Tongue Is The Strongest Muscle Of Your Body. Yes You Read It Right.

Tongue Cleaning, Why Important?
Do you know that your tongue is the strongest muscle of your body? Yes you read it right.
And this “strongest muscle”, if not cared and cleaned properly, can lead to an oral problem, Halitosis colloquially known as bad breath, an unpleasant odor of the mouth.

The surface of the tongue is one of the main breeding grounds for bacteria that attack teeth and gums. In addition to brushing and flossing, daily cleaning and hygiene of the tongue is an equally important part of complete mouth care.

HealthyDunia.com speaks to Dr. R. Sunitha, Endodontist & Conservative Dentist with Apollo Dental and find out the importance of tongue cleaning.

“A healthy tongue should be slightly moist, smooth, and slightly pinkish in color. The accumulation of dead cells, bacteria and debris on the surface of the tongue can result into a white color coating on the tongue. A white tongue, if left untreated, is a strong indication of a bad breath,” says Dr Sunitha.
The oral debris on the tongue, which is the root cause of bad breath, cannot be removed by just brushing and using mouthwashes. At best they can mask the bad breath. By far tongue cleaning is the most effective way of fighting bad breath.

Here are some of the advantages of using tongue cleaners:
• Removes the toxins and bacteria from the tongue
• Massages the taste buds and improves the sense of taste
• Gives fresh breath
• Helps to improve digestion
• Reduces dental plaque
• Removes the unattractive thick white coating from the surface of the tongue
• Convenient, safe, effective, and easy to use

How to use a tongue scraper or cleaner?
Usually tongue cleaners are made of metal like gold, silver, copper, brass, tin and stainless steel. Nowadays you can find them in plastic also. Stick out your tongue. Take the two ends of the tongue cleaner in your hands and place the arch of it on the back of the tongue. Now scrape it forward a few times, rinsing the white mucous (residue on the tongue) off the cleaner every time you take it out. You can start from either side (left or right) of the tongue and work your way to the other. Rinse out the mouth once you are done.

It should be kept in mind to never scrape hard. The sweeping strokes should be slow and from back-to-front. Scraping harder doesn’t remove more bacteria but it can make your tongue bleed. Press hard enough to make the tongue cleaner contact your and flush across the cleaning surface. Also try not to leave gaps.

Cleaning you tongue is necessary to combat bad breath and keep taste buds active. It is not difficult to do and not time consuming also. Just one extra minute daily can reward you with many advantages that also include normal tongue color.

So check out your tongue and see how rosy pink it is!

Some facts:
• Brushing teeth reduces mouth odor by 25%
• Tongue cleaning reduces mouth odor by 75%
• Brushing teeth and tongue cleaning together reduce bad breath by 85%
• Tongue cleaning reduces the amount of mucous coating on the tongue by 40%
• Tongue cleaning inhibits plaque formation on teeth by 33%
• Tongue cleaning is more effective than brushing by 50%