Our tongues work hard. We need them to taste food, to talk, to kiss. They not only move food around to help us swallow, but they also work to get tiny pieces of food out of our teeth after a meal, right? According to Dr. Martinna Bertolini, an assistant professor of dental medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine, the tongue is the only tissue in the human body that has papillae—minuscule bumps that help grip food. They come in handy, say, when you're licking an ice cream cone or slurping noodles. The tongue also has thousands of tastebuds covering the surface, as well as grooves that are as unique to the individual as fingerprints. Which is to say, there are a lot of little spaces where gunk can build up.

New York-based dentist, Dr. Jennifer Plotnick, likens the tongue to a soft, fleshy carpet. In all those little wet crevices, bacteria is just chilling and breeding—leaving you with a discolored, often smelly coating. What's the coating made of? Dead cells, food debris and whatever's left after all that bacteria is done reproducing. You see, that's what's responsible for the volatile sulfur compounds, such as Hydrogen Sulfide, which lead to the rotten egg smell. Dr. Plotnick goes back to the carpet metaphor and says if your rugs got that dirty every day, you'd want to clean them every day. And the closest thing to a tiny steam vacuum is a tongue scraper.

They've been around for years and seem to come in and out of popularity, but they're definitely enjoying a resurgence these days, thanks to TikTok. The oral wellness practice has become the latest fixation, with over 200 million views for the hashtags #tonguescraper and #tonguescraping. If watching those videos is not enough to convince you, listen to the doctors, like Dr. Brian Harris, a cosmetic dentist and lead medical advisor of oral care brand Snow. He says that simply brushing your tongue is not enough. To prove his point, he says to use a scraper after you have already brushed your tongue and you'll be surprised with what still comes off your tongue. Ready for fresher breath, a cleaner tongue and a healthier micro biome in your mouth? Here are the scrapers we'd suggest. Any will do you good, but some might suit your needs better.