Tongue Scraping

While cleaning the tongue dates back to ancient times in India, both Western medicine and Ayurveda recognize this practice as a crucial step in daily oral hygiene. It is related to all of our internal digestive processes, overall health and impacts the entire day.

Even if oral hygiene hasn't really been your thing, it's never too late to take better care.

Tongue Scraping stimulates the internal organs, aids digestion, removes dead bacteria and more.

Scraping the tongue upon waking in the morning will physically remove toxins and bacteria that have collected in the mouth overnight. This is the bacteria that we would otherwise swallow back with our first food or drink of the day. By taking care in clearing these toxins, we have the power to promote our own oral and digestive health.

• Helps remove coating on the tongue that leads to bad breath

• Gently stimulates the internal organs

• Allows digestion the space to optimize its own functioning

• Enhances sense of taste

• Not the same as brushing the tongue with a toothbrush

Directions

Use your tongue scraper first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. (Scraping your tongue before sleep is not recommended because it stimulates the digestive organs, the opposite of rest and restoration, and may prevent you from sleeping through the night or waking refreshed.)

Gently scrape the tongue from back to front in a forward direction until you have scraped the entire surface for 7-14 strokes.

Rinse the tongue scraper, as needed between strokes, to remove build-up.

Repeat daily as part of your morning hygiene oral care routine.

A stainless-steel tongue scraper is suitable for anyone.

There are a few different tongue scraper designs out there. The design is more for personal preference. I find the U-shaped scraper to be more effective for me but I know many people that prefer the handled-type so experiment and see which works best for you.

What's more important is the metal that it's made from.

A stainless-steel tongue scraper is the most common variety since it is the cheapest to produce.

These are suitable for anyone.

If you don't mind splurging a little bit more on yo' fine self for a dosha-specific tongue cleaner, a gold scraper is recommended for Vata, a silver scraper for Pitta and a copper scraper for Kapha.

Vata - Gold

Pitta - Silver

Kapha - Copper

Without all of the gimmicks and phony marketed products, let's get back to basics-- like ANCIENT basics and go back to a dinacharya that is super simple, yet effective, in all the invisible ways that matter.

More to come,

Meg