Does the Orabrush Really Work?

Orabrush claims to be the cure for bad breath and targets the tongue as the main offender. Tongue scrapers have been around for several years now, so what makes this one different, and is it worth all of the hype?

Overview
Depending on who you ask you’ll get a different explanation for what causes bad breath. Some say it’s bacteria present on the tongue, others say it emanates from the stomach. And still others say that it’s due to a backed up colon or an overload of parasites in the body. Basically, the cause of the problem varies depending on the solution being sold. In this case they say if you just get your tongue clean enough you won’t have to worry about bad breath anymore.

The Claim
The makers of Orabrush claim that 90% of bad breath comes from the tongue, and therefore their tongue scraper can make a pretty big dent in how offensive your breath is. They say that this is better than brushing your tongue with a toothbrush because of the way the bristles are designed. No one can argue that the surface of a tooth and the surface of the tongue are different, and should require different methods for cleaning them.

They say that the bristles on the Orabrush are designed to work the same way that a surgical scrub brush works to make sure that a surgeon’s hands are really clean. When you compare that to the bristles of a toothbrush, it’s easy to see that they might be onto something here.

The Hype
Bad breath makes most of us self-conscious about it, and it can be hard to keep up with the task of keeping it at bay. This is especially true when something big is riding on our breath, like a first kiss, or an interview. You want to make the best impression and bad breath can definitely throw things off in a hurry. It works on a subconscious level at the very least, with the other person automatically judging you for your bad breath, even though theirs might not be minty fresh.

The Cost
What’s nice about the Orabrush is that it’s sold in stores and online, so you don’t have to worry

about it just being sold online. $10 gets you one Orabrush as well as a tongue foam that is meant to be used in conjunction with it, similar to the way you use a toothbrush and toothpaste together. If you don’t want the foam you can buy just the tongue scraper for around $7. They also have a couples pack with a his and her model for $10, and a family pack for $35.

They say you should replace this every 3 to 4 months, or if you come down with a serious infection so that you don’t re-infect yourself. This is similar to a toothbrush timeline, even though they say that you don’t have to replace it as often, so perhaps that conservative and you could stretch it to 5 or six months. At the same time it is used to scrape gunk off your tongue so you wouldn’t want to use it too long without replacing it.

The Commitment
There isn’t too much of a commitment here, as long as you pair this with brushing your teeth. If you’ve ever felt that your mouth could be a little cleaner after brushing your teeth, if your breath could be a little fresher, this is something you’d want to start making a habit of. After some time you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it.

Evaluation
The Orabrush is winning over a lot of users, and most people that try it report that it works well, the way you’d think it should. Keeping the tongue clean is something that is easy to neglect, but it’s an important part of oral hygiene. It can work wonders on morning breath, and can be used whenever you need a quick freshening up. Once you start scraping your tongue you’ll feel like you’ve forgotten something if you neglect to use it. It makes that much of a difference in the overall cleaning of your tongue.

There are some toothbrushes out there that try to incorporate a tongue scraper to the back of the toothbrush head. Some electric toothbrushes also have an attachable head that is a tongue scraper. This allows you to add power behind the scraping. Having a dedicated brush works best, and we’re recommending adding this to your arsenal of oral hygiene tools to combat bad breath.

Final Orabrush Review

The Orabrush is getting our Thumbs Up rating due to all of the positive feedback it’s earned, and for the fact that they really did crack the code on making a tongue scraper that works. The price point is accurate, and you can use this with or without the foam. If you’re new to the world of scraping your tongue you’ll definitely be glad you started. If you’ve never used a tongue scraper before and simply relied on brushing your tongue with your toothbrush, you’ll also likely be impressed with the difference it makes.

Our Recommendation
They’re always coming up with new ways to get the mouth cleaner and cleaner. Right now it seems that the best way to treat your mouth is to clean it with an electric toothbrush (check out our comparison of the Oral-B and the Sonicare), then scrape your tongue with the Orabrush, then follow up with SmartMouth. There’s simply no way your breath would be stinky after this regimen.

What do you think? Does the Orabrush work or not?