Do you scrape your tongue?
I've been doing this for years but my friends were utterly baffled when they found out. I have a cheap, copper plated tongue scraper from a knick-knack store and it does the job beautifully, virtually eliminating morning breath.
This feels like an ad.
Can't escape Big Tongue Scraper.
Join us. Join the Scrape Corporation.
Haha I bought a tongue scraper years ago for like $5. Then my dentist gave me another. So it's super funny to me that a company selling a somewhat niche product for a super cheap price, a product that can easily last a lifetime, would be out here covertly advertising on a niche social media website.
Yeah, that doesn't seem like a very effective ad campaign, but this is why the Scrape Corporation needs all the help it can get! We are terrible at marketing.
Genuine lol at this comment!
I heard that if you buy a copper played flying Tiger tongue scraper today you can get an anal douche kit with bonus scrotum razor for just 3x payments of $5.99.
It's not but yeah I realize I shouldn't have written the store name I guess
Nope, but I do brush my tongue with the toothbrush while I'm in there doing my teeth.
I'm very shocked to learn this is not the standard from this thread.
Yes. Once you see the shit you get off your tongue you can never return to before.
Obligatory Mitchell & Webb sketch
Hilarious. And perhaps a little too accurate for comfort.
I use a dedicated poop knife for scraping my tongue. Just make sure it's a different color than your regular poop knife.
I just use the back of the toothbrush. I get ones that are textured.
I feel like my breath is bad if I don't.
I just use my toothbrush after cleaning the teeth with the leftover paste still on it. Works well for me and is also said to hinder the spread of viruses in some kind of manner, at least I think I read this on the news some time ago.
I also used the backside of the brush for this but my method seems more effective to me, I would like to see a study about this.
I assumed the texture on the back was for tongue scraping. I thought it was a feature.
My bad breath disappeared completely after I started scraping my tongue daily. I also use a textured toothbrush, no complaints.
I use a toothbrush for that.
Do yourself a favor and try a scraper: It works way better and way faster.
Point taken. I just ordered one, I will give it a try.
Do you use it before or after brushing?
After
I usually use it after but I don't see why it wouldn't work before too.
So how did it work out?
I just use my teeth
They probably can't get as far back as a scraper but it definitely helps
Sometimes! Most of the time I just use my toothbrush. But either way, I absolutely clean my tongue every day.
No, I've never had a problem with bad breath or matter buildup on my tongue.
I'll start brushing my tongue if I ever get a tongue cavity.
I have a neat trick for you; stick your tongue out, bite down, pull tongue in again, spit.
My frenulum ☹️
I floss, brush, and scrape my tongue. My scraper is just a cheap stainless steel thing but it works fine.
How does flossing your tongue work?
Try it out and let us know! I use it on my teeth usually.
Nope but I brush it at the end. Its like front then up and over on the lowers then uppers then roof then tongue.
i have never ever heard of tongue scrapers. Do toothbrushes not work? And do tongue scrapers avoid the gag-reflex induced by using a toothbrush on it?
I use an electric toothbrush and the high speed oscillation is too much to do my tongue without being too tickly. The scraper is just a steady slow motion that was much easier to cope with for me. Just try a rounded spoon to see if you tolerate it. That's how it was suggested to me, and I just kept on using the spoon because I already had it.
I believe this is the origin of the valley girl expression, "Gag me with a spoon."
Can't say as it hasn't happened once or twice. 😅 I felt I had better control over it than the brush still.
I just use my toe knife, and jam it up there to get the gunk out
I just scrape my tongue a bit with the toothbrush at the end of brushing my teeth, this seems more than sufficient
it isn't… try the scarper and you'll see
I can't really say that I have an issue that needs to be resolved, though.
I thought the same... but little by little I improve my routine and now it's leaps and bounds better than what it was before
No. I tried it for a while and didn't see any difference in terms of breath. (I didn't try your particular tongue scraper brand though)
This was my experience as well. I have no idea if I was doing it wrong (how hard is it to scrape your tongue, after all... it's not like there's that much technique involved if everyone else in the thread is just 'doing it'), but after two months I just stopped.
Yes, I started because using mouthwash and brushing twice a day was not enough for my breath. Haven't had bad breath since. Mine is just a plastic tongue scraper, nothing fancy.
I just use my electric toothbrush. The first glob of spit afterwards is nasty
I do. I also floss, use mouthwash, and an electric tootbrush.
I'm not bragging, I didn't do it untill recently when I had to go to the dentist and despite having dental insurance I had to pay roughly a price of used car to get my teeth fixed.
I let myself go to the point where I can't financially afford not to.
America?
Germany
Ja huch!!! Keine Zahnzusatz? Krankenkassen übernehmen kaum noch was vom Zahnarzt
Jein.
Du musst verstehen, dass ich erst seit 2023 in Deutschland wohne und erst seit 2025 eine zusätzliche Zahnversicherung bezahle.
Die ursprüngliche Rechnung war deutlich höher. Ein Teil wurde durch die gesetzliche Krankenkasse bezahlt. Der zweite Teil wurde durch die zusätzliche Zahnversicherung bezahlt, aber das war abhängig davon, wie lange ich die Versicherung bezahle. In meinem Fall waren es ~18 Monate, weshalb die Summe, die die Versicherung bezahlte, gedeckelt war (trotzdem hat es sich gelohnt). Den Rest musste ich selbst bezahlen.
