If you’ve recently switched to vaping you might have noticed that your gums are bleeding, but this never happened when you were smoking. What is going on? Now every time you brush your teeth, there’s blood.
Smoking cigarettes is vaso-constrictive, this means it makes your blood vessel- especially the peripheral ones – like your gums – tighten up – it’s like they are being squeezed every time you have a cigarette.
MRI scans of people smoking have shown the blood supply to their fingers decreases by a considerable amount, and, as mentioned the same will be happening to your gums.
So any gum disease that is there due to the smoking – (and there will be some – usually with a build up of plaque) is masked due to the vaso-constrictive effect of the tobacco.
As soon as you top smoking, your gums will bleed if there is gum disease, as the vaso constrictive effects of smoking is no longer there. The smoking has been masking your problem, so when you stop smoking, what you see is your true gum condition. The blood vessels are no longer squeezed, and they can function normally and deliver oxygen and nutrient rich blood back to your poor gums. The bleeding could be seen as a good thing – as it is telling you about the gum disease – and you can now do something about it!
The obvious first step is to visit your dentist and get a professional clean, start flossing after you clean your teeth, and definitely don’t start smoking cigarettes again.
If you leave gum disease to develop, it can eventually dissolve away your jawbone and your teeth fall out – not a good look!
Evidence – both scientific and anecdotal suggests that smokers who stop or switch, experience an increase in gum bleeding. It can take a little time for your gums to restore themselves back to normal, but well worth the wait if it prevents other problems.
So, stop smoking permanently, brush 2-3 times a day, mouthwash in between and floss twice a day, and visit your dentist – you’ve gotten rid of the fag breath- you don’t want rotten teeth instead!
i thought it was the e liquid making my breath smell like poo!!, but it is in fact the bleeding gums, you can taste the blood, time for some corsadyl mouth wash i think, and chewing gum in between for the smelly breath.
glad you found the cause, and yes – do look after your teeth and gums now you vape, they will thank you for it!
True true. Sadly I waited till I got perio problems before giving up smoking, and I noticed I bled lots at first, but over time the gums were healing. They’re way better now but I still have some effects from smokey, plus natural aging. Just one of those things.
Hi Cecillia, I have not heard of this before in the way you describe it,so i strongly suggest that you stop using the new red label, and visit your dentist. Some people are very sensitive to the proplyne glycol that is in the e-liquid and find they need to use VG based e-liquid only, and this could be the case with you.
But please stop using the red label and visit your dentist and discuss this with him/her.
TW team.
Me and my husband gave up smoking over 3 months ago now and both of us have bleeding gums, minis not as bad as his, we searched everywhere on information about vaping and bleeding gums and found nothing till we saw this article.
Many thanks now we both know we are not going crazy or the only ones suffering with this problem.
Glad we could help.
TW