Gerrard Kaonga
As vapes become more popular, experts are becoming more aware of some of their drawbacks and side effects.
While many people are encouraged to pick up vaping rather than smoking due to the fact they do not contain the same toxins as cigarettes, they aren’t exactly healthy.
In fact, as they have become more common place, more research is going into the long-term and short-term health impacts they have, especially on young people.
Advert
Due to young people being particularly fond of vapes, the UK government is moving to ban single use vapes from June later this year.
In the mean time, a health expert on TikTok has advised people who vape regularly to cut back ahead of this deadline.
Dr Stewart Beggs, a cosmetic and restorative dentist based in London, explained that those overindulging in vaping may get ‘vape tongue’.
He explained that one of the lesser known side effects is losing the ability to taste and dull a person’s taste buds.
On vape tongue, experts at Healthline, noted: "While there isn’t much published scientific information about the condition, there appears to be plenty of anecdotal evidence supporting it, as dentists and other healthcare practitioners have taken to social media to warn about it.
"They are urging e-cigarette users to stop or drastically cut down their usage if they have experienced this side effect."
In the video, Dr Beggs said: “So 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 flavors.
“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.
Thankfully, Dr Beggs explained that there are simple things to counteract this side effect as he insisted it would only be temporary.
He said: “First thing, stop vaping or really cut down your vaping because that is really gonna help.”
This one is kind of self-explanatory, if vapes can cause you to have vape tongue, not vaping anymore might reduce that side effect.
He added: “Second thing, it can be linked to dehydration so start to drink more water and make sure you are fully hydrated. Just to see if that helps.”
When it comes to most health issues, it does really help to be better hydrated, and according to Dr Beggs, ensuring you are hydrated can help alleviate the side effect.
He also said: “Also clean your tongue, brush your teeth, floss, use a tongue scraper and see how much that helps.”
Dr Beggs added that, overall, better dental hygiene can also help - so get to brushing.
He closed by saying: “If this helps, cut down how much you are vaping because you don’t want to get vaper’s tongue back because you want to taste your food.”