Is Vaping Bad For Your Teeth?

Let’s face it, nobody really enjoys going to the Dentist. There’s just something not so appealing about laying there in a chair while the Dentist pokes around your mouth with various utensils and then whacks out the power tools…not pleasurable!

People if you are a smoker, chances are you will enjoy these Dentist visits even less, as the lectures will be plentiful from the Dentist telling you how bad smoking is for your teeth and general oral health, with it causing stain to your teeth, potentially causing gum or mouth diseases and also heavily affecting how your breath smells as well.

But the question now is being posed and asked by many regarding is vaping bad for your teeth like what smoking is? And can the dentist even tell if you vape? In this blog I’m going to look at just how bad smoking can affect your teeth and oral health as well as obviously taking a look at whether vaping is actually bad for your teeth or not.

Is Vaping Bad For Your Teeth?

Right, let’s get into the topic question at hand now and get to the bottom of it to see if we can get a clear cut answer to this.

When you use an E-Cigarette, it does replicate the effects of smoking, inhaling, throat hit, nicotine hit, exhaling, ticks all the boxes for what happens when you smoke a cigarette. But there’s a huge difference between the two, the primary one being is the chemicals found in each thing.

Whilst there is some of the same chemicals present in vapour formed from E-Liquid being heated up by your vape that there are in cigarette smoke, the amount that is produced is absolutely miniscule when compared and they’re not considered a risk. There certainly is no tar or carbon monoxide produced by an E-Cigarette, and whilst Nicotine may be being ingested, should the vape juice you’re using contain it, we’ve already established that this is not harmful to be taking on board!

So the question is would the Nicotine from an E-Cigarette affect your teeth like how it does from a cigarette? Well…kind of.

You’re obviously still getting Nicotine within the vapour, so there is a slight chance of it causing some discolouration to your teeth, but this would be at a MUCH slower rate and not as severe as what the Nicotine found in cigarette smoke would do. A pair of Dentists recently wrote an article for Dentistry.co.uk relating to Vaping and Oral Health, which I’m going to discuss in the next part of this article, and one of the key takeaways was this quote:

“Any negative oral health impacts from e-cigarette use are likely to be small and of relatively minor consequence to the substantial beneficial oral health changes from stopping smoking”

And like I say, that’s from a Doctor and a Professor within the Dentistry industry, so any fears you may have about vaping being bad for your teeth should be a bit more at ease now hopefully! #

Is Smoking Bad For Your Teeth?

Now we move on to discussing how smoking can affect your teeth and mouth as it’s quite a prominent discussion point and if you are a smoker yourself reading this, you might not know the risks and the ins and outs of just how smoking is very bad for your teeth.

When you smoke a cigarette, you inhale thousands upon thousands of chemicals which is formed in the cigarette smoke once a cigarette is lit. Amongst these chemicals is things like tar and carbon monoxide which wreak absolute havoc on your organs and arteries by building up and not dispersing if you continue to smoke as you’re essentially constantly topping up the levels with every cigarette.

You also inhale Nicotine within the cigarette smoke, which is the thing everyone craves and the primary reason for continuing to smoke cigarettes. Contrary to popular belief, Nicotine is not harmful, or is it cancer causing like many people believe. It’s probably the only chemical found in cigarettes which isn’t a harm risk when ingesting it. It is highly addictive, yet not harmful.

But, it can play quite a part in how it affects your teeth sadly, especially the discolouration. Nicotine lurks within the cigarette smoke from a lit cigarette, and this is what can cause a “yellow” discolouration to the fingers, as well as on walls and surfaces if you smoke indoors as well. This also applies to your teeth as well, as the Nicotine will cling to your teeth and cause them to be discoloured with a yellowy tinge…a complete giveaway to anyone, especially your dentist that you smoke!

It can also cause decay, gum disease and tartar build up on and around your teeth and these are issues that are not to be ignored! On top of this, the smell of stale smoke and nicotine will linger on your breath as well, and give you bad breath which is hard to get rid of once it really sets in.

How The Media Portrays Vaping and Oral Health And What The Experts Say

I don’t consider it a normal week unless there’s some form of wild negative media published about Vaping and how terrible it is for a person, it’s a frequent thing and like I say, it’s a bit of the blue to not see any new “news” stories published slating vaping.

There’s been an absolute abundance of negative media published regarding how awful vaping is for you in general, and notably for the sake of this article, your teeth and oral health. Sweeteners being added by the boat load into vapes and them causing teeth rot and gum decay. Nicotine from E-Cigarettes can cause oral cancer. Your teeth will fall out if you use Elf Bars…The list goes on! But it was recently that the team of dentists I mentioned above published an article that effectively rested many of these myths.

Dr Richard Holliday and Professor Elaine McColl wrote an article on Dentistry.co.uk which took a look at Vaping and Oral Health, and they are both very experienced for many years within their field so they know what they’re talking about.

They discuss the positive factors E-Cigarettes can have on a person who may be quitting smoking, and references back to the Cochrane report which was done that further cemented Public Health’s stance on Vaping that it is 95% safer than what smoking is for numerous reasons.

They highlight that someone who has been a heavy smoker will likely be in a “disease-rich” position, however opting to use E-Cigarettes as their preferred method of Nicotine Replacement Therapy will likely lead to vast improvements on their Oral Health and lower the risks of contracting serious diseases as well.

The duo lean heavily on the fact that there is no long term evidence to back up the fact that Vaping is bad for your teeth simply because Vaping has not been round long enough for any kind of long term research to be conducted. And they actually conclude with the statement that smokers who turn to E-Cigarettes to quit smoking will actually see substantial improvements in their oral health.

You can read their article in full by following this link

I hope this article has served a purpose to you and helped you understand a bit more on whether or not vaping is bad for your teeth or not. We know smoking certainly is, but it looks as though Vaping isn’t as bad as it’s being made out to be. And it’s not just me saying that, trust what the experts say!