Should You Bother With Tongue Scraping?

Did you know that your tongue is estimated to be responsible for 50% of all cases of bad breath? Keeping your tongue clean is one of the best and easiest things you can do to reduce bad breath. Let’s take a look at your tongue, why it causes bad breath, and the most effective ways to clean it.

Your tongue is covered in tiny taste buds that retain little food particles. These food particles are fed upon by bacteria and produce compounds that lead to bad breath. The most common are hydrogen sulfide and mercaptans, which as a group are known as volatile sulfur compounds (VSC’s). Yep, the same sulfur responsible for the smell of rotten eggs. You definitely don’t want your breath to smell like that.

To clean their tongue, most people brush it with their toothbrush immediately after brushing. Interestingly enough, this isn’t the most effective way to clean your tongue. Researchers from the University of Sao Paulo compared tongue brushing with tongue scraping to see how each reduced  those smelly VSC’s. Brushing alone reduced VSC’s by 48% while tongue scraping reduced them by a full 75%. Other small studies have backed up the conclusion that tongue scraping is more effective than using a toothbrush alone.

So final conclusion…Tongue scrapers are cheap and effective. If you struggle with bad breath, buy one and use it daily. Here is a link to one of the more popular tongue scrapers on Amazon…