May 2007 Tongue Cleaning

Keeping one's mouth clean is essential to enhancing your dental health. We are all aware of tooth brushing, floss and other instruments to clean our teeth and gums. The ultimate purpose of all of these activities is to reduce the oxidative insult of oral bacteria, thus minimizing the need for an inflammatory response to defend ourselves. Cleaning the tongue is often overlooked.

Purpose of tongue cleaning - The tongue has a rough surface of many little papillae, so it is an ideal place for bacteria to hide. In doing so, they give off  "volatile sulphur compounds", which we recognize as bad breath. Most of the worst bacterial offenders are located on the back of the tongue, so they are hard to reach. Tongue scrapers are specifically designed to scrape these smelly bugs off the tongue.

A tongue scraper looks like a table spoon with a hole in it. You put it to the back of the tongue and scrape forward to gently peel off the surface bacteria. By using this instrument, tongue cleaning is chemical-free, removes bacteria rather than just masking it, comforatable, quick and easy.

Many people will use their tooth brush to clean their tongue, but it tends to just mash the bacteria deeper into the papillae. Due to its size, it is also more difficult to clean the very back of the tongue, which is the most critical area. A power toothbrush is totally inadequate for this purpose.

Mouthwashes tend to rely on their alcohol content to "kill" bacteria. Now the bugs can decay in your mouth and give off more smell. The alcohol also dries out the oral tissues and can irritate them.

Today's Simple Secret for Better Health is to use a tongue scraper to clean your tongue. Your breath will be fresher, your dental health will improve and your food will taste better.

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Yours for better dental health,
Dr. Ken Southward