Tongue manicures

There's hardly a bigger turn-off than bad breath. But sometimes, no matter how much you brush and floss your teeth, rinse your mouth and chew on sugar-free gum, there's no disguising the garlic falafel you had for dinner last night. And the smell is exacerbated even further if you smoke. So, what can be done to combat dog breath?

According to Rumana Husein, Hygienist at Dentics Cosmetic Dental Centre in central London, taking care of your tongue is a fundamental part of oral hygiene, which many of us choose to ignore. To make tongue hygiene more appealing, they've developed a new procedure known as a tongue manicure. Intrigued, I went along to find out just what's involved.

Step 1: Breath-o-meter test Rumana started off by making me breath into a breath-o-meter, which gives a good or bad breath reading. More efficient and certainly more decorous than the old breathe-into-hand-and-smell method, the breath-o-meter works by measuring the volume of sulphide compounds produced by bacteria and hydrocarbon gases in your breath. I was devastated to learn I had a fairly high score, but put it down to the raw onions in my salad lunch.

Step 2: Tongue inspection Rumana then examined my tongue to assess my general health. The tongue is a good indicator of general well being and is commonly used in Chinese medicine as a means of diagnosis. Happy that I had a normal and healthy tongue, Rumana moved on to stage 3.

Step 3: Scrape A specially designed tongue scraper was then used to gently remove those horrible fuzzy white bits from the top of my tongue. Rumana recommends using the tongue scraper every night before going to bed to prevent the build up of bad-breath bacteria in the mouth.

Step 4: Brushing In order to stimulate blood flow and restore a healthy pink colouring, Rumana then used a special round flat brush in a gentle circular motion on the surface of my tongue. She told me that I could also use my own toothbrush for this stage, but not to brush too vigorously, as too much abrasion can cause damage to the capillaries.

Step 5: Rinse and refresh I was then asked to rinse my mouth with water, after which a Listerine Actives strip was placed on the tongue. The strip melted, leaving a fresh minty flavour.

Step 6: The breath-o-meter This time my breath reading was a notch lower than before - and that's without having undergone the wider oral hygiene assessment offered by Dentics as part of the treatment. Just goes to show that looking after your tongue can make a huge difference.

Persistent bad breath can be a symptom of serious health problems, such as diabetes and liver failure. If you are a sufferer, you should consult a GP.

See www.dentics.co.uk for details.