27 July 2023 , 10:18
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In the past 20 years, smoking e-cigarettes, or vaping, has risen dramatically in popularity as an alternative to smoking tobacco. But this has sparked health concerns, with many not knowing for sure the long-term damage that vaping may have on the lungs. And of course, concerns are rising about the number of children that are attracted to disposable vapes due to the bright colours, and enticing flavours.
Dr McKean, a doctor at the Great North Children's Hospital in Newcastle, said they were seeing a rising number of children developing dangerous lung conditions related to vaping. And a dentist has taken to his TikTok account to share a new phenomenon, named 'vape tongue'.
Dr Stewart took to TikTok to caption his video: "Do you vape? You might have vaper's tongue." He explained: "Vape tongue is when you start to lose your taste because you've been vaping so much, and this is really on the rise because of the popularity of these disposable vapes which have all these ridiculous flavours."
Symptoms of 'vaper's tongue' include a numb tongue, failure to taste your vape flavour or even experiencing an unpleasant taste from your vape. It can even impact your taste generally, meaning you cannot taste food properly. According to Fisher Pointe Dental: "Vaping can also cause a stuffy nose and negatively impact your ability to smell, and being able to smell goes hand in hand with your ability to taste."
"People end up absolutely caning these vapes and it causes such a massive increase in nicotine and a really really dry mouth that you lose your sense of taste completely sometimes."
They look and taste like sweets - no wonder underage vaping is sweeping Britain
But he did share that it's not all doom and gloom, as when you "start to cut down the vaping", your taste comes back - but he shared it's: "Really, really, really not good for your health", so it's best to not vape in the first place.
He then shared that in order to get rid of it, the best thing is to quit or cut down, also explaining that it can be linked to "dehydration", adding people should drink more water to get rid of the dry mouth. "Clean your tongue, brush your teeth, floss, use a tongue scraper", he also recommended.
In the comments, people were shocked that vaping could cause you to not be able to taste things properly, with one saying: "That's scary." Someone else wrote: "I don't have that but the rest of my mouth is dry and peeling 24/7. I assume that's from vaping."
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