How to Stop Rubbing Your Tongue on Teeth
Do you frequently find yourself rubbing your tongue on your teeth? If you are experiencing this, it may be because of a misalignment of the two halves of your jaw. TMJ disorder can cause several symptoms, including pain in the face or jaw, tightness or locking of the jaw joint, earaches, or headaches that get better when pressing on specific points around the ear.
Tongue-rubbing is just one symptom that can arise from an upper back molar being pushed into a lower front tooth. In this blog post, we will show you how to stop rubbing your tongue on teeth. So let’s get started!
Why do You Need To Stop Rubbing Your Tongue on Teeth?
Rubbing your tongue against the hard enamel of your teeth can irritate you. This reaction, called the “rebound phenomenon,” makes your language feel itchy and irritated for a few hours after you stop rubbing it on the teeth.
Your reaction might be made worse by acid reflux or an allergy to something in toothpaste, mouthwash, or food. Also, rubbing your tongue against the hard enamel of your teeth can irritate.
What Can You Do About It?
You can protect yourself from this side effect by avoiding things that make it worse. These include:
- Acid reflux or heartburn, especially if you take certain medications for them
- Some foods and drinks
- Mouthwash
- Toothpaste that contains sodium lauryl sulfate (a foaming agent) or similar chemicals
- Any other toothpaste you think might be causing irritation
10 Ways on How to Stop Rubbing Your Tongue on Teeth:
1. Change Your Toothbrush:
You may think that a toothbrush is a toothbrush, but even your toothbrush can affect how often you rub your tongue on your teeth. You want to try using a toothbrush with soft bristles and a small head.
2. Stop Toothpaste:
There are many harmful chemicals in traditional toothpaste, such as fluoride, silica, saccharin, and triclosan. Therefore, if you are using traditional toothpaste every day, switching your toothpaste to a more natural brand is best.
3. Rinse Out Mouth With Salt Water:
This method uses the saline solution found in our mouths to help eliminate food particles stuck on the tongue. This helps to minimize the bacteria that cause odor and prevents it from spreading to other parts of the mouth.
4. Mouthwash:
Mouthwash can be an effective way to cleanse your mouth and remove bacteria. However, there are many different types of mouthwashes, and it is best to use a non-chemical one that uses natural ingredients such as grapefruit seed extract or bentonite clay.
5. Clean Tongue With Listerine or Alcohol:
Alcohol can be used as an effective way to clean the tongue and remove bacteria. Use alcohol mixed with water as a solution, and use it as a mouthwash for 5 minutes each day. The brushing action of the tongue combined with the disinfecting properties of alcohol can be effective for this purpose.
6. Mouth Exercises:
One way to eliminate your habit of tongue rubbing is by strengthening the muscles in your mouth. One way you can do this is by using a straw to firmly suck on an object placed between your teeth.
7. Chewing Gum:
Chewing Gum stimulates saliva, which helps cleanse the mouth and help reduce bad breath over time. This method creates a positive feedback loop by eliminating the bad breath and increasing saliva production.
8. Practice Thorough Brushing:
The tongue is a susceptible part of the mouth, and it can be hard to brush that area because you can’t see it well. Try putting toothpaste on the lower part of the bristles to create more friction and allow you to brush more thoroughly.
9. Regular Dental Checkups:
Your tongue brushing habit may be caused by a problem with your teeth, such as an old filling or cavity. You should see your dentist regularly to make sure that there are no problems in the mouth and make you aware of any potential issues.
10. Control Your Stress:
Stress is one of the leading causes of bad habits such as tongue brushing. Stress can cause all types of issues, including mental health, digestive problems, and physical pain. The best way to control stress is by practicing meditation or yoga through exercise or other methods. However, a possible side effect may be that it makes your teeth sensitive over time due to increased saliva production.
Getting Rid of the Itchy, Irritated Feeling in your Mouth
If you’re experiencing an itchy, irritated mouth from rubbing your tongue on your teeth, you can do a few things to help relieve the sensation. Drinking cool water or rinsing with salt water is probably the simplest solution. If you don’t like the taste of saltwater, try sucking on a piece of ice or placing an ice cube in your mouth for a few moments. Another thing that tends to help is brushing the tongue with toothpaste.
The minty flavor gives you a fresh taste in your mouth while helping to get rid of the dead skin cells that are irritating your tongue. Some people have found relief from the itchy, irritating sensation by using a tongue scraper. This is a small tool with a semi-flat edge on one side and perpendicularly cut into the other that is used to scrape the tongue’s surface clean.
Some Tips and Suggestions:
- Try to push your tongue against the inside of your cheek while you’re sleeping. After doing this for some time, it will become a habit, and you won’t do it during the day anymore.
- If all else fails, wear some removable dental guard that holds your tongue down while you sleep.
- Try sleeping with your mouth open and breathing through it so that you don’t automatically want to breathe through your nose.
- If you still can’t stop, try putting a piece of tape on your tongue. It will feel extremely weird and uncomfortable, but it works great.
- In extreme cases, look into surgery to reduce the size of your tongue.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, if you are a person who constantly rubs their tongue against the teeth in your mouth, it may be time to visit an orthodontist. The dentist can help you find out what is causing this behavior and provide treatment options for correcting the issue. However, if that does not work or is too expensive, then other things can help prevent or stop the problem from happening again.
One option could be wearing a retainer at night when going to bed! There might also be some behavioral therapy techniques that will involve identifying why someone feels they need to do this act of rubbing their tongue on teeth and finding ways to stop them from doing so without feeling like something needs fixing about themselves. We hope this blog post on how to stop rubbing your tongue on teeth has been helpful. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
