Tongue burn

[XMit]

Seems like no matter how much water I drink, I get burnt tongue. Feels like after you scorch your mouth with hot coffee. Wondering if it's a flavor percentage issue or what? I use mostly VG. Seems worse at higher voltage. Vendor made, in your face flavor juice makes it worse. vaping unflavored makes a little difference but still get the burnt feeling.

Never had this issue and now that I do it seems like it won't go away?

 

[Tona Aspsusa]

What amount of nic?

"Tongue burn" is something I am very familiar with from smoking, and I noticed to my surprise that in vaping it seems to be even more related to nicotine strength than when smoking.

Now, nicotine isn't the whole story - I have vaped higher than my normal nic level in pre-made juices and been astonished at the lack of "tongue burn", and managed to get the effect in some comparatively low-nic mixes of my own. But I can say with certainty that I've never experienced it with zero-nic liquids.

I don't know what the secret is to mask or avoid this "bite" - yet...

My grandmother detested cigarettes with "tongue bite", and was very very unhappy when at some point in her early eighties her regular brand not only started tasting foul to her, but also started giving her "tongue bite".
She went to the doctor and complained. The doctor was luckily a sensible man, and understood that lecturing a healthy octogenarian on the dangers of smoking wasn't a very sensible thing to do. So after looking carefully at her mouth and throat and finding nothing amiss (and asking her to follow up with her dentist just in case), his suggestion was:
- Try another brand for a few weeks? Maybe even menthol?
And this my grandmother did. After trying a few different menthol brands, she weirdly enough settled on Newport (which *I* thought had a horrendous "tongue bite" - go figure; I think she probably settled on it because if every cig gave "tongue bite" and tasted bad, why not choose the most menthol-y and the strongest and harshest? A cig meant to be mild that tastes harsh is horrible, a cig meant to be harsher can at least be appreciated on its own merits), which she smoked for a few weeks.
After about a total of three weeks smoking menthol, she tried her own brand again. Success! No tongue bite or foul taste anymore! Hurrah for the best GP ever!

So maybe it might help you, Xmit, to let your tastebuds rest for a few weeks, and make yourself a very simple menthol-juice at as low a nic concentration you can get away with? Or try alternating unflavoured, zero-nic, with your normal vapes?

(I have a very very simple juice that I find myself vaping more and more of - as an "in between": It is 5% mint flavouring at 10mg/ml, probably about 70/30 PG/VG. About every 3rd fill of the same carto I put one drop of my weakish menthol-spirits in the carto-condom when I re-fill. This was made with a mint flavouring from Twojliquid.pl. (Who unfortunately doesn't say exactly what is in it except for "purest PG" and "original Italian components" - they do sell FA tobaccos, but insist that the non-tobacco flavourings are not re-labeled FA, I guess they might be creating these flavourings from super-concentrates - I don't know how many Italian manufacturers of flavouring/scent raw-materials there are that we as consumers have no knowledge about at all.)
Eh, point being I find myself using this mint juice, with the occasional addition of a dash of menthol (and the occasional addition of unflavoured juice) quite a lot. My mouth likes it )

 

[Tona Aspsusa]

Oh, and another thing, or a few other things:
(I am really verbose today, probably because I want to avoid some chores )

How long since you stopped smoking, or cut down significantly?

I am coming up on 7 weeks since I cut down from ~30 to 5-15 a day, and my mouth is getting more sensitive.
(Which is the last thing I need - I have totally wrecked teeth by going 25+ years without understanding, or anyone telling me that my deep aversion to brushing, flushing and putting anything besides food into my mouth is really an oral sensitivity to work around, not battle against. Finding toothpastes without astringent ingredients (like anything that makes it foam) and good brushes is slowly changing my life - with normal toothpastes my mouth always felt horrible for 30-120 minutes after brushing.)

And related: How about food and drink? Any recent changes there? Like a new favourite soda? Or consuming far less of something than previously?
Toothpastes? Mouthwashes? Those things can be *very* harsh, and those that advertise a long-lasting effect are usually the worst.

 

[Lyndagayle]

I feel your pain. In my early stages of vaping, this was a huge problem for me. It wasn't my tongue as much as the backsides of my upper gums and sometimes tongue too. It hurts! I posted this question in the health section here and got many responses. Someone said it was dry mouth so I started using Biotene toothpaste and mouth spray. That gave a little relief but I didn't really feel like my mouth was dry. I was drinking tons of water and had plenty of saliva. Someone said to rotate my PV to a different angle frequently. I tried that but didn't work. I battled it for a year or longer and then realized it stopped happening and the only thing I can think of that brought relief was lowering my nic level. In the beginning I was vaping 24-26 mg. liquid, then down to 21 mg and on down to 18. I haven't had a bout of sore mouth since I dropped to 18 mg but I can't say for certain that's what stopped it. I had fought it so long that I just accepted it as something I would have to put up with if I was going to vape. Would be worth a try to lower your nic and see if it helps. And yes, it feels just like you have scalded your mouth. Very uncomfortable!

 

[JewelzBagz]

I stumbled across this thread tonight as I'm sitting here "yuck-pooeying" because my vape is tasting like crap tonight and my tongue hurts. It started this afternoon for me. Using 2 different pvs with different juices and it's not making a difference. I've been on 6mg for about 2 weeks now, so it can't be too much nic in my case. And I have been keeping up with the water. Usually I get dry inner lips if I dont-but that is not happening. Now it's rotten tongue....

 

[Tona Aspsusa]

I feel your pain. In my early stages of vaping, this was a huge problem for me. [...]

Lyndagayle, you don't mention it, but was this something you only experienced with vaping, never with smoking?

