Periodontitis, electronic cigarettes could favor it

Electronic cigarettes could favor the appearance of periodontitis even in the absence of other risk factors for this dangerous and widespread gum disease that affects more than 5 million Italians in its most severe forms and which, if left untreated, can lead to tooth loss , in addition to being correlated with serious systemic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
    In fact, a study published in the journal Science Advances and conducted by Ohio State University's Purnima Kumar shows that young, healthy, normal-weight individuals with no risk factors for periodontitis, but e-cigarette smokers, have a composition of the microbiota of the mouth (the set of bacteria that colonize the oral cavity) completely indistinguishable from that typical of a patient with periodontitis.
    The study involved a total of 123 healthy and periodontitis-free individuals, including 25 smokers, 25 non-smokers, 20 e-cigarette smokers, 25 ex-smokers who currently use e-cigarettes, 28 smokers who also use e-cigarettes. The experts analyzed plaque samples extracted from the mouth of the volunteers and saw that the gums of those who smoked e-cigarettes, even just for a few months, had an abnormal immune-inflammatory response and important alterations in the composition of the oral bacterial flora, in favor of periodontal-pathogenic bacteria, typical of severe periodontitis. Experts also found that changes in the microenvironment of the oral cavity occur very quickly among smokers of electronic cigarettes (even if they have only been in use for a few months) and that they are closely related not so much to the concentrations of nicotine used, as to those of glycerol and glycol present in liquids used in electronic cigarettes, with the function of vaporizing excipient and to dilute nicotine.
    Experts point out that based on their results the use of e-cigarettes could be seen as an independent risk factor for periodontitis.
    "The conclusions that we can draw from this study - underlines in an interview with ANSA Nicola Marco Sforza, elected president of the Italian Society of Periodontology and Implantology (SIdP) - are very significant because they tell us that the smoke of electronic cigarettes actually produces the same effects on the inflammatory response and on the balance of the oral microbiota of the traditional one, therefore representing an independent risk factor for periodontitis. Of course - he continues - further longitudinal studies are needed to confirm the results of this study and to fully evaluate the effects on the health of the gums and the systemic health deriving from electronic cigarettes; moreover, given the increasing diffusion, it would be very useful to investigate the "periodontal" response also towards other digital smoking modes, such as devices that use heated tobacco (HTC); from the first researches such devices would seem deter undermine a lower risk to human health than traditional smoking. As a periodontist - concludes Sforza - I would be very interested in being able to have confirmations also on the health of the gums ".