Whats Your Tongue Look Like?

Now that it’s officially March, springtime is just around the corner. For people, and animals included, spring time means romance is in the air here in Torrington, CT. That being said, dental implant provider Dr. Kuzmin, along with the rest of his staff here at Torrington Dental Care have been getting a good number of patients coming in asking what the best ways to monitor their breath are. It seems that a decent number of people are planning on doing some socializing this spring and that’s a fantastic thing. What’s even better is the fact that it’s causing more people to take a greater interest in the state of their oral health.

Bearing all the above information, it came as no surprise when those same patients who asked us how to keep the state of their breath in check were surprised by our immediate answer.

“Have you looked at your tongue recently?”

More often than not, this answer is greeted with an odd look. Still, we stick to our guns and explain to patients why keeping an eye on the appearance of your tongue can help you in more ways than simply seeing of your breath is fresh. However, because of the number of times we’ve explained this fact in the last couple of weeks, we’ve decided to post an article about it.

Let’s take a closer look at what your tongue might be saying about you.

You’re Seeing Brown/Black Fuzz

Short answer: your breath is not smelling very good at the moment.

The longer answer is a bit more involved but we’ll tell you why this is the case anyway. Your tongue is covered with thousands of tiny hair-like structures called papilla. These tiny hairs are directly connected to your taste buds and they also provide the perfect place for bacteria to accumulate and hide.

When your tongue is healthy, it will appear pale pink in color and slightly fizzy. Once again, this is all due to papilla. However, when your tongue starts changing colors, like white and brown for instance, this means there are more bacteria on your tongue than is necessarily healthy. Actually, it’s not healthy at all and the truth is if your tongue is appearing brown or black and fuzzier than usual, something needs to be changed in your oral hygiene routine ASAP.

Luckily, there is an easy fix to this problem that a surprising number of people are not aware of. The quickest way to cut down bacteria content in your mouth is brushing your tongue. when you brush your teeth you should also be cleaning your tongue. Every single time. This can be done by gently scrubbing the surface of your tongue with your toothbrush. In fact, the majority of bacteria in your mouth are resting on your tongue, so if you skip brushing it you are missing the largest portion of bacteria in your mouth.

If your tongue does not go back to its healthy pale pink pallor within a few days of proper care and hygiene, then it’s time to make an appointment with the dentist. This may mean something more serious is going on in your mouth.

Until next time readers, take care of your tongue and keep smiling.