Taking care of your Oral Health isn’t just your dentist’s job. There are many things you can do to protect your oral health, reducing the risk of cavities, gum disease, and other serious complications. You can practice good oral hygiene, flossing every day and brushing at least twice a day. Plus, you can make your regular dental visits for professional cleanings and checkups that can head off oral health problems before they get too serious. Perhaps most importantly, though, you can try to quit–or at least reduce–habits that can damage your oral health. 

Increasingly, it looks like e-cigarettes are one of these habits that might be very bad for your teeth and gums. To protect your oral health, you should consider stopping using e-cigarettes. If you are using them, though, you should always make your regular dental checkups to protect your oral health. If you are overdue for a checkup in North Las Vegas, dentist Dr. James B. Polley would like to welcome you to his office in Summerlin. 

How E-Cigarettes Impact Oral Health

At first, we thought e-cigarettes, also known as vaping, might be a healthier alternative to smoking tobacco cigarettes. We don’t yet have evidence that e-cigarettes are as bad as or worse than tobacco cigarettes, but it seems that every new study reveals more negative effects of vaping. 

Currently, the oral health risks linked to e-cigarettes include the following:

• Gum disease
• Oral lesions
• Cavities
• Oral cancer

The level of verified risk for each of these conditions varies. We’ll explain each individually so you can understand the limits of our knowledge about risks. However, the best way to understand your personal risk is to schedule an appointment with Las Vegas dentist Dr. Polley. 

E-Cigarettes and Gum Disease

Gum disease is possibly the most serious oral health problem you will face in your life. Gum disease is the leading cause of tooth loss among adults. Not only that but gum disease is linked to numerous serious health conditions beyond your mouth, including:

• Diabetes
• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Rheumatoid arthritis and other auto-immune disorders
• Dementia
• Cancer

For most of these conditions, the link is strong and supported by numerous clinical studies. For some of the others, though, the connection is currently at the level of simple association. For almost all these cases, it seems as if gum disease increases the risk of these conditions. For cancer, though, the two conditions seem to occur together, but we don’t explicitly have the ability to prove with 95% certainty that gum disease causes it. 

We do have significant evidence that e-cigarettes contribute to gum disease risk. People who use e-cigarettes are significantly more likely to have gum disease than those who do not smoke or use other nicotine products. In addition, people who use e-cigarettes demonstrate several gum disease symptoms and traits, such as increased plaque, deeper periodontal pockets around teeth, and loss of bone in the jaws. 

E-Cigarettes and Oral Lesions

Oral lesions are mouth ulcers and sores. They may be painful and can sometimes be related to various diseases. Sometimes they are precursors of conditions like oral cancer.

E-cigarettes have been linked to multiple oral lesions, including:

• Nicotine stomatitis
• Angular cheilitis
• Hairy tongue

Nicotine stomatitis, also known as smoker’s palate, has been described in the literature since at least 1926. In this condition, the upper palate gets a speckled appearance. It may be mildly irritating or completely without discomfort. It’s not related to nicotine; it’s caused by the heat of e-cigarettes and some chemical reactions that take place in the mouth of smokers. So, you may experience this even if you vape nicotine-free cartridges. 

Angular cheilitis are sores that appear at the corners of your mouth. They’re often linked to infections, and they can be painful and unattractive. 

A hairy tongue occurs when the papillae on the tongue–like short tentacles–grow longer because they grow harder and don’t wear off as they should. It makes the tongue look hairy or sometimes scaly as the ranks of papillae separate as your tongue curves. The tongue can turn dark in color, may make you gag, or might lead to a persistent metallic or foul taste. In addition, the long papillae can trap food debris and oral bacteria, leading to persistent bad breath.

E-Cigarettes and Cavities

We don’t yet have enough evidence to say for sure that people who use e-cigarettes have a higher risk of cavities. However, the information is certainly pointing that way. Increased cavity risk might come from sugar in e-cigarettes or from dry mouth and acidification of the oral environment, similar to what people experience when smoking tobacco cigarettes. 

E-Cigarettes and Oral Cancer

We do not currently have enough long-term data to show that e-cigarettes can be linked to increased cancer risk. Cancer can take years–even decades–to develop after exposure to harmful stimuli. E-cigarettes really entered the US in 2007, so there just hasn’t been enough time to establish the level of cancer risk people experience from e-cigarettes. 

However, we do know that e-cigarettes expose users to high levels of toxins, including known carcinogens, in levels higher than those deemed safe in other contexts. It is likely that future research will demonstrate that e-cigarettes are associated with an elevated risk of oral cancer, possibly in addition to other cancers. 

Protect Your Oral Health in Las Vegas

If you are looking for a Las Vegas dentist who can help you protect your oral health, schedule an appointment with Dr. James B. Polley. He focuses on thorough preventive care, as well as innovative treatments to protect your oral health. For example, CariFree is a powerful approach to preventing cavities that can be especially effective for people at high risk. In addition, he utilizes perioscopy to improve the results of gum disease treatment. 

Please call (702) 873-0324 or use our online form to request an appointment at the office of Dr. James B. Polley, serving Las Vegas from his office in Summerlin near the Summerlin Library.