Vaping Stains Teeth, But To A Lesser Extent Than Smoking

While prior research has shown that smoking cigarettes will stain your teeth, the findings of new study carried out by the research and development arm of British American Tobacco (BAT) appears to suggest that vaping will stain them too, just not as bad.

Vapor And Smoke Stained Teeth — The top row of teeth seen here were exposed to smoke extract, the second row exposed to e-cig extract, the third to Glo extract, and the fourth to solvent with no extract. (Credit: BAT)

For smokers worried about staining their teeth, this might just be one more reason to make the switch over to vaping. And for reference, it is the tar contained with cigarette smoke that discolors teeth, not the nicotine itself, which is also found in the e-liquid used in electronic cigarettes.

In the study, the results of which were presented at the annual American Association for Dental Research conference in Florida earlier this year, BAT researchers exposed the teeth of cows–which were polished with sandpaper and then incubated in human saliva at body temperature in order to create surface closer to that of human tooth–to a puffing robot’s smoke and vapor.

The vapor was produced by a Glo, a BAT brand heat-not-burn (HNB) tobacco product, and a prototype Vype e-cigarette, which was then collected with a filter pad before being extracted and applied to the teeth via an incubation process.

After just one day of exposure, the teeth exposed to smoke began to change color. Over the course of 14 days, these smoke exposed teeth became increasingly dark.

Interestingly, the study also found that the teeth exposed to vapor did change in color, as was measured by the researchers using a special camera designed to detect minuscule changes in hue. Which is to say that based on the study’s findings, vapor, like smoke, may cause discoloration of teeth — although not to the degree that smoke discolors teeth.