Tongue Scraping: What Is It And Should I Be Doing It?

Dentists weigh in on this increasingly common oral hygiene practice.

Many of us might be diligent about brushing our teeth, flossing and using mouthwash. But there’s another element of oral hygiene that people are less familiar with: tongue scraping.

“Tongue scraping is an oral hygiene process done to clean the bumpy surface of the tongue,” Dr. Erin Issac, a board-certified pediatric dentist, told HuffPost. “The surface of the tongue has tiny folds and fingerlike projections that can harbor food debris, bacteria and fungi causing stinky breath and even infections.”