Well, I’ll admit to being Nyekulturny – I don’t normally brush my tongue.
When I was a kid, siome of my mother’s foreign students brought in what looked like flexible popsicle sticks with flowered designs on one side. She challenged us to figure out what they were. We couldn’t guess that they were Indian Tongue-Scrapers (you grabbed each end with one hand, bent them, and scraped the tongue). Seemed pretty odd and gross. as far as I knew, none of my friends ever cleaned their tongues in this or any other way.
Flash forward thirty years or so – tongue scrapers of a very different design are on the US market. I still don’t know of anyone who actually uses them.
Today – seems I hear about cleaning the tongue a lot anymore. Sheesh. I thought I was being good because I flossed.
Yeah, I knew someone would say that! Jellyfish are those plastic scrubby things that came on the market as an alternative to washcloths about ten years ago. At least, ten years ago in America; they may have been around in Europe before that. I was given one as part of a gift package, and loved it. There’s also probably another name for it, but I like “jellyfish”.
They’re a bunch of plastic netting gathered into a ball. Again I say, they’re easier to keep clean, create a lot of suds, esp. if you use liquid soap, which I also prefer to bar soap, and they’re soft and gentle. I never liked doing my neck with a washcloth; I always got red and irritated.
Unfortunately, a couple weeks ago Mr. Rilch put mine in the wash, and forgot not to put it in the dryer. It didn’t ruin the load, as I’d been afraid it would, but it did shrink so as to be unusable.
Tongue-brusher. I started out only doing it occasionally. In college, however, I dated a non-coffee-drinker (I’d been a bean junkie since age 12) who got me to make it a habit. It was either that or sleeping in seperate rooms.
I do it mainly for my breath, although it may have something to do with why I haven’t had a cavity since I was about 10.
I regularly eat breakfast in the car on the way to work.
Which means that to have clean teeth when I arrive at work, I gotta brush 'em.
Which I do with a brush that I keep in the armrest, in a holder.
Then I floss using a floss holder.
Then I use the holder and the floss to scrape my teeth.
Then I rinse with my water, and spit it all onto an oncoming car if I can.
I repeat the entire process just before arriving at work, and again on the way home.
My dentist just thursday told me I had “fine, strong teeth”.
I also NEVER use any toothpaste. When I’m at home I sometimes use baking soda.
My dentist when I was a little kid- (Dr Courtice- a great old guy with big hands) told me brushing with toothpaste was like brushing with sugar. Most toothpaste he said had more sugar than a candy bar.This was in the 60’s so I don’t know if what he said was true then, or if it’s true now, or if he was just an ornery old curmudgeon. One way or another I miss him, but he’d be about 110 now and probably not as efficient…
I’m with you, Damhna. Until a few months ago, I’d never even heard of tongue scraping/brushing. I’m a reasonably hygenic person and I’d never, ever, ever heard of this practice. Not from my parents, the school nurse, Kermit or even the Fonz. Not even a peep. Ever!
And then I’m reading a text on Roman civilization. They mention tongue scrapers and talk about it being part of the morning ritual of most Romans, the equivalent of our teeth brushing rountine. Wow I thought, what crazy things those ancient Romans were into. Imagine, tongue scraping.
Now I find out I’m the only one in the modern world who doesn’t do this. What other lies am I living in my daily life? Help me before I faux pas again!
I remember catching a weird programme (Discovery Channel) early one morning talking about inventions. Appearently the Romans also had a device for scraping the body of sweat (ick). The sweat of young men was then used by the ancient matrons (more ick) …I’m not quite sure of the exact purpose, but I seem to recall it was supposed to induce some kind of frisson.
I think I’ll stick to the tongue brushing (my own, at that).
I too am a tongue brusher, every morning. As an RN I take my patient’s mouth care very seriously too. You would be amazed at the well educated and well meaning caregivers who never even think to do this. I first thing I do when I have a patient who is to have nothing by mouth is to start on good PO care. I examine the mouth and more times than not the tongue is dry as leather and lips are dry and peeling. How hard is it to swab the mouth and tongue and apply lip balm. Sometime those mouths are so funky I use mouthwash on a washcloth to get them in shape. Like I said, I’m serious when it comes to dental hygiene.
You can imagine my horror a couple of weeks ago when I discovered I had developed an oral fungal infection due to the massive steroids I’d been taking. I knew my mouth seemd a little dry but OH the Horror!! I shall spare you gentle readers a description, let’s just say it resembled a small curd dairy product.
10 days of diflucan and nystatin swish and spit cleared it right up. Now my tongue is pink and healthy and ready for business again.
Anyone out there rinse their nostrils? While in the shower you hold a little water in your palm and then suck it up your nose. (I don’t recommend sucking it right into the internal cavity.) After a couple of rinses and nose-blows you will have a squeaky clean nose. </Dr. Evil>There really is nothing like a freshly rinsed nostril. It’s breathtaking. I suggest you try it.</end Dr. Evil>
Now that you mention it … that’s another Yoga cleansing practice. Breathing is so vitally important in yoga, no wonder rinsing out the breathing passages is a regular practice. It’s called neti and involves flushing out not just the nostrils but the whole sinuses as well. You pour lukewarm salt water in one nostril and it flows right through the sinuses and out the other nostril. Then repeat going the other way. They sell special “Neti Pots” in health food stores for this purpose. Shaped like little Aladdin’s lamps with a long thin spout for nostril insertion. Try it, you’ll find it helps your breathing a lot, it really does. The Himalayan Institute, a Yoga school, sells these.
The minimal nasal rinse you described is done several times a day by Muslims as part of their ritual purification before Islamic prayer. It’s sort of like the Yoga neti except that it doesn’t go as deep.
I have done it. Maybe a dozen times in the last 25 or so concious years. No tongue hair so far. When I had bad breath, there was usually food stuck in my tonsils. Which can be purged, but it hurts and bleeds a bit, which I would guess isn’t real good for you overall either.
Smoking dope is said to cause hairy-tongue also. Or does it? Is toothpaste chemically similar to marijuana? Or do stoners just not brush daily? Do all the people of the world that don’t brush or scrape daily have hairy tongues? -Is there anything else said to cause hairy tongue?
The observation that ancient civilizations did something that they believed to be useful doesn’t prove it to be so. Does Rhino horn give old men hard-ons? Probably yes, if they’re big-game hunters on safari. - MC
Brush my tongue every day; my mouth doesn’t feel clean without it.
Also, I had a roommate who did all of his dental hygiene in his car. The first time he did this in front of me, he cautioned me not to look as he swallowed the toothpaste & spit, thus fluoridating his GI tract.
BTW: I’ve always wondered: Floss first or last? I floss first in the theory that the flossing dislodges various bits of matter, and that subsequent brushing ensures that the crevices are flooded with toothpaste to kill some germs or send scrubbing bubbles in or whatever the heck toothpaste does. My dentist’s answer is that he’s just happy that I floss at all.
Damhna: That was Demolition Man.
Does anyone know how I can turn on html in my posts?
