Dangers of Vaping

**Title: The Dangers of Vaping for Your Teeth**

*Periodontal Issues:* Vaping might lead to increased destruction of the periodontium, which can cause periodontitis—the inflammation of gums and bone around teeth.

*Oral Microbiome:* Vaping alters the microbial environment in your mouth, which will definitely have effects. It shares similarities with traditional smoking, which raises concerns about oral health, although there isn't enough evidence to know for sure how it will affect people long term.

*Orthodontic Concerns:* Vaping components, like THC, could slow orthodontic tooth movement by limiting bone resorption. However, these studies are in animals. More research is needed to understand the full extent of this impact.

*Nicotine's Effects:* Nicotine in vaping can speed up orthodontic tooth movement by promoting bone loss and root resorption.

*Dry Mouth Trouble:* Both vaping and smoking can cause dry mouth, leading to insufficient saliva production. Saliva is crucial for neutralizing acids and preventing cavities. So far, evidence shows vaping is even worse than smoking for dry mouth (aka xerostomia).

*Is it more harmful than smoking? Why? What damage can vaping do to your teeth and overall oral health?*

*Cancer Concerns:* Although research on cancer risks is not fully clear yet, there's a cause for concern about vaping's potential to trigger cancerous changes over time, similar to traditional smoking. This is based on basic and molecular science which shows changes in the cells. However, since it took 20 years of following study subjects for tobacco smoke to show an increase in cancer rates, we will likely have to wait a similar time frame before we know the effects of vaping on cancer.

*Conclusion:* In short, we can't be 100% sure on the effects of long-term vaping until we've had long term studies evaluating vaping. We don't have those because vaping is still relatively new -- we haven't had lifelong vapers to follow and study yet. However, it has some similar components to smoking, which suggests it will likely have at least some of the similar effects.