Remember when we talked about flossing and compared not flossing to not cleaning your private parts?
Well, not tongue scraping is kind of like not cleaning your private parts too.
Our tongues accumulate bacteria throughout the day, & a tongue scraper helps remove that bacteria.
I scrape my tongue twice a day—first thing in the morning when I wake up (before I drink any water), and at night, right before I brush my teeth & floss. It’s become part of my morning & bedtime routine.
But it wasn’t always—before I started using a tongue scraper, I use to brush my tongue with my toothbrush. I did this probably since high school or middle school—my sister told me it helps prevent bad breath, so I was 100% on board.
Then, I noticed in college, some of my friends had these tongue scrapers that looked like this (I use this one now & love it) & I got curious about them.
But… I just kept using my toothbrush to brush my tongue because it was easy.
THEN, about 5 months ago, I listened to The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast episode #103 with guest, Sahara Rose, who talked about Ayurveda 101 & tongue scraping & I was SOOO sold on getting a tongue scraper.
I got this one (& I love it!)
I’ve been using it everyday for the past 5 months—yes, I’ve missed a few days here and there and let me tell you it felt gross. Once you start tongue scraping, you’ll do it every day/night. It just feels blehh not to. I even travel with it.
So, wondering why I got sold on it? Here’s the longish story, & I’m warning you, it’s not cute…
Before I started using a tongue scraper I always wondered why my tongue was whiter than I expected it to be. EEK. Just talking about it still grosses me out.
Well, AH-HA MOMENT. IT WAS BACTERIA.
Within a couple days of tongue scraping, my tongue was SO much pinker. Cute, right? LOL
It was VERY satisfying to get so much bacteria off. It still is—because while my tongue is much pinker than it use to be (are you grossed out yet?) our tongues accumulate bacteria everyday, throughout the day. That’s why it’s so important to scrape our tongues daily—even twice a day: once in the morning, before drinking water (more on that in a sec) & again at night before brushing your teeth.
Okay, now that we have that little story on the table, let’s get into it—LET’S TALK BENEFITS : )
TONGUE SCRAPING BENEFITS
Why should you get a tongue scraper?
Here’s why! Tongue scraping:
- removes bacteria from your tongue (this helps avoid bad breath AND keeps the bacteria from being absorbed into your gut. EEK! Very important!)
- helps avoid bad breath (because it removes the bacteria (the white coating) on your tongue that leads to bad breath)
- promotes overall oral & digestive health
You can see they’re all related!
In the morning, I scrape my tongue before drinking any water or brushing my teeth because I want to remove that bacteria off of my tongue before giving myself another chance to swallow the bacteria. I clean my tongue, then brush my teeth, then drink water. Easy!
What type of tongue scraper to get
I recommend getting a surgical grade stainless steel tongue scraper that looks like a “U”. I use this exact one—& it’s amazing! It’s under $10 & comes with 2. The surgical grade stainless steel won’t rust and it’s super easy to clean. I just rinse it with some hand soap after I use it.
How to scrape your tongue
- Open your mouth & stick out your tongue—AHHHHH ; )
- Place your tongue scraper as far back on your tongue as you can (comfortably) with the ends of the “U” pointing away from you
- Now this is the fun part… The REWARDING part! HA! Holding both ends of the “U” with your hands, gently pull the tongue scraper outwards, across the entire surface of your tongue in one motion. Do that a few times to collect the bacteria, & then rinse your tongue scraper. Repeat that a few times, until you’re no longer removing any white coating (FUN!) P.S. before I rinse the tongue scraper, I ALWAYS take a look at all the white yuckiness my tongue scraper pulled off first. IT’S SO REWARDING LOL. Do you do this?
- When you’re done, rinse your tongue scraper with some hand soap. Easy, done, feels great!
PSA: It shouldn’t hurt when you scrape your tongue & your tongue DEFINITELY shouldn’t bleed.
Another little tidbit/story, if you’re interested—I was scraping my tongue WAY too hard the first week or two that I started using it. I was on a tongue scraping high! I made my tastebuds bleed that first week or two & eventually my tongue got REALLY sore. For the next few days I gave my tastebuds time to heal by only scraping my tongue super, super lightly, and it quickly healed. I’ve been able to scrape it normally since then. I learned my lesson quickly. So, if you experience something similar—your tongue gets sore or starts bleeding, you might be applying too much pressure too. Just fyi! Tongue scraping should be a fun, painless & rewarding (lol) experience.
Also, as a heads up, it doesn’t fit in any of our bathroom cups/accessories (you know those toothbrush holders/tumblers?) so I’ve been keeping it in a huge mug like this one on our bathroom counter. It works!
Curious, if you use a tongue scraper already, how do you store yours? Would love to know!
Happy tongue scraping!! : ) xx
<3,
Bita
