How & Why to Do Tongue Scraping

As you can tell from my blog, I love simple, easy, and cheap green tips and today's tip is no different...it's all about tongue scraping. Tongue scraping is a simple thing you can do each day that that will not only improve your oral health, but it will give you better breath, and help your body detox. 

All you need to do it is a tongue scraper. Like this one, which cost me $8 on Amazon. It's called, Dr. Tung's Tongue Scraper. There are a variety of plastic scrapers on the market, but stainless steel ones are supposed to last longer and their unique "U" shape allows them to go farther back onto your tongue, without gagging you as other plastic ones, or regular toothbrushes might. 

Benefits of tongue scraping include:

1. Helps your body detox. As you sleep your digestive system continues working and helps to detoxify your body. The film left on your tongue is the by the end result of that detoxing work. By scraping your tongue you remove those toxins as opposed to re-ingesting them back into your system. 
2. Better oral health. By removing bacteria and toxins from your tongue you can help prevent things like plaque build up, cavities, and gum disease. 
3. Better breath. This specific tongue scraper allows you to reach and scrape the back of your tongue, the breeding ground for the bacteria usually responsible for causing bad breath.
4. Better ability to taste the flavors of your food since your taste buds are no longer coated.

By this point in the post you might be thinking, I just brush my tongue with my toothbrush, doesn't that do the same thing? But I'm afraid the answer is NO. By using a toothbrush, you are basically just moving the bacteria, food debris, and toxins around and aside from staying on your tongue, they can actually get onto your toothbrush and then you end up putting them right back in your mouth the next time you brush.

But, by using a tongue scraper, you are able to effectively remove the toxins and bacteria that are lingering around on your tongue. Buh bye little germs! 

With all that said, let's talk about HOW to do tongue scraping:

1. Each morning when you first wake up, grab your tongue scraper and start scraping!

2. To scrape, hold gently on the rubber handles and pull the tongue scraper from the back of your tongue to the front. 

3. I like to do mine in a pattern of 1-2-3 scrapes, followed by rinsing the scraper.

Here's a glimpse of the lovely mucus/phlegm I scrapped off my
tongue one morning.

Give it a little rinse!

4. I then repeat the 1-2-3 pattern again, followed by a rinse. Then for the last "round" I hit the sides of my tongue or any other area I may have missed. Then I rinse it one last time and use a cloth napkin or towel to dry it off and then I toss it back in the drawer and it's ready for the next time.

In case you're wondering how I incorporate tongue scraping into my oral health routine, here's the order of what I do each morning when I wake up:

1. Tongue scraping.

2. Oil pulling with coconut oil for 20 minutes. Here's why.

3. Drink a glass of warm water with the juice of half of a lemon. Here's why.

4. Eat my breakfast, which is usually my favorite, "Chocolate Ice Cream Vegan Smoothie". See the recipe here.

5. Brush my teeth with Earthpaste toothpaste and my Radius toothbrush (this brush is amazing and feels great when you brush). Now I love the toothpaste recipe on my blog (find it here), but something about the cooling sensation of the xylitol in the recipe always aggravated my somewhat sensitive teeth, so for now I'm taking a break from it and I've replaced it with Earthpaste. I love the short ingredient list of Earthpaste and the fact that it's fluoride and glycerin-free.

Obviously that's best-case-scenairo, but since I have a toddler and a 2 month old, I'm good just to get those steps done at some point during the day, so if you don't follow that order, it's all good! 

So there you have it, tongue scraping in a nut shell! Have you ever tried tongue scraping before? If so, how did it go? Or are you a veteran tongue scraper? Share your experiences below!

Now speaking of tongues, guess who found her's? Little Mila loves showing her tongue off when she smiles. Too funny!

Happy tongue scraping greenies! See you next time.