Ich muss auch sagen, dass es um mehrere Zähne und eine Kiefer-OP (Weisheitszahnentfernung) ging.
Ah okay. Joa ich habe noch nichtmal eine Zusatzversicherung xd Zu viel wichtigeres passiert seit august
nehme es sofort. Es kostet 23€ pro Monat. Je länger du es bezahlst desto mehr zahlen die dir.
They said a used car, not a new car.
Its still thousends
Yeah it took me... way too long to learn to actually care for my teeth and I've paid for it.
I get toothbrushes with a rough patch on the back. It's like a cat tongue licking my tongue, but less erotic and more minty.
Um
Yep, I use some steel thing I got from the drug store for like $5. Works well.
Yeah I learned from some yoga people. I never noticed it make any difference.
I use my toothbrush from time to time. I don't have a specialty tool.
Maybe I'm doing it wrong but trying to use a bristled tongue scraper makes me almost gag. Not my thing I guess.
Mine is pretty inoffensive to the gag reflex.
Looks like this:
Where do you put your tongue? I thought it looked like a spatula till I saw the pic
You hold both ends, and put the apex of the curve midway back on your tongue, then scrape forward
I've been using these for about 20 years. I just don't feel clean without it.
There's about a teaspoon worth of gunk there any given night.
You are: Try a scraper instead. You'll have a much easier time and it's quicker.
I guess it is good to scrape your tongue with toothbrush, scraper or both.
I've used an old rounded soup spoon before. Did it for a few months, but fell out of the habit. It did seemingly remove a whole bunch of ick when I did it.
Also, don't forget to flush tonsil stones! Those things are nasty.
How?
Gargling can help prevent them or flush really tiny ones, but I have trouble gargling without choking and swallowing...double yuck.
You can use a syringe/water flosser set veeeery low to flush the tonsil pockets, or you can poke them out with a cotton swab or other soft poking device that you are unlikely to swallow if you gag yourself.
I don't find any of the methods really fun, but the few times I've done it, I thankfully have found very little in there, so I don't do it often.
You can get good pictures/videos easily on how to do it, but I don't even like looking at them, too big a tryptophobia and slimy germiness combo for me. It's pretty simple and quick though once you find a way that you can tolerate. The manual syringe or one of those bulbs for flushing your ears is what's I'd recommend for the best balance of control and effectiveness with least discomfort.
I feel ya, I'd also rather avoid looking at pictures or videos if i can avoid it. I have two kryptonites: heights irl and holes online.
Do you know if the holes are just pockets or tubes with entrance and exits, meaning you can push/flush down into the tonsils or have to scrape up/flush to overflow?
I have had to battle mine occasionally recently and I've just been trying to push them up and out by scraping upwards with a utensil. I've also tried with the toothbrush bristles (surprisingly painful) and a toothpick (risky). Nothing feels particularly right or easy.
They are pockets, unfortunately. I actually just skimmed a reddit thread and someone mentioned a tonsil stone vacuum! I checked Amazon, and they seem to have a plethora of specialized tools. The battery-operated vacuum mentioned, what is essentially a straw on a bulb syringe for a manual vacuum, and specialized tonsil stone picks. Just search up tonsil stone remover and you may find something that looks tolerable.
If it's a persistent problem or something painful, it may be worth it to see an ENT to see if you should have your tonsils removed or if they can offer a solution that works. Things like mouth breathing, post nasal drip, and not staying hydrated can worsen accumulation of stones, so treating any of those conditions could also alleviate some of it.
It's only an issue like once or twice a year. Thanks for calling me out on my dehydration issues, lol. But thank you for real for your exhaustive replies!
Good, I'm glad it is nothing serious. The bad pics I have seen look greatly unpleasant!
I am not the best at drinking the amount I'm supposed to either. It sounds like so much. I am guessing the hydration both keeps the pockets supple, so things fall out on their own, and the act of drinking is a natural flushing of them.
This isn't the topic I thought I'd be exploring today, but it has reminded me to check my tongue and tonsils, and I just like learning about stuff in general, so it's all good fun for me.
I think gargling with warm salt water is the best way to do it, just don't use a water floss, trust me!
I feel like gargling doesn't let the liquid actually reach my tonsils, like I close my throat too much. Maybe it does more than I think.
I was just about to put water flossing them on my todo list, haha! Why not?
Me too, gargling doesn't really hit the sweet spot, but that's what my doctor told me to do.
Water flossing, for me, felt like someone was stabbing my throat and was way too harsh on it, it was sore for a few days afterwards. Not a fun experience!
Damn, that's a problem I am very happy to not have. I've seen some of the salivary gland stones that people have, and shudder to think about it happening even further back in the throat.
The body does some wild stuff to try and fix itself!
I do it, but with the toothbrush. There definitely is a difference between scraping it and not scraping.
I do, people don't know until they buy one it's so good scraping all the bacterial crud off your tongue every morning. No you can't just brush it off.
Would a regular spoon work than the plastic scraper? Seems like similar edge for scraping.
I haven't tried plastic mine is a 10 dollar metal one. It is a similar edge so I think so? Pretty awkward to handle perhaps.
Makes me gag but I try
Yeah, I bought a cheapo scraper years ago. My tongue gets to go to bed and start the day without a layer of shit on it, what's not to love?