Cleaning the tongue to remove bacteria, food debris, fungi, toxins, and dead cells from the surface is called Tongue Scraping. It is an Ayurveda self-care ritual, an oral hygiene practice. I recommend making this part of your morning ritual specially while doing a seasonal detox.
In Ayurveda tongue cleaning is associated with keeping your teeth healthy and the entire organ of your mouth in good order. This practice has been around since ancient times in India. While you sleep, your body works to detoxify itself, depositing those toxins onto your tongue through the internal excretory channels. Scraping the tongue these toxins, as well as stale bacteria build-up, dead cells, fungi, etc. and often helps prevent (or completely eliminate) bad breath for those who have it.
5 reasons to scrape your tongue every single day:
- Reduce bad breath: Most bad breath comes from the bacteria at the back of the tongue, and tongue scraping is known to significantly reduce oral bacteria.
- Enhance the flavors of food and reduce food cravings: Removing the build-up from the surface of your tongue will better expose your taste buds, leading to better enjoyment of the flavors of your food. Ayurveda mentions that blocked taste buds interfere with our body’s ability to communicate with our brain in certain ways, leading to false cravings.
- Boost your immune system:Most of the film on your tongue is toxins excreted from your body at night during the natural detoxification process Scraping your tongue prevents toxins from being reabsorbed into your body and boosts overall immune function.
- Improve dental health: This oral hygiene practice promotes general tooth and gum health since it removes the bacteria and toxins responsible for plaque build-up, tooth decay, loss of teeth, gum infections, and gum recession.
- Help your digestive system Proper digestion begins with taste, salivation, and chewing of food. If you don’t remove toxic mucus on the tongue, your taste buds can become blocked. Removing build-up from the surface of your tongue will open up its pores and better expose your taste buds helping your body digest and assimilate food.
This routine for maintaining oral health should be done on a regular basis, in the morning upon rising, and on an empty stomach after brushing the teeth
Tongue scrapers are inexpensive, and can be found at most health food stores as well as online. This is what I use. Chose a stainless steel scraper because they are easier to clean and most effective.
Directions:
- Stand in front of the mirror, stick your tongue out , hold the ends of the scraper in both hands
- Use the “U” edge to scrape gently down the tongue several times, while applying slight pressure.
- Rinse the scraper under running water and gently scrape again until no white residue is left.
- There should be no pain or gagging involved – if you feel any discomfort, you’re probably scraping too hard or starting too far back on the tongue.
- If you’re wondering what those bumps are at the back of your tongue, they’re your salivary glands and they’re meant to be there. If you found them, you’ve gone too far.
