The Truth About Vaping and Your Oral Health

Cigarette smoking is bad for your health - that’s no secret. Cigarette smoking and tobacco use affect nearly every primary system in your body, such as the respiratory, cardiovascular, and immune systems. It can also affect your bone density and oral health.

What can seem murky is whether alternatives such as vaping are just as dangerous. In this blog, Ginger Rome, DDS, at The Dentists at North Cypress in Houston, Texas, shares her insights on vaping and its impact on oral health, highlighting why knowing the facts can be a lifesaver.

What is vaping?

Vaping is an umbrella term for using a variety of small handheld devices like vape pens and e-cigarettes to inhale nicotine mist. Some people turn to vaping as a tactic to quit smoking, while others vape instead of smoking, believing it to be a safer option.

Vaping can trace its roots back to 2003, when 52-year-old Chinese pharmacist and smoker Hon Lik invented the first modern electronic cigarette in China after his father died from lung cancer. Before that, back in 1927, Joseph Robinson, a New Yorker, patented a medical device that enabled patients to inhale medicinal substances.

Since its introduction to the market, vaping has exponentially grown in popularity, particularly among teens and young adults. Today, approximately 1 in 20 Americans vapes, with 82 million of their counterparts worldwide.

Cigarette smoking versus vaping

Let’s begin this discussion by doing a deep dive into the similarities and differences between cigarette smoking and vaping. Both cigarette smoking and vaping deliver nicotine and produce many other toxic chemicals when inhaled.

The mechanics of each differ slightly, but the results are nearly the same in terms of overall and oral health implications. With cigarettes, tobacco burns, and you inhale the smoke. In contrast with vaping, a battery heats a filament that vaporizes an e-liquid, which gets inhaled as a mist. In contrast, with cigarette smoking, tobacco is ignited and creates smoke, which gets inhaled.

Vaping and smoking cigarettes are addictive and can have severe health implications. The famous 1964 Surgeon General report and many studies conclude a causal link between smoking and diseases, such as lung cancer and other serious health effects.

While it’s too early to know the long-term health effects of vaping, it’s safe to say that vaping as a good tactic for quitting smoking can be taken off the table. 

According to research, fewer than 20% who switched to vaping could quit smoking. Remarkably, 91% of people who used other cessation methods successfully quit smoking.

Oral health implications of vaping

While vaping is all about inhaling a chemical-infused mist and not smoking tobacco, it shares one main ingredient that has many oral health implications – nicotine. Nicotine can weaken your immune system, creating the perfect storm for your oral health.

Your mouth battles between good and bad bacteria. Having good oral health relies on good bacteria winning more battles than not. Nicotine can disrupt the balance by increasing bacteria and reducing beneficial bacteria, which raises the likelihood of developing various oral health issues and compromises the success of treatment options, such as dental implants.

Decay and cavities

Many vaping products include flavoring agents that can boost bacteria while creating acids that can compromise and breach tooth enamel, ultimately leading to cavities. Clinical research reports that people who vape have a higher incidence of cavities than people who don’t vape.

Dry mouth

A contributing factor to this higher rate of cavities among vapers is that many vape products contain propylene glycol, which can trigger dry mouth. Since saliva neutralizes acids from bacteria and rinses away food debris, having dry mouth makes you more vulnerable to developing cavities. But that’s not all. Dry mouth can also create a risk of gum disease.

Gum disease and inflammation

Other factors that heighten the likelihood that vaping leads to gum inflammation and gum disease include:

• Reduced blood flow to the gums caused by nicotine, which restricts oxygenated blood and nutrients to the gum tissues
• Benzene, propylene glycol, formaldehyde, and other chemicals often found in vaping products irritate the gum tissue, causing it to swell and bleed
• Heated vaping chemicals break down into acidic compounds, which are toxic to soft tissues, such as gum tissue    
• Flavoring agents and vaping chemicals combine a one-two punch, allowing a film to form on the gums, making it easier for bacteria to adhere to it. This process may explain why clinical studies suggest a higher incidence of periodontitis for vapers compared to non-vapers.

If you vape and are concerned about your oral health, contact The Dentists at North Cypress by calling us or scheduling an appointment online today.