The Best Tongue Scrapers for Bad Breath in 2024

To get all of the white film off my tongue, I glide the device over its surface about three times, once in the center and once on each side. I got the hang of it quickly; my only piece of advice is to start off gently—this tool is pretty sharp and too much pressure will hurt. The whole routine takes about 20 seconds, and it just makes my mouth feel that much cleaner. As a nice bonus, the scraper comes with a plastic travel case that I’ve used from the get-go to keep it clean and protected in my medicine cabinet.

Material: Stainless steel

Original image by SELF commerce writer Jessica Kasparian

Keeko Copper Tongue Cleaner

Pros

• Helps with morning breath

Cons

You don’t need to get a tongue scraper that’s pretty enough to be sold at Anthropologie, but hey, why not? This copper one not only looks good, but it actually helped our tester’s breath. “Despite my best efforts, my morning breath can be pretty, uh, intense, so it was nice to see that something as simple as scraping my tongue a few times could help prevent it,” she says. Similar to the MasterMedi, you’ll need to do a few swipes over the tongue to catch everything.

Worth noting: The copper looks pretty, but it stains. “I followed the brand’s directions and cleaned it after every use, but there are a couple water stains that seem to be stuck there for good,” our tester says.

Material: Copper

Original image by SELF senior commerce writer Sara Coughlin

DrTung’s Stainless Tongue Scraper

Pros

• Flexible design
• Easy to control
• Inexpensive

Cons

• Sharp enough to cause nicks

DrTung’s scraper is the same U shape as the first two, but has two grippy handles our tester appreciates: “I feel like I have more control by being able to hold both ends and add some pressure to get more of the yucky-ness off my tongue,” she says. The device has some bend to help you maneuver it, but you’ll probably want to do at least two passes over your tongue to make sure you grab all of the plaque. “It’s kind of hard to get the back back, so the first pass gets like 70% and I have to do one or two more to go deeper,” our tester says. “My mouth feels instantly refreshed after using it.”

Some advice: Make sure to go slow and only apply gentle pressure while you get the hang of this. “It’s pretty sharp, which is great at scraping, but keep that in mind because it has cut the corners of my mouth when I don’t adjust it properly,” our tester says.

Material: Stainless steel

Original image by SELF lifestyle writer Jenna Ryu

Davids Professional Tongue Scraper

Pros

• Can be used one-handed
• Improves tongue color and texture

Cons

Instead of a curve that pulls the plaque off your tongue, this tool has a loop at the top of a single handle. It offers the same plaque-lifting benefits of the others on this list, but has a design that’s way easier to use one-handed. The metal edges on this doohickey are also purposefully blunt to help prevent cuts or aggressive-scraping-induced injury.