Researchers at the Eastman Institute for Oral Health have linked electronic cigarette vapor with gum disease.
Fawad Javed, a co-investigator of the study, says that the use of electronic cigarettes is increasing and people might be under the wrong impression that they are far less harmful than conventional ones.
"We exposed human gum cells to the vapor and we saw that the vapor from electronic cigarettes produced the same damage to the gums and the cells, which the normal cigarette would cause," Javed says.
He hopes their study, which was published in the journal Oncotarget, will shed light on what he believes are misconceptions about electronic cigarettes.
One of the misconceptions he points out is that e-cigarettes are "awesome" or "cool" because of all the flavors available. But, he adds, "In this study, for the very first time, we showed that these artificial flavors - when they get burnt and mixed with vapor - they add to the inflammation."
