We all are aware of harmful effects of smoking but still many continue to do so and the most common problem they face is discoloration of teeth. Since it is not easy to remove the smoking stains so recently, a research was conducted at British American Tobacco where scientists compared a novel e-cigarette (EC), a tobacco heating product (THP) and a conventional cigarette for their impact on teeth enamel staining.
The result was that people who use E- cigarettes have less stain on teeth than the ones who smoke conventional cigarettes.
This research was done on enamel block of bovine teeth; the enamel was mixed with saliva to create a pellicle layer. The scientists used different types of smoke like EC, BAT’s THP glo, and a reference cigarette (3R4F) to test the effects of each one of them on the teeth. The enamel was observed for 14 days and all the states before, during and after the treatment were compared.
The major change that the researchers saw was when they increased the smoke of conventional cigarette; the stain was also getting darker each day. Whereas, when they did same with the electronic one only a minor change was spotted which did not even needed any treatment.
According to the American Journal of Dentistry studies the conventional cigarettes leads to more staining because they release more harmful aerosol and vapour as compared to the electronic ones.
“Many studies have postulated that it is the tar in cigarette smoke that stains teeth. We now have a method where we can rapidly assess in the laboratory the level of enamel discoloration by cigarette smoke and vapour from our ECs and THPs,” explained Annette Dalrymple, a senior scientist at BAT R&D.
He also added “The data generated from this study clearly shows that the EC and THP assessed caused minimal discoloration–very promising for consumers of our NGPs. However, further studies are required to understand the long-term effect on teeth staining and oral health when smokers switch to using NGPs,”.
