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Christophe Lequart (Oral health)
Scraping your tongue to eliminate bacteria is the new health trend shared on Tik Tok. A habit that would have real benefits according to dentists, but not necessarily for everyone. Explanations.
After practicing the mouth tapping or the menstrual blood on the face, here is that Tik Tok is once again a purveyor of new health or beauty trends. This time, the videos that are shared target oral hygiene thanks to a very simple device, a scraper, which would allow you to scrape your tongue after brushing, for a deep cleaning by eliminating all bacteria in the process. having taken up residence in our mouths.
Tongue scraping: a new step in our dental routine?
All the videos brag about it: using a device to scrape your tongue is useful for removing debris from the tongue, banishing bad breath, and preventing gum inflammation and cavities. In addition, the scraper in question is a single small instrument made of plastic, copper or steel, costing only a few euros, to improve its hygiene. Something to be tempted easily.
In the lines of Daily Medical Newsa medical daily, having taken up the subject, a dentist actually confirms the benefits of the practice:
“Often after eating or drinking, our tongue may feel mushy or in need of cleaning. So, morning and night, scraping your tongue can help remove bacteria from that area to prevent any dental issues.” Dr. Patel also talks about the benefits of getting a clean mouth and tongue through the process.
“Tongue scraping is a fairly new oral trend that is expected to become extremely popular in 2023″ he predicted.
A useful practice but only in one case
For Dr. Cristophe Lequart, dentist and spokesperson for the French Union for Oral Health (UFSBD), scraping the tongue is, in fact, a complementary practice to maintain good hygiene and protect oneself from bad breath. But not for everyone:
“This evoked scraping is only to be carried out if there is a whitish deposit on the surface of the tongue” he specifies. “This deposit, made up of saliva and bacteria including anaerobic bacteria, which make volatile sulfur compounds, can cause what is called a coated tongue and be responsible for bad breath.”
In this case, yes you can use a tongue scraper, plastic or metal, which is used from the back to the front of the tongue, after brushing morning and evening.
“Be careful, however, to use a tongue scraper and not your toothbrush: even the most flexible bristles are likely to create micro-lesions on the tongue, lesions in which these anaerobic bacteria will rush, where they will multiply. and we will aggravate the problem”.
Does scraping the tongue carry risks?
That being said, you won’t necessarily hurt yourself if you decide to scratch your tongue when you don’t have whitish deposits. But the dentist asks the question of this obsession with bad breath and the remedies that can be dangerous in the event of abuse:
“Bad breath, called halitosis, is physiological. We all have bad breath in the morning, because we produce less saliva at night and a more or less dry mouth cavity, but the problem goes away with a glass of water, a breakfast… In addition, many young adults are convinced that they have bad breath (up to 60%), when in fact and according to measurements, they are real in less than 10%. This is a psychological and unhygienic bias that must be addressed.
Paradoxically, fighting the dreaded bad breath on a daily basis can also carry risks, explains the dentist:
“The risk of using a scraper too often when you don’t really need it is the same as with mouthwashes, which are sometimes antiseptic. They can unbalance the oral flora, destroy the endogenous bacteria that are necessary for the mouth, and promote… precisely bad breath.”
As a reminder, good oral hygiene consists of:
- Brushing morning and evening for 2 minutes, with fluoridated toothpaste;
- Cleaning the interdental spaces with brushes and/or dental floss;
- Possibly, a tongue scraping morning and evening after brushing, but only if you are a victim of this loaded tongue.