I'm still trying to understand why I smoke medium-high nic cigs, but definitely prefer medium-lowish nic when vaping.
Everything I've read about absorbtion of nic led me to believe I would want/need higher nic in vaping, but I can't stand it. (Good thing I decided to DIY from the start - had I ordered pre-mixed high nic juices I am pretty sure I would have given it up pretty quickly!)
My working hypothesis is that I am a very inefficient smoker, but a comparatively efficient vaper - that when I smoke I probably actually don't really absorb much nic through the lungs, but through the mucous membranes of mouth/throat. And vapour is more suitable for this than smoke is, so my normal style of smoking very easily translated to "efficient vaping".

Your comment made me think: I am definitely much more susceptible to "tongue bite" from smoking than from vaping.
Which of course may be because since I still smoke, I am quite able to not tolerate too much of that from vaping, so if I start to feel that "bite" or "burn" I switch to something mild low-nic or even no-nic for at least a few puffs.

To the OP: another thing that might help a little bit is trying another type of mouthpiece. I find that the flat-tipped ego-T tanks tend to angle the stream on vapour much more down to the tongue than something round. The angle of the PV might make a difference too.

 

[Lizzebed]

This is my main issue with vaping. Seems to be the nicotine, certain flavors and warmth of the vapor.

Lower nicotine helps, vg helps, adding something that tones down the harsher notes in a flavor helps as well (vape wizard by Flavorart, Sharp Taste by Inawera) and not using cartomizers with the coil on top, and no-lr devices helps as well since the vapor is cooler. It's one of the reason I really enjoy the ego-tank system.

 

[XMit]

All good ideas guys thanks.

I used to smoke Lucky Strikes and other filterless cigs so this is a bit strange to me. The tongue bite I get from a hot wet pipe or cigar is a different thing than this. This is persistent whether I am drawing on my PV or not.

I'm going to try dropping to 16mg from 18 and see if I notice a difference. What's really weird is I never had this problem when I was using straight top coil clearos which vape hotter and seems to produce more. Who knows maybe it's a carto thing. If the mg drop doesn't work I'll go back to Ce2 for a while.

 

[sh_]

Hey guys, just something that happened this morning. I loaded my carto with some 6mg juice this morning and my wife ust said... "Hmmmm something is different here... its not burning my tongue now... Sweet!"

I was using 18mg juice before, loaded with 6mg so for her it was definitely the nic level that caused the tongue burn, for me I didnt notice any difference other than the TH hit.

Hope it can be useful for you guys too.

 

[Lyndagayle]

Lyndagayle, you don't mention it, but was this something you only experienced with vaping, never with smoking?

I'm still trying to understand why I smoke medium-high nic cigs, but definitely prefer medium-lowish nic when vaping.
Everything I've read about absorbtion of nic led me to believe I would want/need higher nic in vaping, but I can't stand it. (Good thing I decided to DIY from the start - had I ordered pre-mixed high nic juices I am pretty sure I would have given it up pretty quickly!)
My working hypothesis is that I am a very inefficient smoker, but a comparatively efficient vaper - that when I smoke I probably actually don't really absorb much nic through the lungs, but through the mucous membranes of mouth/throat. And vapour is more suitable for this than smoke is, so my normal style of smoking very easily translated to "efficient vaping".

Your comment made me think: I am definitely much more susceptible to "tongue bite" from smoking than from vaping.
Which of course may be because since I still smoke, I am quite able to not tolerate too much of that from vaping, so if I start to feel that "bite" or "burn" I switch to something mild low-nic or even no-nic for at least a few puffs.

To the OP: another thing that might help a little bit is trying another type of mouthpiece. I find that the flat-tipped ego-T tanks tend to angle the stream on vapour much more down to the tongue than something round. The angle of the PV might make a difference too.

I never had sore mouth or tongue from smoking. You know, I've been thinking about this thread in light of our very popular "Vinegar?" thread. I'm beginning to lean toward it possibly being a PH thing. Although the problem pretty much subsided when I lowered my nic level, there have been a few times when I'd get a tad of soreness but it didn't last as long. I have not had even a twinge of soreness since I started doctoring my mixes with vinegar and lemon juice. Things that make you go hmmmmmm.....

 

[Smokin'Sandy]

That's happening to me also. I did notice that it didn't happen when I was vaping 12mg, but now I'm vaping 24mg. I wonder if that AAA Magic Mask would help?? Or, I may try some lemon juice Lyndagayle mentioned because I really enjoy the higher mg nic, but I'm not really liking the burn or dry mouth either.

 

[markfm]

Also, if you're vaping high VG, perhaps try flipping to PG. Different people can have sensitivities to PG, VG, or flavorings.

 

[Kay1959]

I'm vaping 70/30 and I'm having problems with dryness and burnt tongue, so I'm thinking it's probably the high nico content. I'm vaping 24mg right now because I just started vaping and am trying to get off the analogs. So it sounds like to me that this is something I'll have to put up with for awhile. Oh well...it'll be better in the long run.

 

[sh_]

Maybe someone already said that, but the vapor will really dry your month and throat, you have to drink water all the time.

Its very true and I alway have water or coffee with me while I am vaping, it helps alot with the "tongue bite" that you can get from stronger nic juices.

 

[XMit]

I can't do high percentage PG, it kills my throat for some reason. The last high PG juice I had was a vendor made and I vaped about 1ml of it before I got an unholy reaction.

As long as I stick to mostly VG I'm OK. I just brewed up two new batches of juice at 18 and I need to figure out how to drop the nic a little. Probably make 2 ml of no nic for each blend and just slam it in the 8ml or so of each that's left.

All of my juice already has ph modifiers in it so I don't think that's it Lynda, it's gotta be either the nic level or I just can't do polyfill cartos. If it's the cartos that will suck because I just ordered an M1A1.