Yes, brushing your tongue is a very important part in your oral hygiene routine. There are an estimated 20 billion bacteria in your mouth at any given time and today’s scientists can only account for about 1,000 types. Not all bacteria are bad, but some bacteria have a more negative effect on your mouth than others.
When you brush your teeth, Pacific Smiles dentists recommend that you also clean your tongue to remove any build-up of bacteria that can cause bad breath and dental disease.
Just like your teeth, we recommend that you clean your tongue following these steps:
A healthy tongue is pink in colour, clean and covered in tiny papillae (nodules on the surface of the tongue). When you have a routine dental check-up your dentist will be looking to make sure that there are no signs of inflammation or oral cancer.
An unhealthy tongue may appear:
Often there is an innocent white covering on tongues which is made up of a mix of bacteria, food debris and dead cells. This can be readily removed with regular cleaning.
To ensure that it looks healthy, your dentist will examine your tongue as part of your regular dental check-up.
As part of this your dentist, will examine:
Your dentist will be looking for the following conditions:
Are you overdue for your routine dental check-up? Don’t let small dental issues become big problems. Prevention is better than cure!