E-Cigs and Your Teeth: Should Vapers Be Worried?

Smokers have a reputation for having bad teeth. They get “nicotine stains,” people say, turning their teeth from a brilliant white into a dull yellow-brown.

Faced with comments like this, most vapers would rightly point out that nicotine in pure form is actually colourless. It seems obvious that – much like with the health risks – the problem for your teeth from smoking isn’t the nicotine, it’s the tar.

But are we actually right? Recent studies on the topic have flagged up vaping as a potential concern, and although they’re a long way from showing dental problems in real-world vapers, it is a sign that there could be issues in future.

So here’s a run-down of what we know about vaping and the teeth so far, the role of nicotine and what we can do to minimise any risk.

How Does Smoking Affect Your Teeth?

To understand the potential risks of vaping to your teeth, it makes sense to learn a bit about how smoking causes oral health issues. While there are many differences between the two – inhaling tar-laden smoke is very different from inhaling droplets of liquid – vapers and smokers are exposed to nicotine and other chemicals in a similar way.

For smokers, dental issues are more likely than they are in never-smokers or ex-smokers. For example, current smokers are four times as likely to have poor oral health compared to people who’ve never smoked, and they’re over twice as likely to have three or more oral health issues.

Smoking affects your oral health in many different ways, ranging from the yellow-brown staining and bad breath it causes through to more serious oral health issues like gum disease (technically called periodontal disease) and oral cancer. Smokers also have more tartar than non-smokers, which is a form of hardened plaque, otherwise known as calculus.

There are other effects of smoking that cause problems for your teeth, too. For instance, smoking impacts your immune system and interferes with your mouth’s ability to heal itself, both of which can exacerbate other problems caused by smoking.