A lot of your oral hygiene is focused on cleaning your teeth and gums. But you don’t want to forget about your tongue and palate! Your palate is the roof of your mouth. It is important to keep it, along with your tongue, clean as part of your oral health routine. Here are a few tips to help you you get started. By cleaning your tongue and palate daily after brushing, you will be removing bacteria that cause bad breath.

• Use your toothbrush to brush your tongue, then flip the bristles up and softly brush your palate (roof of mouth)
• For children, you can start them out with this habit by just using a dampened washcloth across their tongue and palate
• Rinse your mouth afterwards with Listerine or other antimicrobial, ADA mouthwash to decrease the bacterial load

Product: Tongue Scraper

These are great for pulling excess food and bacteria from your tongue that may have been left behind after brushing. To use it, gently pull the scraper across your tongue. Make sure you rinse the scraper when you are done!

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Photo by Niro5 at English Wikipedia (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons