Go to the mirror right now and stick out your tongue, lizard style. Is it a perfect pink or does it look like you’ve dipped it in chalk? If your tongue has an icky white coating over the top of it (which most people’s do), you need to be scraping that bad boy regularly. Enter – the tongue scraper.
It might look like a medieval torture device but it couldn’t be more user friendly. There’s a whole guide here on what exactly it is and how to use it, but all you really have to do is grip it by the handles and gently slide it from the back of your tongue to the tip. Do this a few more times and you’ll see that white coating slowly fade away, goodbye and good riddance.
This article consists of me gushing about how my copper tongue scraper has low-key changed my life. Read on and find yourself compared to scrape all the gunk from your gob – you’ll be thanking me for the hot tip soon enough.
The magical tool
So what’s the tool that changed my life? It’s this copper tongue scraper I picked up off Amazon for a mere $9.95. I also paid no delivery and it arrived the next day because I’m an Amazon Prime member so that just sweetened the deal even further.
It arrived in this very cute pouch which is great for storage and even better if you’re planning to take it away. You don’t want to chuck something loose in your bag that’s going to end up in your mouth later. Once you take it out of the bag, it looks exactly as you’d imagine. It has two little handles on either side which makes it really easy to grab onto, and it’s got a curved end which you use for the scrapey scrapey.
I liked this one for a few different reasons. Firstly, it’s made of 100% copper which contains microbial and antibacterial properties that help promote oral hygiene even further. It’s also got a nice wide span which means it covers the whole area of the tongue in one stroke without you having to go back and hack at the same spot over and over. It’s got delightfully smooth edges as well because nobody wants to be dealing with a bleeding tongue at any point in the day, no siree bob.
Drumroll, please
Okay so I’ve used the thing for a few months but how the hell did it actually go? I’m not going to include before and after photos of my tongue because, yuck, but you can take my word that there’s been a dramatic difference since using the scraper. If I stick out my tongue now it’s a lovely, lush pink which is a welcome colour change from the white coating it used to have. When you think about it, the amount of gunk that must be sitting on our tongues is unholy. It’s literally just years and years of eating and drinking just sitting there – it’s just begging to be scraped off.
Honestly, you’ll feel an instant difference in your mouth from the first time you use it. There’s no better feeling than waking up in the morning, scraping the debris off your tongue, brushing your teeth and having a big glass of water – it’s unparalleled freshness. This feels even better when you’ve had a large one the night before and your mouth has that icky cotton feel. You can see all the gunk coming off with each scrape and it’s next level satisfying.
Some studies have found that using a tongue scraper twice a day could improve your sense of taste but I’m yet to see any wild changes in my tastebud strength. That being said, I have a pretty good sense of taste already and it’s not my primary reason for using the scraper so I’m not too fussed. The overall difference in oral cleanliness, fresher breath and colour of my tongue has given me my money’s worth and then some.
The good, the bad & the gunky
For me, the best part about using a tongue scraper has been the breath improvement. I feel like I used to chew gum a lot because I felt my breath wasn’t super fresh, but I do this far less after incorporating the copper tongue scraper into my routine. Obviously, you can’t be scraping your tongue after every single meal but using it twice a day has made such a dramatic difference in the build-up of bacteria that my breath is a lot better than it used to be. If the few months of wearing a mask and being forced to smell your own breath made you question the state of your oral hygiene – get a tongue scraper stat.
The only con is that you need to remember to dry it off after each use. To be fair, this is something they tell you to do but I forgot a few times (read: I was lazy) and left mine to drip dry. Over time this has slightly dulled the shine of the copper but it doesn’t affect the tongue scrapers effectiveness in any way so I really don’t care. The aesthetics of something you use to scrape the gunk off your tongue doesn’t really matter, you know?
So, do I actually bloody need one?
Short answer – yes. If you’re a human being with a mouth and you eat and drink regularly (hello, everyone) then you should be using a tongue scraper. Brushing your teeth twice a day simply isn’t enough to get the bacteria off your tongue, in fact – it does absolutely nothing for your tongue.
Once you’ve used a scraper for yourself, you’ll see just how much stuff actually comes off and how much cleaner and fresher your entire mouth feels afterwards. I really recommend the copper tongue scrapper because it has even more antibacterial properties than your regular scraper but anything is better than nothing.
You truly will not believe the amount of gunk that comes off your tongue and you’ll feel a million times better once you’ve scraped it all off. This is one of those products that you’ll buy, and you’ll spend a good ten minutes wondering why the hell you didn’t own one sooner. Happy scraping, friends.
