vapours tongue

[Lora1982]

Ive seen this mentioned a few times what exactly are you all on about? :-D its been 10 days I dont have a particularly dry mouth or anything, what is it?

I had this for about ten days, it was awful! My sense of taste/smell went very odd: some things I couldn't smell or taste at all including my vaporiser. I think I was really dehydrated and possibly my senses were sorting themselves out after the shock of giving up smoking. Now I'm drinking a lot of water and I can taste my juices again. I think it's a fairly common phenomenon among newbie vapers, nothing to worry about as long as you up your water intake to combat the dehydration.

I wonder why it dehydrates you then considering the water vapour.

It isn't actually water vapour Lora, it's glycol vapour (propylene and/or vegetable). These are safe products used in foods and inhalers like asthma ones.

I think "Vaper's Tongue" has a combination of causes. The PG/VG may have some effect on some people, I know that asthma inhalers can sometimes give a dry mouth. As pure speculation on my part, with nothing to back it up, I'm thinking that maybe the delivery method of the nicotine itself - in vapour droplets rather than in smoke - may cause vaper's tongue? A possible third factor is that you're starting to de-tox, and the body likes to have plenty of water so it can flush all the toxins out - that's why you should always drink a lot after a massage for example.

But mainly I think it's the body adjusting to not having poisons inhaled all the time, not having taste buds murdered, not having to ignore the ashy stink you lived in before. Takes some people longer than others to adjust. I never noticed drinking more, then again I drink more liquids than anyone I know.

As I understand it (never having experienced it myself) vaper's tongue is when everything you vape just tastes a bit off. I think you're right Allergic that there are a variety of causes.

• Glycerine - especially PG - is hygroscopic, which means it attracts water. This is why it can cause a dry mouth.

• I think sometimes it's possible to just overstimulate your sense of taste. Lots of people recommend brushing your teeth or vaping a strong menthol to kind of 'reset' your taste buds.

• There was some interesting stuff on one of the long vapers threads. Some people found that lowering the nicotine strength cured it, so it might just be your body telling you the nic's too high.