Ayurvedic Tongue Scraping | Why and How?
Updated: Oct 3
Curious About Tongue Scraping? Discover all you need to understand about Ayurvedic tongue scraping 👅, its numerous benefits, and the proper technique. Have you ever questioned the cause of the residue on your tongue? Delve into ama, which Ayurveda identifies as the precursor to imbalance and illness.
Explore more on the Saumya Blog, selected top Ayurveda blogs and websites.
As always with our Ayurvedic practices, our focus, intentions and habits center around a set of tried-and-true tools that when combined, help us to reduce ama (toxins) and improve our overall wellbeing.
When we use tongue scraping as part of a comprehensive, yet manageable Ayurveda plan, it will benefit all who consistently uses tongue scraping.
Just as we sweep and clean the entryway of our home, we take good care of ourselves by cleaning our tongue daily. Removing ama from the tongue offers a multitude of benefits for our overall health.
According to the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio--brush, floss, scrape! Indeed, studies suggest that "tongue scraping can remove bacteria and improve bad breath more than brushing."
See Saumya Ayurveda in Everyday Health's article: 5 Potential Health Benefits of Tongue Scraping by reporter Lauren Bedosky. Explore More: Ayurveda Tongue Diagnosis: What Your Tongue Is Saying About Your Health
What's that white coating on my tongue?
If your tongue has a thick white coating on it, this is an indication of ama (toxins) in your body. A coating is an indicator that ama, or toxins are present.
“We want to remove the coating of ama from the tongue as that supports good oral and digestive health. It is more important to understand that what is showing up on the tongue is reflective of the ama in our bodies and minds. We need remove the ama systematically from the whole person.”
-Veena, Saumya Ayurveda
“Āma denotes the abnormal or impaired process of digestion and metabolism that leads to build up of toxic by-products, which cannot be neutralized or eliminated by the body.” (National Institute of Health.)
Cleaning your tongue every morning with a tongue scraper removes ama on the tongue and stimulates healthy digestion and elimination. (see the Ayurveda organ tongue map below.) Also start your morning with a glass of hot water to help your body flush the toxins from your digestive system.
In Ayurveda, we use tongue scraping to perform an inner and outer cleansing or detox every morning. Tongue scraping involves gently gliding a stainless steel or copper tongue scraper from the back of the tongue forward to remove toxins. Tongue scraping is a simple and effective way of detoxing every day.
How To Use A Tongue Scraper
Think of this Ayurveda practices as tongue cleaning versus tongue scraping. Tongue cleaning is a gentle process. Avoid applying pressure, rather gently glide the tongue cleaner across the tongue.
1. Use the tongue cleaner at the beginning of your day, before breakfast. The best time to do tongue cleaning is in the morning after brushing your teeth.
2. Lightly hold the tongue cleaner in one or both hands, depending on the size of your hands and your preference.
3. Extend your tongue out, place the tongue cleaner as far back on the tongue as is comfortable. This should be a pleasant process and not something that causes you to gag, etc. Over time you may find you can comfortably place the tongue cleaner further back. No need to push anything.
4. Now, very lightly and gently glide the tongue cleaner from the back of the tongue to the front. You will see the coating being removed.
5. You may need to do 3-5 passes, rinse the tongue cleaner after each pass.
6. Wipe it off with an alcohol swab at the end of each session or rinse it under hot, soapy water.
7. Stainless steel is antimicrobial and a good option for all dosha types.
Tongue cleaning is a simple and important part of Ayurvedic daily cleansing. Explore more about our Seasonal Cleanses and Detoxes Our bodies and minds build up ama - toxins and energetic gunk - as we move throughout the world. Every day, we’re assaulted with more than we can digest: food, stimulation, stress, environmental pollutants... the list goes on and on. An ounce of prevention? What a difference it makes! Regular cleansing helps us reset, repair, rest, and rejuvenate. When the tsunami of stimulation ceases, our bodies and minds know what to do. In the gentle slowness of cleansing time – we heal.
“I was looking for a home cleansing program and Saumya Ayurveda delivered! I work full time, have a family, sports, commute, --and this cleanse was manageable! I had such a positive cleanse experience; I plan to do it again and I have it on my planner already." - A.B., White Bear Lake, MN
Ayurveda Cleansing Resources on the Saumya Blog:
Tongue Scraping Benefits - What is It Good For?
Tongue scraping supports our inner wellbeing and overall health. When you begin daily tongue scraping, you’ll see the benefits right away. When you look in the mirror upon rising, stick out your tongue, you'll likely see a coating on it. Using a tongue scraper, you will slowly begin to remove that coating of ama. That's pretty rewarding in and of itself. How else will you benefit?
