by Alyssa LeClair
Vape, pens, puff, Juul, mod, and stick. These are all names that electronic cigarettes “e-cigarettes” can go by.
Over the past fifteen years, e-cigarettes have gained popularity amongst cigarette smokers and the non-cigarette smoking U.S. youth. With the increase of popularity, e-cigarette aerosols are now posing a risk to oral health.
A common misconception is that the use of e-cigarettes is a “healthier” way of inhaling nicotine. E-cigarette aerosols can not only alter the natural microflora of the mouth but can also increase bacterial growth. This can make e-cigarette users more prone to tooth decay, periodontal diseases, oral inflammation, and infection. According to a study done by the New York University College of Dentistry (Pushalkar et al., 2020), it was found that there was a higher rate of infection or periodontal disease in e-cigarette users compared to non-smokers.
Both traditional tobacco cigarettes and many e-cigarettes contain nicotine, an addictive toxic chemical found in tobacco plants, which restricts blood flow to the periodontal support structures.
In 2018, Juul, which advertised different fruity flavors, supplied 75% of the e-cigarette market. This helped pave the way for many of today's users to become addicted to vaping and nicotine. During this period of increased e-cigarette popularity in the youth, there was a drastic decrease in cigarette smoking rates. Juul’s older packaging did not disclose the 40mg of nicotine contained in their products, not to mention that one pod is equivalent to one pack of cigarettes.
In September 2018, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued over one thousand warning letters to suppliers of Juul for selling to underage youth. This led Juul and a few other well known e-cigarette companies to eventually pull fruity flavored products from the shelves, put nicotine content on packaging, and to stop promoting their products to the youth.
The youth e-cigarette epidemic is still a current issue. Due to there not being a federal ban, many states are banning the sales of flavored e-cigarettes and/or raising the age-limit of tobacco sales to 21. Five out of the fifty states have a flavor ban, while six others only have a ban against online sales of the flavored products.
As of May 2020, the state of New York has banned the sales of flavored e-cigarettes including menthol. The New York State Department of Health released in September of 2021 that the New York State’s youth smoking rate is now below 3%, compared to 4.2% in 2019.
Orielle Volk, 22, of Long Island, N.Y. is a D1 at the New York University College of Dentistry. She has seen a decline in vaping amongst her friends.
“I think more and more people have realized the impact of vaping on health,” said Volk. “Once the government gets involved and tells the public something is bad, people begin to start taking it seriously.”
A study published in iScience showed that 43% of e-cigarette users had an infection in the mouth or some type of periodontal disease. This is an alarming number. New York has seen a decrease in nicotine addiction, which will hopefully translate into fewer patients needing dental care and decreased e-cigarette usage.
Sources:
Park-Lee E, Ren C, Sawdey MD, et al. Notes from the Field: E-Cigarette Use Among Middle and High School Students — National Youth Tobacco Survey, United States, 2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2021;70:1387–1389. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7039a4
E-cigarettes: Facts, stats and regulations. Truth Initiative Retrieved from https://truthinitiative.org/research-resources/emerging-tobacco-products/e-cigarettes-facts-stats-and-regulations
Pushalkar, S., Paul, B., Li, Q., Yang, J., Vasconcelos, R., Makwana, S., González, J. M., Shah, S., Xie, C., Janal, M. N., Queiroz, E., Bederoff, M., Leinwand, J., Solarewicz, J., Xu, F., Aboseria, E., Guo, Y., Aguallo, D., Gomez, C., … Saxena, D. (2020). Electronic cigarette aerosol modulates the oral microbiome and increases risk of infection. IScience, 23(3), 100884. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2020.100884
Department of Health. The New York State Tobacco Control Program (NYS TCP). Retrieved from https://www.health.ny.gov/prevention/tobacco_control/program_components.htm
FDA. Smoke and Vape - - 09/12/2018. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Retrieved from https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/warning-letters/smoke-and-vape-09122018
Irusa, K. F., Vence, B., & Donovan, T. (2020). Potential oral health effects of e‐cigarettes and vaping: A review and case reports. Journal of Esthetic and Restorative Dentistry, 32(3), 260–264. https://doi.org/10.1111/jerd.12583
Communications, N. Y. U. W. (2020, February 26). Vaping changes oral microbiome, increasing risk for infection. NYU. Retrieved from https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2020/february/vaping-changes-oral-microbiome.html
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