Not brushing your tongue causes overgrown bacteria, giving off a foul smell or stink. Besides causing great embarrassment, lousy breath can increase your risk of digestive issues such as reflux and GERD. Fortunately, the bad breath will go away once you brush your tongue and mouth.
If you do not brush your tongue, you are skipping a large area where many bacteria gather in colonies, and eventually cause trouble in your mouth. In addition to causing oral health problems, if you do not brush your tongue, you may start suffering from halitosis (bad breath).
A tongue scraper is another popular method of cleaning a tongue. All you have to do is place the scraper on the back of your tongue and continuously pull it towards to front of the tongue. For best results, move the scraper tool across your tongue from multiple angles to ensure you reach all of the hidden bacteria.
How to Brush your Tongue. Put a small amount of toothpaste on your toothbrush. Start at the back of your tongue and brush your way forward. Use gentle but firm pressure in back-and-forth motions, just like brushing your teeth.
A white film may appear on your tongue when bacteria and food get caught between the tiny bumps on your tongue's surface, called papillae. Your papillae are raised, creating a large surface area for debris to collect inside your mouth. The papillae may swell and become inflamed.
White tongue is the result of an overgrowth and swelling of the fingerlike projections (papillae) on the surface of your tongue. The appearance of a white coating is caused by debris, bacteria and dead cells getting lodged between the enlarged and sometimes inflamed papillae.
For many people, placing a toothbrush or tongue scraper near the back of the tongue can trigger the gag reflex. In order to stop this, it may help to begin by placing the scraper or brush in the middle of the tongue the first few times you clean it.
You should scrape your tongue once a day, and most experts recommend that you do it after brushing either in the morning or evening.
However, you need to brush much more than just your teeth and gums. You should also be brushing your tongue and even the roof of your mouth. The roof of your mouth accumulates tons of bacteria throughout your day.
Bacteria on the tongue is extremely sticky. Food and drink particles can get stuck on the bacteria. If it isn't removed your tongue may start to develop a discolored appearance and look hairy. A condition known as oral thrush, or a yeast infection, can develop when the bacteria in the mouth are left to multiple.
A healthy tongue should be pink, pain-free, and covered in tiny projections called papillae. Changes in its color, texture, or sensations could indicate issues with your oral health along with other conditions within your body.
An unhealthy tongue. If your tongue is a different colour than pink, or has large patches of white, brown, black, or another colour, this might indicate a specific health issue. Similarly, if you have large bumps or no bumps at all, you may also want to speak to a doctor.
Everything from dehydration, stress, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and the food you eat can contribute to developing a white film on your tongue. It is now thought that tongue piercings and meat consumption could also be factors in the plaque buildup on your tongue.
As with a tongue scraper, you should only brush as far back as the end of your tongue groove. Do not brush your tonsils on either side of your tongue.
For the most part, your tongue can look white for benign reasons (maybe you're dehydrated or skipped a few brushings), but thicker white patches can also be a sign of infection or, in rare cases, mouth or oral cancer.
The gag reflex is known as the pharyngeal reflex and it is a reflex contraction of the back of your throat. When an object like a toothbrush or a large pill reaches the back of your tongue, the roof of your mouth, or near the tonsils it will provoke the contraction to prevent choking.
Do you really need to clean your tongue using your toothbrush and toothpaste? You certainly do. Fluoride toothpaste can clean your tongue just as effectively as cleaning your teeth.
Oral thrush is a fungal infection that causes white patches to develop at the back of your throat. Sometimes the white bumps become pus-filled. This infection spreads easily between breastfeeding babies and mothers, but it can develop in anyone.
Creamy white lesions on your tongue, inner cheeks, and sometimes on the roof of your mouth, gums and tonsils. Slightly raised lesions with a cottage cheese-like appearance. Redness, burning or soreness that may be severe enough to cause difficulty eating or swallowing.
Healthy tongue color is pink, though the specific shades may range from light to dark. A healthy, normal-colored tongue also has small bumps all over its surface. These are papillae. They help you speak, taste, chew and swallow.
A pink tongue is healthy and normal. A red tongue may indicate heat in the body like a fever or a hormonal imbalance. A reddish purple tongue is a sign that there may be inflammation or an infection in the body. A pale pink tongue may be a sign of a vitamin deficiency, a weak immune system or a lack of energy.