Is tongue scraping really that great?

Larc400 · Post by **Larc400** » Sun Sep 12, 2010 9:53 am

I've been scraping for something like 10 years, and it seems the tongue stinks more and faster than ever after a clean.

Maybe years of scraping (I've always done it gently) has made the tongue geography more hospitable to bacteria

Anyone have a similar experience?

My tongue stinks, that's for sure, but maybe there are better ways to clean it.

aues · Post by **aues** » Sun Sep 12, 2010 11:09 am

From my point of view an unscraped tongue of a healthy person shouldn't stink noteworthy and too much tongue scraping is bad for the tongue.

So watch out for the reason that causes your problem instead of giving yourself temporarily symptomatic fixes.

Phantasist · Post by **Phantasist** » Sun Sep 12, 2010 3:31 pm

Tongue scraping by itself should not cause any damage as long as it is done gently. I have been scraping my tongue for over ten years to get the white coating off, and there have been no ill-effects.
But scraping does not remove the bacteria, or even all the coating in the crevices between the taste buds. I also brush my tongue with antibacterial toothpaste and a toothbrush with half-length bristles to get all the way in the back without gagging. Then I rinse with an antibacterial rinse. This does cut down on my BB quite a bit. The effect lasts about eight hours, but the coating on my tongue always returns, so this is not a cure, just a temporary help.

Phantasist · Post by **Phantasist** » Sun Sep 12, 2010 3:32 pm

Tongue scraping by itself should not cause any damage as long as it is done gently. I have been scraping my tongue for over ten years to get the white coating off, and there have been no ill-effects.
But scraping does not remove the bacteria, or even all the coating in the crevices between the taste buds. I also brush my tongue with antibacterial toothpaste and a toothbrush with half-length bristles to get all the way in the back without gagging. Then I rinse with an antibacterial rinse. This does cut down on my BB quite a bit. The effect lasts about eight hours, but the coating on my tongue always returns, so this is not a cure, just a temporary help.

Larc400 · Post by **Larc400** » Sun Sep 12, 2010 5:47 pm

Which paste and rinse do you use, Phantasist?

meowkity1 · Post by **meowkity1** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 11:00 am

I have found the tung brush and tug gel to be benificial. I was glad to see rite aid selling it when I ws there.

brightonguy · Post by **brightonguy** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 1:39 pm

I'm pretty sure that all the hectic things I was doing to my tongue only exacerbated my BB problem. I thought this might be the case because: (1) I'm removing non-odourous bacteria as well as odorous; (2) I'm replanting odorous bacteria on parts of my tongue that they never previously inhabited by virtue of gauzing / brushing the tongue. This is speculative, I'm not an oral microbiologist.

Phantasist · Post by **Phantasist** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 1:56 pm

Larc400,
I use the following two products:
TheraBreath Plus toothpaste with OXYD-8 and Zinc-Rx
TheraBreath Plus oral rinse with OXYD-8 and Zinc-Rx

I understand that a number of people on this forum have said that TheraBreath doesn't work for them. We have to understand that there are different underlying causes of BB. Also, TheraBreath products are not a cure, even if your BB is due to an overgrowth of anaerobic bacteria, but it does appear to me that the oxygen and zinc combined with regular brushing and tongue scraping can bring my BB down to a managable level.

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