Researchers have shown that oral health has an important effect on systemic health. It is also true that the liver will fight all the bacteria left in your mouth over night, making it important to use it before bed as to give your liver a rest from habitually over working it. Therefore it is logical to assume that using a tongue scraper would affect a person’s over all health. It is simply the best remedy for bad breath!
Tongue scrapers make a huge difference in removing plaque and bacteria in your mouth. Which means that your breath smells better, since 80% of bad breath problems start in the mouth from all the bacteria embedded on the your tongue surface. Because of the tongue’s rough surface, it’s easy for minute food particles to get trapped between all the tiny grooves and ridges. This allows the bacteria to grow, leading not only to bad breath, but to illness, gum disease, plaque, and more. When you use a tongue scraper, you remove the bacteria along with the phlegm it lives in. You can even reduce ”morning breath” by scraping your tongue at night, removing the food particles that would have formed bacteria and plaque overnight. In addition to removing bacteria, scraping your tongue stimulates digestive enzymes, and you’ll even find that your food tastes better. And forget about using a toothbrush to clean your tongue. You’re basically just spreading the bacteria around and embedding it in your brush.
Tongue scrapers have been used for centuries (over five thousand years) in many cultures, from the Romans to the Chinese to India. According to the American Dental Association, tongue cleaning is the most important and singularly the most effective oral hygiene practice to reduce or eliminate halitosis (bad breath). Many scientists believe using a tongue scraper may also help reduce tooth decay and periodontal disease.
J Clin Pediatr Dent. 2004 Winter;28(2):163-6.
Tongue scraping as a means of reducing oral mutans streptococci.
White GE, Armaleh MT.
Source
Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Abstract
Mutans streptococci (MS) are one of the most virulent cariogenic pathogens in the oral cavity. The effects of three oral hygiene techniques on salivary mutans streptococci levels were evaluated to see which mechanism would be most efficient in reducing salivary MS levels. Sixty patients, all in the permanent dentition, were selected and randomly distributed into three groups. Group I was asked to use a tongue scraper to brush the tongue once daily in the morning after normal tooth brushing routine. Group II was asked to place and let dissolve a Listerine Oral Care Strip on the tongue once daily after normal oral hygiene routine. Group III was asked to rinse once every morning, for thirty seconds, with a saturated saline solution after routine tooth brushing. The instructions were done for a period of seven days. Baseline, one hour, three day, and seven day saliva samples were obtained and plated on CRT” by Vivadent MS-sensitive agar. All treatments groups show a significant reduction in colony counts from baseline and one or more post treatment periods and at one or more time periods between treatment groups. The most effective treatment in reducing colony counts was seen within Group I “Tongue Scraping” which demonstrated the greatest change from baseline to each of the post treatment periods. The least effective was Group II “Listerine Strip” which showed a statistically insignificant increase in colony count from baseline to 1-Hour and a significant decrease from baseline at the 7-day period only.
PMID: 14969377 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]
Abstract from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14969377