There is a map on the tongue that corresponds to organs such as the lungs, the heart, stomach, liver, spleen, GI tract, pancreas, etc. Using a tongue scraper, as part of an Ayurvedic morning routine, gently removes ama, or toxins, from the tongue while simultaneously massaging the internal organs.
Tongue scraping directly supports overall health and healthy digestion, which begins in the mouth.
Keep in mind that ama on the tongue is not only indicating toxins in the oral cavity, it is also showing ama in various parts of the body and mind. (More on ama later in this article.) Tongue scraping removes ama on the tongue and it helps remove ama from the whole you.
Explore More:
Ayurvedic Morning Routine | 6 Rituals for a Calm and Centered Day
10 Ayurvedic Evening Rituals for a Calming Night
Tongue Scraping Benefits
1. In terms of oral health, people enjoy a fresh, clean, healthy mouth (let's face it, bad breath is a bit embarrassing).
2. Tongue scraping removes bacteria, toxins, and dead cells from the oral cavity –which enhances the sense of taste and when the bacterial flora of the mouth is balanced, tongue scraping supports a healthy mouth.
3. Tongue scraping also removes food debris which helps to keep bacteria at bay. It is bacteria that causes cavities, which also lead to other issues such as receding and bleeding gums.
4. When the flora in the mouth is balanced, the mouth is fresh and digestion benefits since what comes from the mouth flows downstream through the digestive tract. 5. Tongue scraping provides a gentle massage of the internal organs.
With the practice of tongue scraping, our awareness increases of our overall health. How? Every morning we'll notice our tongue, and by observing it, we'll see what is happening on the tongue and what is happening on the inside of the body.
Enhance your Ayurveda morning routine and preventive self care with Ayurvedic oil pulling:
Tongue scraping, as part of our daily morning Ayurvedic routine, helps us keep an eye on things--inside and out.
Tongue scraping increases our awareness of our health, providing us insights into our insides. We carry within us a powerful diagnostic tool-the tongue. By observing shape, color, cracks, coating, and more--assessments can be made about overall health.
It is easy to notice the coating on the tongue--how to interpret the coating, (and several other important pieces of information the tongue is trying to tell us; such as the cracks, the color and so forth), it's a good job for an experienced Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner.
Tongue Scraping Benefits - Who is It Good For? Vata, Pitta and Kapha Types
Tongue scraping is a great place to start integrating Ayurveda's 5,000 years’ worth of wisdom and tools for your physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. Let's face it, no matter how careful we are, we're constantly exposed to toxins in our food and the environment in which we live. If we are not digesting, assimilating, and eliminating optimally--we're in our own metabolic waste.
Got stress? Add that under the category of emotional toxins. When these various forms of toxins, or ama, are not digested sufficiently, it negatively impacts our health and wellbeing. In other words--we feel it! Peruse 30 Reasons Why You Need an Ayurveda Emotional Detox and How to Detox Emotionally|10 Ayurvedic Practices for Emotional Cleansing.
Some (not all) Signs of Ama
Difficulty remembering
Difficulty thinking clearly
Uninspired
Gas
Soft serve consistency stools to urgent diarrhea
Feeling older than you are
Exhausted, fatigues, tired all the time, no get up and go
General sense of heaviness and dullness
High blood pressure
Strange taste in the mouth
Low libido, low vitality
Systemic, thick coating of ama.
What is Ama in Ayurveda?
Systemic ama means toxins or undigested metabolic waste. Think of ama as all the stuff we don't want to hang around inside of us. Physically ama is LDL/bad cholesterol, germs, and undigested, and unabsorbed food. Ama can accumulate in the body and mind due to weak digestion, poor elimination, consuming foods that are incorrect for us personally, and from our lifestyle choices.
Ama gunks up the channels in our body and interferes with nutrients getting to where they need to go on a cellular level, and ama interferes with the removal of waste. Can you imagine walking around with trash in your car for weeks, months, and even years? According to Ayurveda, ama is the precursor to disease! It's easy to see why it's important to remove ama.
How Do I Know If I Have a Dosha Imbalance?
Peruse these comprehensive and convenient lists of signs and symptoms of dosha imbalances:
As we are all comprised of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha, there can be an imbalance in any of the doshas, or a combination of dosha imbalances. Read all three lists and see if anything looks familiar.
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Ayurvedic Tongue Scraping | Why and How?
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Veena is a Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner and meditation teacher, and monk.
She is President Emeritus and teaching faculty of the Meditation Center.
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