How to Keep Your Tongue Healthy?
The tongue plays a critical role in maintaining oral health. Because it is exposed to food particles, bacteria, chemicals, viruses, etc., it needs to be adequately cleaned. If the tongue is not cleaned regularly, the damage caused by these things may lead to many problems, including halitosis (bad breath), tooth decay, gum disease, and even cancer of the throat. There are many ways to clean and maintain a healthy tongue. In this blog, we will look at How to Keep your Tongue Healthy in an easy way.
How to Keep Your Tongue Healthy?
Tongue health is probably the most neglected aspect of our overall oral hygiene. Many people have no idea that they have a mouthful of bacteria growing right under their tongues. These bacteria are constantly working at breaking down food particles, creating plaque, and causing bad breath. Tongue health significantly contributes to dental cavities, gingivitis, and other problems that can affect your teeth and jawbone. In addition, many dental issues, such as tooth decay, gum disease, and even migraines, are directly related to poor tongue health. If you want a healthy tongue, you can adopt the following tips.
1. Rinse Off with Water :
Your teeth touch your tongue at night while you sleep. It helps remove food particles from your mouth before they get infected. When you wake up, your tongue feels dry and rough. You could use some water to rinse off the leftover food.
2. Keep Tongue Moist:
Water is a great way to keep your tongue moist. A healthy tongue is naturally moist. But if your tongue becomes too dry, you may want to drink a little water. There are also some products that contain moisturizing agents like aloe vera gel.
3. Eat Vegetables and Fruits:
Eat fruits and vegetables that are high in vitamins and minerals. These foods can help improve the texture and color of your tongue. Foods like carrots, broccoli, kale, spinach, oranges, strawberries, and tomatoes are good for your tongue.
4. Cleaning after Meal:
After eating, use your fingers to scrape off any remaining food particles and rinse your mouth with warm saltwater. This technique helps remove bacteria from the surface of the mouth.
5. Clean tongue by Cleaner:
Clean your tongue daily in the morning with a tongue scraper or tongue cleaner.
6. Don’t eat Chewing Gum:
Chewing gum can stick to the sides and back of your tongue. If you’re eating or chewing, then your saliva won’t have enough time to reach the back side of your tongue to clean it. Chewing gum can cause a buildup of bacteria on your tongue’s surface.
Why is it important to maintain a healthy tongue?
The tongue is connected to the body internally and externally. When something happens to your internal organs, it will affect your external appearance. Similarly, the related symptoms can be seen outside if there is some disease inside the body. Therefore, maintaining the health of the tongue is very important.
The tongue has many functions. One of them is to help us identify the flavor of food and drink. A healthy tongue can distinguish different tastes according to the kind of food. Moreover, it can detect various levels of sweetness, sourness, bitterness, saltiness, etc. This indicates that a person using their tongue properly should be able to taste things easily without any problems.
The tongue is made up of soft fibrous connective tissue covering the mouth’s inside surface. It has no bones or bone structure but comprises various collagenous connective tissue types. This connective tissue can vary from a delicate network of fine fibers to a dense meshwork that is extremely tough.
Tongue Anatomy:
Our tongue contains various structures that play different roles in maintaining the health of our oral cavity like any other organ of the body. These include the tongue, the salivary glands, the lymphatic system, and the nerves running through this area. Like other areas of the body, the tongue needs plenty of water in order to survive. Most saliva produced is thin and sticky, which helps protect the bacteria and germs from entering our mouths and throat.
Tongue Function:
The tongue plays a crucial role in communicating with the rest of the body and acting as a protective physical structure for the mouth’s interior. The tongue plays a significant role in speaking and communication because it contributes to the generation of 60% of the voice. We can taste food and drink liquids because of it in order to permit speech. We can tell what food we are eating and whether it is safe to eat it by feeling it on our tongue.
Conclusion:
You can keep your tongue healthy by following tips.
- Rinse off the tongue after meals will help remove leftover food.
- Eat vegetables rich in vitamins and minerals will help make your tongue healthier.
- Cleaning your tongue daily with a tongue cleaner will help prevent bad breath.
- Using a tongue scraper or Cleaner will make cleaning easier.
- Avoid salty snacks and drinks will help avoid causing damage to the tongue.
