Is Tongue Brushing Important for My Dental Health?

Your tongue is a muscle—or rather, a collection of muscles—that are wrapped in pink tissue and small bumps, known as mucosa and papillae, respectively. The papillae are where your taste buds are located and are what give your tongue its bumpy texture.

Those bumps are perfect little nooks for dead skin cells, food residue, bacteria, and other debris to collect in. Cleaning them out requires dedicated brushing and scraping. Without this kind of targeted cleaning, your tongue hangs on to these unwelcome elements and spreads them throughout your mouth. This can lead to various oral health problems, such as bad breath, yeast overgrowth, and periodontal disease which may require root canal treatments. It can even cause your taste buds to become less sensitive, since they’re covered in a biofilm that blocks them from fully tasting your food. In severe cases, you can develop a condition where your tongue becomes black and hairy-looking.