Feb 23, 2011

Improve Oral Hygiene / Fight bad breath (3/9) - Tongue cleaning

Many people don´t know about the most powerful, yet very simple method to reduce bad breath: tongue cleaning.

If you´re currently not doing it, just take a look at the back of your tongue. Maybe you can see some disgusting white, or even worse, green, bad odor causing bacteria film.

The intend of tongue cleaning is to notably decrease, but not to completely remove this remainder. Normally the tip of your tongue should be clean by itself, if hast some self cleaning thingy going on. But at the back of the tongue, bacteria is merrily flourishing.

To effectively clean your tongue, you can use either your brush, a spoon or a toungue cleaner. Since the brush or spoon could cause a gag reflex I advice you to use a tongue cleaner. Those are speacially designed to reduce the gag reflex and really cheap to buy.

Those are the steps I take:

1) Clean the tongue after brushing teeth but before using mouthwash because the toothpaste will loosen the bacteria on the tongue, and the mouthwash will rinse it away.

2) Take 3 to 4 scrapes from back to the front and rinse the cleaner after each scrape.

3) Don´t apply to much pressure since that would irritate the tongue.

4) Always rinse the tongue cleaner with hot water before and after use.

Did you already know about tongue cleaning and are you doing it regularly?



Fight bad breath (2/9) - Flossing

44 comments:

  1. Great advice. I've been more self conscious about my breath lately and have just started doing all this.

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  2. I'll have to get a tongue cleaner. My brush always makes me gag.

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  3. need to buy a "tongue" brush XD

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  4. Very interesting.
    I always use my brush on the back of my tongue, since a majority of the bad breath bacteria sit there.

    Thanks bro

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  5. sorry, I can't do this, I get the feeling I'm about to throw up.

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  6. gonna try it, thanks for sharing

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  7. Tounge cleaning is what I always forget doing in a morning.

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  8. tried it once.. but made me gag, and i dont have any dental issues or bad breath. so i dont really need it

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  9. Mouthwash always works for me! :)

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  10. This is so simple yet effective. And most toothbrushes these days come with tounge cleaner

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  11. actually i already knew this, but still this is a great and TRUE tip! Keep it up and thanks!

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  12. I clean my tongue right after brushing!

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  13. good advice. Thanks

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  14. I find I get bad breath when I DON'T eat... mind blown =S

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  15. I tried, but I keep almost gagging

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  16. brush my tongue every time i do my teeth ^_^

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  17. hahahaha, gtta show this to my friend whom i try to avoid

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  18. Yea that does make a lot of sense. thanks for the post

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  19. Damn, I wish everyone in the world could read and follow this...

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  20. I think I'll start cleaning my tongue from now on.

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  21. i always brush my tongue, but now ill do it better!

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  22. Yeah...tongue brush is a must

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  23. I was thinking of stuff I could do, thanks to your site I now know what a tongue cleaner is.

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  24. Good advice! Thanks for the post :)

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  25. good advice, nice post

    + followed:)

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  26. I do this every time I brush. But the gag reflex is uncomfortable.

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  27. My toothbrush has a rubber bumpy side on the opposite side of the brush for tongue cleaning

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  28. I brush my tongue with my toothbrush after I brush my teeth.
    It's probably not extremely effective, but it has to help some.

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  29. Man, I noticed this when I got my tongue pierced. While it was healing, I couldn't move it much and couldn't brush it or anything.

    And this super nasty yellow shit spread all over and it tasted awful and reeked. I couldn't clean it off 'cuz my tongue hurt too much. That week was hell.

    I proceeded to scrape it all off obsessively after my tongue stopped hurting.

    Fun fact: piercings hurt and tend to be super gross during the initial heal.

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  30. my breath is pretty nice but cool tip +followed

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  31. my breath is so fresh nowadays, thanks :)

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  32. i found out about cleaning your tongue some years ago, super helpful info.

    following. :)

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