​Scientists who've taken the first look at bacteria in young and healthy vapers' mouths say that the potential for future disease lies just below the surface.

The collection of oral bacteria in daily e-cigarette users' mouths is teeming with potent infection-causing organisms that put vapers at substantial risk for ailments ranging from gum disease to cancer, researchers found.

Though they didn't have active disease, participants' oral bacteria composition resembled that of people with periodontitis, a gum infection that can lead to tooth loss and, left untreated, is a risk factor for heart and lung disease.

The damaging effects were seen with or without nicotine, leading the scientists to believe that the heated and pressurised liquids in e-cigarette cartridges are likely the key culprit in transforming vapers' mouths into a welcoming home for a dangerous combination of microbes.

'Vaping is such a big assault on the oral environment, and the change happens dramatically and over a short period of time,' said Purnima Kumar, professor of periodontology at The Ohio State University and senior author of the study.

Even long-time current and former cigarette smokers in the study, whose tobacco habit would have given disease-causing microbes easier access to the mouth, had the more damaging oral profiles linked to vaping after only three to 12 months of e-cigarette use.

Kumar said this finding calls into question claims that vaping reduces the harm caused by smoking.

'If you stop smoking and start vaping instead, you don't move back toward a healthy bacterial profile but shift up to the vaping profile,' she said. 'Knowing the vaping profile is pathogen-rich, you're not doing yourself any favors by using vaping to quit smoking.'

The research is published in the journal Science Advances.

The researchers collected plaque samples from under the gums of 123 people who showed no current signs of oral disease: 25 smokers, 25 non-smokers, 20 e-cigarette users, 25 former smokers using e-cigarettes and 28 people maintaining both cigarette smoking and vaping habits at the same time.

The bacteria below the gums are the last line of defense against disease because they are the least likely to be disrupted by environmental changes in the mouth, such as food, toothpaste and tobacco.

Kumar and colleagues conducted DNA deep sequencing of the bacteria genomes to identify not just the types of microbes living in those mouths, but also what their functions were.

The profile of the oral microbiome in the vapers who had never smoked, who were young (age 21-35) and healthy and had used e-cigarettes for four to 12 months, was startling to the researchers.


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