A dentist has spoken up about the popular misconception that smoking a disposable vape such as an Elf bar is the same as breathing in ‘flavoured air’. See his take on things in the video below.
Obviously, the truth is that these are nicotine products and shouldn’t be used by anyone under the age of 18 and shouldn’t be sold to anyone under that age either.
Vaping products and e-cigarettes are recommended by the NHS for people trying to quit smoking, not for people who don’t already smoke.
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Still, that doesn’t stop people buying them and smoking them habitually, and sadly that includes a fair number of people who are underage.
Anyway, TikTok dentist Dr Vikas Prinja, who goes by The London Dentist on social media, has offered a few simple reasons why using vaping products isn’t ideal for your teeth, and certainly isn’t without risks to your health.
In the TikTok video, the good doctor explained: “Smoking Geek and Elf bars are not the same as smoking flavoured air – here’s what it’s doing to your mouth.”
He continued: “They have two percent nicotine salts, which is equivalent to 20 milligrams of nicotine, so they’re super addictive.
“It gets absorbed quickly and one vape bar is equivalent to 48 to 50 cigarettes, which means higher rates of gum disease and even tooth loss.
“The liquid also has propylene glycol which absorbs the moisture out of your mouth and leading to dry mouth, and this leads to higher rates of bad breath.
“The liquid also contains vegetable glycerine which makes your teeth more sticky to cavity causing bacteria leading to holes like this…”
At that point in the video, a picture appears on the screen showing a tooth with a pretty nasty looking hole right in the middle of it.
So, there you have it.
Vaping products – as we’ve covered – are a recommended product for those attempting to knock smoking cigarettes on the head, and they can be useful for that certainly.
However, they’ve become a supposedly ‘cool’ accessory for young people to carry around with them, which is neither good, nor what the products claim that they are to be used for.
Hopefully the knowledge that they are not without adverse health effects and certainly not the same as inhaling ‘flavoured air’ will convince some that they should pack the whole thing in, or convince others not to pick up the habit in the first place.
After all, a nicotine addiction is a famously difficult thing to quit.
Tom Wood