Many people remember to brush their teeth at least once a day. The million-dollar question is: how often do you remember to brush your tongue?
While many may neglect this practice, brushing your tongue might be your ticket to good breath and robust oral health. That said, read along to understand how not brushing your tongue can lead to bad breath problems.
What Causes Bad Breath
Your mouth is a breeding ground for bacteria. As oral health research data suggests, your mouth has about 20 billion bacteria. What’s even more unbelievable is that they replicate every five hours.
Don’t panic; some of these are good bacteria. They help you break down food and prevent a series of oral diseases. Unfortunately, the more bacteria the mouth has, the more likely it is to have bad breath, and this is where the tongue comes in.
How Does A Human Tongue Cause Bad Breath
Do you see those super tiny bumps on your tongue’s surface? Those are your papillae. Ideally, they are there to help you chew better and cleanse your tongue. Sadly, papillae leave miniature gaps between one another.
It’s difficult to see these lingual crevices, but it’s within them that harmful bacteria set up camp and proliferate. So, while your papillae could be working overtime to cleanse your tongue, failure to help them out by brushing your tongue leaves them overwhelmed by rapidly multiplying harmful bacteria.
These harmful bacteria produce waste, which then decomposes, and the result? Well, the result is that foul smell that keeps you self-conscious every time you open your mouth. However, we give it a more professional term, halitosis.
While there could be a range of factors behind foul breath, halitosis regularly has something to do with your tongue-cleaning habits. So, brush your tongue just as often and thoroughly as you do your teeth.
Should you need more tips on how to brush your tongue or how to get rid of that stubborn bad breath, feel free to reach out to us. We’ll be more than glad to help you out.