Tongue Scraping

America's Dental Expert

Why You Should Clean Your Tongue

Some of my patients complain of bad breath even when they brush their teeth two, sometimes three, times a day.

So what's the cause of their bad breath?

One possibility is they have dirty tongues.

There are hundreds of tiny hairs on the top of our tongues that harbor germs, bacteria, and food debris. Those bacteria survive on your tongue and produce foul smelling odor.

You need to scrape your tongue and clean it regularly to remove all those germs and debris.

One option is to brush your tongue after brushing your teeth or use the back side of the toothbrush head. Some manual toothbrushes have contours and dimples on the back of the brush head to scrape your tongue with and disturb the bacteria.

Another option is to buy a tongue scraper specifically from a drug store. Using the tongue scraper will remove the plaque from your tongue and get rid of the bad breath.

You could also just use your dental floss. After you're done flossing all your teeth, use the floss to scrape your tongue 5 or 10 times to remove the germs from in between the cilia. (don't forget to spit it out!)

Send your dental and other oral health related questions to America's Dental Expert [e-mail]