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Tongue Scraping: Benefits, Disadvantages, Tools for Tongue Cleaning

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Fitness of your mouth is equally important as the fitness of any other part of your body. To have an absolute oral health it is important to have tongue scraping done along with the teeth brushing. Tongue scraping is also called the tongue cleaning which must be given proper importance so as to keep away from harmful bacteria being deposited in the tongue and leading to bad breath, swollen tongue etc. The present article will reflect on the fact how safe is tongue scraping where we will talk about the benefits, disadvantages, and various tool and ways to scrap or clean your tongue safely.

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Tongue Scraping
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What Is Tongue Scraping : An overview!

Tongue scraping is a practice of oral hygiene which dates back to the ancient tradition of natural healing science of Ayurveda. Tongue scraping is a way of tongue cleaning where the bacteria, fungi, food debris, toxins and the dead cell from the tongue surface are removed giving a clean and healthy tongue. What happens in real is while we sleep, our digestive system remains awake and thus it continuously removes and deposits the toxins of our body in the tongue. So, in case we do not scrap or clean our tongue regularly, the toxins from our body deposited on the tongue once again get inside and causes a lot of health issues including respiratory, digestive problems and weakening of immune system.

It is thus important to for us to have tongue scraping. There are various ways and tools available for scraping of tongue including the tongue scraping with brush, tongue scraping with spoon and tongue cleaning with tongue scrapper or tongue cleaner (known to be the most effective tool for cleaning tongue). We will talk about these in the later part of the article.

Benefits of Tongue Scraping :

It is interesting to know the benefits of tongue scraping. So here are some of the benefits listed.

  • Halitosis or bad breath surely impacts a person’s life. Bad breath comes from the toxins and bacteria at the posterior end of the tongue or at the backside of the tongue. Tongue scraping helps in eradicating this bad breath by removing the oral bacteria.
  • Tongue scraping also help in enhancing your immunity. This is so because it helps in removing the toxins that can be reabsorbed by the body from the tongue and can lower the functioning of immune system. Cleaning the toxins can thus be helpful in improving immunity
  • Tongue scraping helps in keeping over all a great oral health. It helps in eradicating bacteria and toxins which are responsible for periodontal problems, loss of teeth, tooth decay, plaque built up, infection of gums etc.
  • Digestive system, respiratory system etc improves with a regular tongue scraping
  • You get benefits from tongue scraping in improving the sense of taste. You can experience the flavors of all the foods in a better way with regular tongue scraping. This is because by this you remove the toxic mucus that deposits on the tongue and can block your taste buds otherwise.

Disadvantages of Tongue Scraping :

As they say, “Even the moon has a dark side”. Tongue scraping is beneficial no doubt; but it also has few disadvantages. Let us see below.

  • There can be a sense of vomiting with tongue scraping in case there is a touching of the scrapper to certain sensitive areas of the tongue. This is also known as gag reflex.
  • There are possibilities that in case of inappropriate use of tongue scrapper you may cause damage to the taste buds on the tongue surface. It is necessary to use a safe tongue cleaner or a safe tongue scrapper to avoid any such circumstances.
  • It is important to keep your tongue cleaners clean, else they can be a source of causing tongue infection.
  • Applying too much pressure while scraping your tongue can cause tongue bleeding, so don’t overdo it.

Tongue Scraping Options and Tools:

Tongue cleaning can be done by two ways; i.e. tongue scraping or tongue brushing. In case of tongue brushing the tongue scraping is done with the use of a toothbrush. However in case of tongue scraping the tongue scrapper is used to clean the tongue. Tongue scraping can also be done with the help of spoon. We will be discussing on how to do the tongue scraping in the following paragraphs.

  1. Tongue Scraping With Your Tooth Brush: Tongue scraping can be done with your regular tooth brush. You need to moisten your brush with a little water and then go for the tongue scraping. Brush your tongue at its posterior end where you can find white or brownish debris being accumulated. Once you are done with it, rinse your mouth properly. In case you are comfortable with tongue brushing it is fine, else look for the better option, i.e. the tongue scraping with tongue scraping with a tongue brush.
  2. Tongue Scraping With Tongue Brush: There are also tongue brushes available which have bristles designed to clean out the crevices of your tongue. Today are also toothbrushes available along with the tongue brushes on their backside. The procedure to clean your tongue is similar as that of the tongue scraping with the toothbrush.
  3. Tongue Scraping With Spoon: You can also scrap your tongue with the help of spoon. But it is essential to take a note on using a smaller spoon instead of a larger one. You need to moisten the spoon at first. Then turn it upside down and take it to the back of your tongue and draw it forward. Make sure you are not scraping hard or making your tongue irritated. Be soft, thorough and gentle.
  4. Tongue Cleaning with a Tongue Scrapper: Now one of the ideal tools for tongue cleaning is a tongue scrapper which is made of either plastic or metal. It is a tongue cleaning tool or a device used for maintaining oral hygiene which is used for removing bacteria, toxins and food debris from the tongue. This requires washing or rinsing properly before and after its use. All you need is hold both the ends of the scrapper and gently take it back of the tongue and scrap it forward to clean the tongue in a gentle manner. After you are done with the tongue scraping, rinse you mouth and rinse the tongue scrapper properly.

Ayurveda and Tongue Scraping :

There is a strong connection between tongue scraping and spiritual awakening. Ayurveda speaks about the wonderful benefits of tongue scraping. Let us know what this ancient healing science has to say about tongue scraping. Check out the following paragraph in the section.

Ayurveda speaks that tongue is the mirror to all the bodily organs and thus by proper examination of our tongue we can keep a check on our overall health. As per Ayurveda, tongue scraping is known to stimulate the internal organs with the virtue of the energetic connections with the rest of the body. It is known to enhance digestion by improving the sense of taste and also helps in eradicating bacteria from the oral cavity. Apart from digestion we also know tongue scraping helps in improving the sense of taste. By improving the taste reception, we not only eat in lesser quantity but also become able to eliminate the need to use more sugar, salt or extra spice to the food for making it tastier. By removing the white coating of bacteria, toxin etc in the tongue with tongue scraping we scope for a better communication between the food and body. This adds on to a better health to us. Coming to the spiritual part; Ayurveda is known to improve the clarity of the mind by reducing the heaviness from the head. So, we get to know that tongue scraping aids us in improving our physical as well as the mental or emotional bodies. Thus when physical and emotional bodies of ours are in balance, it helps us to expand our spiritual awakening and get closer to our higher self in the life.

Conclusion:

For an absolute oral hygiene we surely need to go for tongue scraping along with our regular tooth brushing twice. But it must be a safe practice so as to avoid any risk while scraping the tongue. So, in case you are new to this method of cleaning your tongue then do make sure you understand it in a proper manner, make a purchase of an appropriate tongue scrapper and learn to go for gentle strokes from the back of the tongue to the front and properly rinse your mouth after scraping your tongue.

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“Wise is the person who knows holding the tongue. Even wiser is the one who holds a clean tongue.”

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Team PainAssist
Team PainAssist
Written, Edited or Reviewed By: Team PainAssist, Pain Assist Inc. This article does not provide medical advice. See disclaimer
Last Modified On:March 16, 2019

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