Using a Tongue Scraper for Oral Hygiene

Series Summary

The teeth and gums are usually parts of the body most of us take for granted until they start to go bad. Yet the mouth is one of the most important tools we have, both for enjoying our favorite foods and for communicating person-to-person. We have every reason, then, to take good care of our teeth and gums.

Good oral hygiene starts with a daily regimen of dentist-recommended care. This usually includes brushing with a fluoride-based toothpaste, flossing, and using mouthwash. Over time, maintaining this practice will help keep your mouth healthy and clean. The consequences of not keeping up this routine include bad breath, cavities, gingivitis, and eventual tooth loss.

In this free how-to video clip series on how to maintain healthy teeth and gums, learn how to practice good dental hygiene, including how to prevent gingivitis, plaque buildup and cavities, how to brush your teeth properly, whether to use an electric toothbrush, how to clean your tongue, how to prevent bad breath, how to floss correctly, and other tips and techniques for a healthy mouth. Learn how to take care of your teeth and enjoy a lifetime of smiles.

Video Transcript

"Hi I’m Dr. Scott Chandler with Silver Creek Dental on behalf of Expert Village.com. This clip is about using a little tool called the tongue scraper. You do a great job brushing your teeth. You get all that bacteria, junk and plaque off those teeth. But if you don’t brush your tongue, the minute you close your mouth those little germs jump right off your tongue back on your teeth and you are about where you started. It is very important to brush your tongue. A lot of the bad breath odors and that type of thing like to sit in those little cracks and grooves and those little spots on your tongue where your taste buds are. Brushing your tongue? What do people typically do? That brush is a little bit too soft. It doesn’t quite get the job done. So what we’ve got here is one example of what is called a tongue scraper. Now this kind of looks like your handy old garden rake. It’s got some little grooves in the end and on this model here I will show you. You just open up and reach in as far back as you can stand and give that tongue a good scrape. Scrape it all the way back to front two or three times and you will be surprised what you find on that thing. So go ahead and rinse it off in between scrapings. Don’t scrape too hard and get your tongue bleeding or anything. But go ahead and give it a good solid scrape and you would be surprised what that does. After you are done, rinse with your favorite mouthwash and get the rest of that stuff off of there. If you add that to your daily armamentarium of brushing and flossing, a quick tongue scrape will do wonders for you. Now this isn’t the only type of tongue scraper out there. It just happens to be my favorite because it has my name on it. There are also some other ones out there. There is a kind that is like a rake where you hold onto both ends and reach in there and scrape that thing across, and those kind are made by Discus Dental. There area several different kinds out there. Just visit your local drugstore and get you a good tongue scraper and get to scraping. "