- Researchers say they’ve discovered that vaping and
smoking cause changes in the mouth’s microbiome.
- Those changes can lead to an increased risk of
infection, inflammation, and gum disease.
- It’s the latest research that links oral health to the overall health of the body.
Vaping e-cigarettes could induce changes to
the composition of the mouth’s microbiome, leading to increased risks of
inflammation, gum disease, and infection.
That’s the conclusion of a study published today from the New
York University College of Dentistry.
Researchers looked at a group of more than 100 cigarette
smokers, e-cigarette users, and nonsmokers.
They found that smokers and e-cigarette users had significantly
higher rates of gum disease and infection — 73 percent and 43 percent,
respectively —than nonsmokers, who had a 28 percent rate of disease.
The researchers then used saliva samples from study participants
to investigate what was driving these rates of disease and infection.
They found that smoking and e-cigarette use led to bacterial
changes in the mouth, including increased levels of two different types of
bacteria in e-cigarette users known to cause periodontal disease.
Just like in the gut, the composition of the microbiome in your
mouth affects your propensity for infection and other diseases.
In general, healthier bacteria leads to healthier outcomes.
The bacterial changes among vapers indicate that there will be a
favorable environment for opportunistic pathogens to grow more in the mouth
much faster, as compared to the good bacteria [normally there] and change the
whole microenvironment, which may be which may further lead to other
complications.
The pathogens that are
known to be the most aggressive are all anaerobic, which means they thrive in
an oral environment without the presence of oxygen. The dry oral environment
and presence of nicotine, which reduces blood supply and oxygen levels, help
create an environment that allows these bacteria to proliferate at an increased
rate.
The mouth’s health is a leading indicator of other health
complications.
Essentially, vaping creates and promotes an environment that
allows the impact of these bacteria to be exacerbated and further promote
complications associated with poor periodontal health such as increased risk
for cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, dementia, stroke, heart attacks,
respiratory infections that can lead to pneumonia, osteopenia, rheumatoid arthritis,
uncontrolled diabetes, and even preterm or low birth weight babies as well as
exposing the fetus to infections.
The reality, is that the microbiome changes might not just be
happening in the mouth — it’s simply harder to test the microbiome of the lungs,
for instance — but equally possible these changes are happening elsewhere.
This may be happening down the respiratory tract or the GI
tract, which we don’t know because there is no data available. Anybody who is
planning to start using e-cigarettes, use with the caution that this can happen
in the mouth. This can happen in the lungs. This can happen in the skin or
nostrils or other places also.
According to the new study, traditional cigarette smokers still
had significantly higher levels of infection and inflammation than vapers, but
nothing beats stopping smoking altogether for oral health.
While some people vape as a way to smoke less frequently or
smoke “healthier,” that assumption of lower health risks has been thrown into
contention as more studies into the health effects of vaping surface.
Recent research shows negative health consequences of vaping may
include cell dysfunction, damage to DNA, and compromised cardiovascular health.
In addition, most of those studies pre-date the appearance of
a mysterious vaping-related
respiratory illness that emerged last year.
Part of this is simply because e-cigarettes have not been on the
market long, so scientists don’t have a full understanding of all their effects,
Saxena said.
Research has shown how interconnected the mouth and the rest of
the body are.
The oral bacteria that cause gum disease have been found in the
clots of both stroke and heart attack victims, showing they enter the
bloodstream from diseased gum tissue and cause damage elsewhere in the body.
Because it is so common, the infection and inflammation from
untreated gum disease is one of the most studied connections between poor oral
and overall health risks.
Experts say if you want to have a healthier oral microbiome and
better overall health, there is a simple solution: Stop smoking, whether that’s
vaping or cigarettes.
The microbiome is reversible. So, if you stop now and the cells
are not in stress and there is a good saliva production, the oral ecology will
become normal again.
