Background Smoking is a significant health hazard and contributes to cardiovascular
and pulmonary diseases. It can increase postoperative complications during oral and
maxillofacial surgery due to its topical effect on the oral mucosa. New alternatives
to traditional tobacco products are gaining popularity, in particular, electronic
cigarettes. Objectives This pilot study investigated the acute effects of nicotine-containing
and nicotine-free electronic cigarettes on palatal blood flow (PBF), and compared
their effects to traditional cigarettes. Materials and methods 14 medically healthy
volunteers (8 males, 6 females, age: 34.7 ± 7.0) were recruited for the study. All
patients (N = 14) were requested to smoke nicotine-containing (ECN) and nicotine-free
electronic cigarettes (EC0) and a mouthpiece (end of a traditional cigarette) as a
control sham smoking blind test (BT). EC users did not smoke a traditional cigarette
(TC), resulting in 10 people in the TC group. Palatal blood flow was measured by Laser
Speckle Contrast Imager before, immediately after, and 15 min after the exposures.
Exhaled carbon monoxide (eCO) and carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) were measured before and
immediately after smoking with a piCO+ Smokerlyzer machine. Results In all groups,
no significant differences were observed in the changes of palatal blood flow between
time points. Exhaled carbon monoxide and carboxyhemoglobin were significantly higher
in the traditional cigarette (TC) group compared to the nicotine-containing electronic
cigarette (ECN) and nicotine-free electronic cigarette (EC0) groups, both before and
after the exposure (p < 0.05). Conclusion Acute use of either traditional or electronic
cigarettes may have minimal impact on palatal blood flow, but additional studies are
required to clarify their impact on the mucosa.
