Did you know that half of all British people are unhappy with their teeth for one reason or another? One of the most common reasons why people don’t like their teeth has to do with tooth discolouration. Teeth can become discoloured for various reasons, but does vaping stain your teeth at all?
It’s common knowledge that traditional cigarettes can turn your teeth and nails yellow, but what about vaping? More than that, does vaping produce any other dental issues that you should know about? Keep reading and learn more about vaping and your oral health.
Does Vaping Stain Your Teeth?
If you vape, you might be asking yourself questions like, “Will my dentist know I vape?” or “Can vaping stain my teeth?” The first thing you should know is that vaping is very different compared to smoking cigarettes, and this includes the way vaping affects your oral health. Even though they both contain tobacco, they will not affect your oral health in the same way.
For example, cigarettes will stain your teeth because of the tar they produce when they burn. This tar is the main culprit when it comes to yellow teeth and fingernails. Once these nicotine tar stains take hold, they can be very difficult to get rid of.
The thing with vapes is that they do not contain tar, of course, because they do not contain tobacco leaves. Some vapes don’t even contain nicotine. Instead, the vapour that comes from vapes originates from a cartridge full of vape juice. When you inhale from a vape, the vape juice heats up thanks to a heating element inside the device.
Vaping is very different to smoking cigarettes, which definitely does stain your teeth
When this happens, the vape juice will become vapour that you can then inhale and exhale. This should not stain your teeth or fingernails as a real cigarette would. Some people find that vaping makes their teeth discoloured, but, in reality, teeth stains vaping is unlikely.
The Details
If you think that your teeth are becoming discoloured due to vaping, it is likely due to another cause such as drinking coffee or other substances that contain strong pigments. If you have switched from smoking cigarettes to vapes, it will take some time for the discolouration from the cigarettes to go away.
You might even have to go to your dentist for some professional teeth whitening treatments to get your teeth to look how they used to. Even though vaping does not discolour your teeth, you might be wondering if vaping can cause any other kind of oral health problems.
As mentioned before, cigarettes and vapes are not the same, so they won’t cause the same oral health problems. However, this doesn’t mean that switching from cigarettes to vapes will completely save you from vaping oral health problems. Vaping still affects your mouth in a certain way and can change the level of moisture in your mouth, among other things.
In particular, vaping plays a big part in the strains of bacteria that live in your mouth.
Vaping and Your Oral Health
Is vaping bad for oral health, you might ask? It depends on a variety of factors such as how often you vape. If you only vape once in a while, this is unlikely to produce much of a change in your oral health.
On the other hand, if you vape every day and several times a day, you will be more likely to suffer from certain oral health problems. As mentioned before, vaping can cause bacterial changes in your mouth. The bacteria in your mouth play a big part when it comes to certain oral health problems such as tooth decay, gum disease, and cavities.
For example, when you don’t brush your teeth after eating, the bacteria in your mouth will consume whatever food particles are left over on your teeth. Then, the bacteria will produce acid as a byproduct which will slowly eat away at your tooth enamel. Tooth enamel is the strongest substance in the human body, but even so, this acid can eat away at it until it is left very thin and weak.
This can contribute to tooth sensitivity, tooth decay, and cavities. The same bacteria can produce plaque. Plaque is a sticky substance that covers the teeth and, if left untreated, can turn into tartar.
What You Need to Know
Tartar is a very hard substance that is difficult to remove. It tends to occur between teeth and at the base of your teeth where it can irritate your gums and cause gum disease. The problem with vaping is that it increases the number of bacteria in your mouth.
Some e-cigarettes have sweet flavours. While the vape itself won’t have sugar in it, the aerosols it produces can have similar characteristics to sugar. This is much like bathing your teeth in a solution of acid and sugar.
If you vape very often and don’t take good care of your teeth, you could easily end up with tooth decay and cavities. This would greatly compromise your oral health and, if left untreated, could make chewing food and talking quite painful. In some cases, you could develop a tooth infection which could seriously damage your teeth and even lead to tooth loss if you’re not careful.
Another problem that vaping causes is mouth dryness. Vapes contain several chemicals that can affect your mouth’s ability to produce saliva. Mild mouth dryness might not cause many problems, but you may see more issues if the mouth dryness worsens.
In particular, a dry mouth can cause bad breath which can be hard to get rid of. More than that, if your mouth is very dry for a long period, you might even develop mouth sores which could increase your chance of getting an infection.
Fortunately, there are several ways in which you can take care of your teeth to make sure that vaping-related oral health problems don’t occur.
How to Take Good Care of Your Oral Health
If you don’t want to quit vaping, you should at least try to limit the amount at which you vape. Vaping all day, every day, won’t do much to improve your oral health. But if you cut back to vaping once a day or once every other day, you will see that your oral health will start to improve in no time.
This will help to balance out the levels of bacteria in your mouth so that gum disease and tooth decay will be less of an issue. Mouth dryness also shouldn’t be so much of an issue for you either. Brushing your teeth regularly, of course, is very important and is the foundation of good oral health.
You should aim to brush your teeth at least twice a day if not after each time you eat a meal. This will ensure that the bacteria in your mouth don’t have the chance to start producing acid that will result in tooth decay. Brushing your teeth will also remove any plaque that you might have on your teeth.
Plaque is soft enough to be removed with the bristles of a toothbrush, but once it turns into tartar, you’ll need to go to a dentist to get it removed. Flossing is something that many people know they should do but don’t usually do it.
Keeping Your Mouth Healthy
Flossing is also important for keeping tartar at bay. It reaches the crevices of your teeth where your toothbrush can’t reach. This is important for preventing cavities that are hard to reach as well as gum disease.
If your gums bleed the first few times that you floss, this means that your gums are slightly inflamed. This is normal. After a few days of flossing, you will notice that your gums will no longer bleed and that they will be pinker and firmer than before.
This means that your gum health has greatly improved. Of course, seeing your dentist regularly is also very important. Your dentist will tell you more about the state of your dental health and how vaping may be affecting it. Your dentist will also treat any oral health issues you may be suffering from at the moment such as discoloured teeth, cavities, or tooth decay.
As long as you take good care of your teeth, you shouldn’t have to worry about any oral health problems.
Vaping and Your Teeth
Does vaping stain your teeth? While cigarettes have a reputation to stain teeth, vaping does not do the same thing. However, vaping may cause certain oral health problems such as dry mouth and tooth decay.
As long as you take good care of your teeth and visit your dentist regularly, your mouth should be in good shape. To learn more about dental services, contact us here.