Cleaning Your Tongue: How & Why?

Cleaning the tongue is essential for good dental health, although it is usually the great forgotten during the oral hygiene routine.

Why is tongue cleaning so important?

Maintaining a complete cleaning routine is key to a healthy, beautiful and functional smile. Therefore, it is necessary to devote the necessary time to brushing as well as the different interproximal hygiene techniques.

We talked about mouthwash and flossing, as well as oral irrigation. So far we get a deep clean. But what about the tongue? Many patients only worry about the tongue when spots appear on its surface.

To avoid this, it is essential to maintain good prevention by cleaning the tongue daily.

The lingual surface accumulates hundreds of different families of bacteria. These bacteria are related to cases of halitosis and the accumulation of oral biofilm in the mouth.

A healthy tongue should look pink. If it has a whitish tone, it is probably a sign that something is not going well.

In general, this aspect is related to gastric problems, candidiasis or is caused by poor oral hygiene. Some harmful habits such as smoking or alcohol consumption can also alter the lingual surface, as well as the sense of taste. You can also ask near by dental clinic for more information.

Keys to clean the tongue:

Cleaning the tongue is important to maintain a healthier mouth. But how to do it? There are various techniques and products:

Lingual cleansers: They are tools specifically designed to clean the lingual surface. They are usually adapted to the lingual surface so that it can be gently scraped to remove the remains of bacteria.

Oral irrigator: It is another great ally to clean the lingual surface. Although its specific use is usually to eliminate the remains of food and bacteria embedded between teeth or the dental surface, it also serves to clean it.

Mouthwash: The use of mouthwash after brushing is highly recommended since it reaches hard-to-reach areas with the brush: interdental spaces, the gum line, and the back of the tongue.

Brush: To clean the tongue you can also use the brush. The key is to scrape the surface gently so as not to damage it, by vertical movements from back to front.

A good routine should be based on daily brushing after each meal.

It is also important to complement brushing with mouthwash and dental floss.

But if we want to achieve fresh breath and a perfect smile, it is also necessary to take care of our tongue day by day. The cleaning of the tongue is as important as brushing the teeth and other parts of the oral cavity.

The health of the tongue influences the appearance of pathologies and dental infections since it retains the dirt resulting from chewing for a long period of time.

Tongue cleaning tips:

The tongue is formed by different types of papillae responsible for identifying the taste of the food we eat.

They are the main nucleus of accumulation of bacteria due to the breakdown of food.

This storage function favors the appearance of bad breath or halitosis and the formation of bacterial plaque on the teeth. Consult dental clinic near me for better tips.

Steps to wash your tongue effectively:

– First, you must clean the central part of the muscle.

– Take the cleaner so that the arched surface is face down. Try to reach the furthest area of ​​the tongue and drag the device towards the front of the mouth.

– Once you have completed this step, rinse the cleaner and, with the remaining face, clean the sides of the tongue.

– In the end, rinse with plenty of water.

Lingual hygiene and tongue cleaning in children:

In the case of children, it will be more complicated to apply lingual hygiene, so mothers will fight the problem in another way: they should give their child only water before bedtime.

Drinks such as juices or milk contain sugar, a substance that can accumulate in the papillae and feed the bacterial plaque.

The tongue is usually the great forgotten in the oral hygiene routine. When brushing teeth and gums it is also important to maintain a daily cleaning of the lingual surface.

There are many areas of the oral cavity where bacteria and oral biofilm can accumulate, not just the surface of the teeth. Not cleaning the tongue deeply is a very common mistake during the oral hygiene routine.

Many patients only pay attention to lingual cleansing when the tongue shows changes in color or burning. A healthy tongue should look pink, but it still stores hundreds of different bacteria.

Therefore, according to dental clinic, maintaining a tongue cleaning on a daily basis will be key to completing good oral prevention.

 

Contributed by Praveen Singh