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Just two years after the vapeing revolution and the mass branding of e-cigarettes as a healthier alternative to smoking tobacco, it already turns out that these allegations are unfounded and were just a marketing ploy to get people addicted to a different kind of harmful substance. Not only have many people contracted “popcorn lung” from an additive in the vape juice, but it now turns out that vapeing actively destroys your soft oral tissues, and is just as bad for your oral health as tobacco. Read on to find out more.
Just as bad as tobacco
Although much less addictive and much less carcinogenic than tobacco, vapeing and e-cigarettes are very far from a perfect substitute, or even a health one, for that matter. A recent study in the prestigious Oncotarget journal (one of the leading journals on oncology and cancer prevention) has shown that as far as oral health is concerned, vapeing is just as bad as tobacco. This is because vape juice, or the liquid that is vaporized in e-cigarettes and then inhaled contains nicotine, the prime addictive ingredient in conventional cigarettes. The other problem is that the flavouring agents used in e-cigarettes are extremely unhealthy, and can contribute to tooth loss, oral cancer and a number of respiratory illnesses as well, not to mention the less severe but much more common problems associated with smoker’s mouth: drying of the tissues, periodontitis and gum recession.
Damaging the oral tissue
Researchers at the University of Rochester decided to test the vape against regular tobacco. They gave smokers e-cigarettes to use, and found that their tissues were adversely affected, just as if they would have been smoking. The cells in the soft tissues were damage just as badly as by cigarette smoke. After testing different kinds of vapours to see which ones were the most harmful, they realised that menthol flavoured vape was the worst, as it damaged the tissues the most and exacerbated the problems caused by the nicotine present in the vape juice.
Although marketed as a healthier alternative, e-cigarettes are just as bad for you as regular tobacco, and many of the associated health effects are not yet known, and may only be seen later on, but the initial results show nothing promising.
