How To Clean Our Tongue At Home

It’s not always true that sweat, urine, and feces are the products of all the activities taking place in our bodies. The tongue is also an important part of our body through which the effects of all the activities in our body come out. This article will help us understand how to clean our tongue at home.

For maintaining the cleanliness and hygiene of our tongues, it’s vital to clean them regularly. How to clean your tongue is sometimes a very skeptical question, as many people think we only have to brush and floss for our oral health.

It’s completely false; there are many ways to clean your tongue daily while staying at home.

1. How To Clean Tongue At Home

1.1. Garlic

No doubt! Traditionally, garlic is never related to how to clean the tongue and teeth list. Maybe because it causes bad and unpleasant breath that troubles your oral health freshness, here, let’s not get into the smell or taste but the characteristics and nature.

Raw garlic is always a trusted bacteria killer and fighter. It is also believed that garlic could maintain the hygiene of your tongue, teeth, and gums by preventing bacterial infection and any other infections.

The presence of the compound allicin is a blessing for garlic, which causes an environment in your mouth free from bacteria that disturbs your oral health.

You are not supposed to use garlic in any toothpaste or while brushing. It would help if you started chewing raw garlic for a few days in case you suffer from a white tongue or any other tongue issues.

1.2. Aloe vera

If you are pondering how to clean your tongue at home, you must not know about aloe vera. Aloe vera is a great ingredient that supports the cleanliness and hygiene of your mouth. The anti-inflammatory properties of aloe vera are always suitable for your oral health.

It will work very soothingly for cleaning your tongue and improving its health.  Aloe vera is an oral health hero that will never fail to clean your mouth.

One of the best ways is to take aloe vera juice for gargling purposes.

1.3. Salt

Salt is an astounding scrubbing agent for your tongue. It will clean all the dead cells, and dirt particles stuck to your tongue. Salt is known for wound healing and bacteria-killing properties that help in keeping your tongue free from harmful infection-causing bacteria.

You can use small salt particles and rub them slightly with the help of a soft-bristle brush for tongue cleaning. Many people use salt water rinse to maintain the cleanliness and hygiene of their oral health.

1.4. Turmeric

Don’t take turmeric as a spice only, it’s an amazing tongue-cleaning agent. Curcumin found in turmeric spice plays an essential role in healing many periodontal diseases. Curcumin is scientifically proven to fight bacterial growth and speed up the healing process.

Due to its inflammatory properties, bacterial and fungal properties, turmeric is traditionally used for oral health cleaning and hygiene. If you add the benefits of curcumin to your diet, it will help clean your oral health and prevent any bacterial infection, affecting the hygiene and cleanliness of your mouth in a positive way.

You should try using one of the best remedies, i.e., turmeric paste. Apply it gently on your tongue and then clean it properly after rubbing it for a few minutes (1-3 minutes).

You can also try adding lemon juice (citrus juice) to the turmeric powder to make a paste for cleaning your tongue. Make sure citrus could also add an extra acidic environment to your mouth. So be careful with your amount and try using an adequate amount.

1.5. Toothbrush

You could also clean your tongue using a toothbrush, the hero tool involved in your oral care daily. Yes, a tongue scraper is indeed extremely effective for cleaning your tongue compared to a toothbrush, but a toothbrush could be worth trying once.

Here are a few steps you need to follow while trying to clean your tongue with a toothbrush:

Take a toothbrush with a very soft bristle with an appropriate handle to hold. Then place your toothbrush as far as it can be on the backside of the tongue.

Then slowly start brushing the upper part of your tongue with gentle moves of your toothbrush. You will also see saliva coming on your way, and here you need to stop and spit out the gathered saliva.

Then use warm water to rinse after the cleaning process with your toothbrush. You can clean the tongue by using a toothbrush twice a day, or as many times as you clean your teeth.

If you face a gag reflex while brushing your teeth, use a tongue cleaner with a metal base. This will help in overcoming the gag reflex ¹and provide proper cleaning to your tongue.

1.6. Mouth Rinses

Mouth rinses are great for controlling bad breath, helping your oral hygiene, and sometimes doing the job of a tongue scraper.

You should add mouth rinses as an oral hygiene routine to clean your gums, and avoid many ²destroying your oral health. You can also choose mouthwashes with active ingredients that will help clean the tongue.

You can go for a mouthwash rinse with suitable mouthwashes with good ingredients for your overall oral health.

Just take your favorite mouthwash effective for overall oral health, then take an adequate amount inside your mouth and rinse after gargling for a few minutes.

1.7. Tongue Scraper

Your family dentist will recommend cleaning your tongue gently using a tongue scraper twice a day. Using a tongue scraper would clean your mouth and improve your taste buds as well.

Cleaning the tongue using a scraper would also prevent the presence of volatile sulfur compounds, therefore reducing bad breath. It’s the most important method to prevent bad breath and clean your whole tongue, killing bacteria.

You can also check with your family dentist for better clarity on tongue cleaning.

1.8. Hydrogen Peroxide

Hydrogen peroxide³ is an amazing way to keep your mouth free from bacteria. It is equally effective to clean your tongue by killing bacteria, according to medical advice, like other dental medicine. Also, it’s easily available in many drugstores.

2. Benefits Of Tongue Cleaning

There are immense benefits to cleaning your tongue daily. If you clean your tongue properly, you will get good oral hygiene. Some of the tongue-cleaning benefits include:

• Fighting bad breath.
• Cleaning the tongue with a soft-bristled toothbrush will prevent tongue coating with unpleasant substances.
• Improves your overall health by keeping your mouth free from bacteria.
• Maintain hygiene on the whole surface of your tongue.
• It helps in removing the food debris stuck in between your teeth or gums.
• Tongue scraping helps to remove the dirt deposited on your tongue.
• Tongue brushing will also prevent tooth decay by avoiding periodontal diseases such as gum disease.
• Improves your oral hygiene habits.

3. Conclusion

How to clean the tongue is a question that all dental patients have in their minds. Many ways will improve the cleanliness of your mouth by preventing dry mouth and bacterial infection. To get fresher breath and maintain hygiene, trying out these easy tips for how to clean your tongue would work.

Use tongue scrapers or turmeric paste. Make sure you talk to a dental hygienist before starting the cleaning process.

You can try out all these methods and remedies for cleaning your tongue. Go ahead and try these wonderful ways to keep your tongue free from any allergies or diseases.

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1. Mehdizadeh, Mohammad, Abolfazl Mohammadbeigi, and Alireza Sharifinejad. “An Overview about New Methods in Management of Gag Reflex during Dental Treatment: A Systematic Review.” Journal of Dentistry 24.4 (2023): 372. ↩︎
2. Sanz, Mariano, et al. “Periodontitis and cardiovascular diseases: Consensus report.” Journal of clinical periodontology 47.3 (2020): 268-288. ↩︎
3. Hou, Huilin, Xiangkang Zeng, and Xiwang Zhang. “Production of hydrogen peroxide by photocatalytic processes.” Angewandte Chemie International Edition 59.40 (2020): 17356-17376. ↩︎

Last Updated on July 29, 2024 by Sathi Chakraborty, MSc Biology