Each and everyone would pretty well know about the importance of cleaning the teeth, by proper toothbrushing regularly, but there’s a majority in them who don’t care about the health of the tongue and the cleanliness to be maintained on the tongue to complete the proper oral hygiene daily, along with brushing and flossing. Tongue Cleaning is an important part of the life, and one has to take it seriously as a daily routine to maintain a good health of the mouth.
Why is Tongue Cleaning Important?
One who is following the proper ways of brushing their teeth and flossing them, might have a good understanding on how this helps them maintain a proper oral hygiene, and the same person would again feel why the tongue needs to be cleaned, and what it has to do with the tooth decay and the build up of calculus on the tooth. Many things here are related, but not many people know about it.
The tongue is a house for several bacteria which are not harmful and may sometimes instead help when there’s no food debris left in the mouth. But when layers of food remain on the tongue surface, the bacteria act on that and this leads to the foul odor, or the Bad Breath which is popularly known as Halitosis.
And another major reason for keeping the tongue clean, is that the bacteria which are present here would reach the tooth surfaces and the gums to attack if there is food debris remaining on the teeth, and the most common area here would be the junction between two teeth.
For those who have been clueless about the reason for the bad breath although they were properly brushing their teeth, the lack of cleaning of the tongue too can be a reason for that.
Another good reason to clean your tongue daily, is that by brushing or rubbing the tongue you are giving the taste buds a gentle massage which keeps them healthy and this improves the sense of taste, and if not improve, would maintain it good.
How to Clean your Tongue
Using your brush to clean the tongue is not a wrong way, but there are quite a few brands which have come up with special tongue cleaners on the back side of the bristles, which can be used to properly clean the tongue and once this is done, you should thoroughly rinse your mouth with water, and if you are using any mouthwash, that would help too.
Using a tongue scraper is another way to clean the tongue and this is actually a right and better way to clean it. This is also one of the easiest ways to clean the tongue, as the tongue cleaner is simply a strip of metal or plastic that is bent in “U” shape to settle well on the tongue surface and you just need to push it towards the tip of the tongue so that everything that has settled on the tongue surface is scrapped off.
Having said all this, it doesn’t mean that you are doing your 100% job of maintaining a perfect dental health, because you would be best knowing about it only when you visit a Dentist regularly, at least once in 6 months although you might not have any problem at that point of time.