Tongue scrapers: Perfect for when brushing doesn't make a dent in bad breath

Eliminating bad breath takes vigilance. Just because you brush and floss regularly doesn't mean you'll be immune to the pangs of funky mouth odor. In fact, an incomplete oral health regimen can almost ensure that you get halitosis. That's why we'd like to talk about one of the open secrets of the battle against bad breath: the tongue scraper.

For centuries, these little devices have been cleaning goo and gunk off of the surfaces of dirty tongues everywhere. While this might not sound like the most critical part of a daily dental care regimen, you might want to consider making it a part of yours.

You see, specialty tongue scrapers address a problem that brushing and flossing just can't touch. Literally: A toothbrush does very little to actually remove buildup from the surface of the tongue (and it almost goes without saying that floss is no good at this).

An article recently posted to Philly.com addressed this very problem. Dr. George Preti of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia explained that most of the stinky odors associated with bad breath comes from the back of the tongue.

It is here that gunk and bacteria build up. These microbes emit compounds that smell like dirty feet, old cheese, cabbage - in short, like halitosis!

"The tongue plaque can be thick and pervasive and must be physically removed to ameliorate the situation," Preti wrote to an inquiring reader. "Therefore, it is essential to make gentle tongue brushing and scraping part of routine oral hygiene."

Agreed! That's why we consistently recommend the use of specialty breath freshening tongue scrapers, which are available online.