by Maria Lannigan

One of the most effective means of preventing bad breath is a simple, cheap method that doesn’t involve buying expensive mouthwashes, gums, or any other product that requires a regular monthly expenditure. By using a tongue scraper once or twice per day, you can eliminate most of the root of your bad breath with a very simple to follow process.

There are small buds on the back of the tongue known as papillae. If you look at the back of your tongue closely, you’ll see that it’s not at all flat. Inside these grooves live small bacteria, and these act as the main cause of bad breath as we know it. Part of the reason for this is due to the lack of oxygen these bacteria receive since they’re buried within the ridges inside your tongue. The small amount of oxygen results can in really bad smells.

While there’s no outright cure for this kind of thing (though there are treatments), the good news is that regular use of a tongue scraper can do a great job at getting rid of a good percentage of these bacteria.

While some people brush their tongue with their toothbrush while brushing their teeth, there are three reasons why this isn’t too effective.

1. It’s very, very difficult to get a toothbrush to reach the back of your tongue. Not only can it cause your gag reflex to kick in, but it’s somewhat dangerous. Without reaching the back of your tongue, you’re not removing the strongest sources of odor.

2. Toothbrush bristles were meant for scraping your teeth, not your tongue. The tissue on your tongue is far more sensitive than the surface of your teeth, and using a toothbrush can seriously irritate it.

3. The width of a toothbrush isn’t enough to cover the width of your tongue. You need something wider.

A tongue scraper, on the other hand, is smooth, often bendable, and wide enough to cover your tongue’s surface area as it generally removes the bacteria from the back of your tongue and drags it out of your mouth. They’re also extremely affordable.

Regular tongue scraping is a cheap, healthy means of keeping your breath fresh and your mouth healthy. Used once or twice per day, a tongue scraper will be much more useful than gums, mouthwashes, or anything else that may cover up bad breath. It directly attacks (and removes) the root of the issue.

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