the tongue cleaning tools, this is the time that you should pick one for yourself. You should go for the scraper.
2). You should stretch out your tongue to its full length to learn properly that how to clean your tongue. By extending your tongue outside you can cover the maximum area and you can avoid the gagging too.
3). Now you should use the scraper in proper direction. Scrape your tongue in a direction of back to front.
4). Scrapping should be done on every morning before you eat anything. You should do this twice a day and you can do this along with the brushing too.
5). You would find some residue over the cleaning tool and you can clean it up by rinsing this well with water. You should make sure that you are not doing this too fast or forcefully otherwise you might end up scratching your tongue too much.
6). Now that you are done with the entire tongue cleaning procedure, you should use mouthwash to throw out the remaining residue from your tongue. It will also freshen up your breath.
7). You must avoid alcohol based mouthwash as they can dry the mouth. For the extreme cases of cleaning you can use a mouthwash with hydrogen peroxide in it.
8). Make the tongue cleaning a regular part of your life and you would surely feel a lot of change in your tongue.
Visit Dentist Regularly
Apart from taking care of your oral hygiene on your own, this is really important that you visit your dentist regularly too. Sometimes, everything may seem normal to you but there can be some little problems with your tongue. He would also show you better ways of how to clean your tongue.
1). You should ask all your doubts and quarries regarding tongue cleaning to your dentist freely.
2). He should be aware of the things you use for your oral cleaning. This would make him/her guide you in a better way.
3). In case of pain, uneasiness, rashes or some taste buds problem you should directly go to your dentist instead of taking some medicines on your own.
4). You should also tell your dentist if you are allergic to some kind of medicines so that he does not prescribe you those ones.
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Conclusion
From the information mentioned above all your doubts regarding the issue of how to clean your tongue would have been cleared enough. You must have understood that how important it is to maintain the overall dental and oral hygiene to keep your teeth, tongue and entire mouth healthy.
Now, this is something which must not be done out of obligation but it should be a part of your life. If you are facing some sort of confusions or problems then you must consult with your dentist. And don’t forget to go for regular checkups too. The facts that how do you clean your tongue matters a lot for the overall health.
I hope from now on you would be more vigilant about your oral care than ever. This would totally make tongue cleaning an important and inseparable part of your daily routine.
