There's probably not a whole lot of vapers that have not experienced it. Vapers tongue comes up in quite a few questions on these subs. It seems as if though not everyone understands what it is and part of the problem is the name. It's misleading as it has barely anything to do with your tongue.
The vast majority of flavor from vapor is not perceived by your tongue. Vapor is an aerosol and is sensed by olfactory receptors in your nasal cavity. Particles will pass the gland, the changes will be detected and the brain will translate the information according to what you already know. Your tongue can really only sense the sweet, sour, umami and bitter particles in the flavorings that are potent, sticky and dense enough to be detected. This mostly happens on the back of your tongue and its only really noticeable with DTL setups that produce enough vapor. This is also why you get most of the flavor on the exhale. The actual perception of flavors still all comes from your sense of smell. However if your tongue has immense amounts of plaque built up on the back of it, it's likely going to affect your ability to get those basic tastes like sweetness from the vapor as well.
Because only the changes in flavor is what gets sensed and processed by the brain, vapers tongue often occurs when you vape the same flavor of eliquid for a while. Since the olfactory gland is located in the nasal cavity, you won't get much if any flavor when you have a cold or blocked nose. Just try and hold your nose closed while you vape and see what happens!
There are plenty of things you can do to prevent or remedy vapers tongue like changing flavors regularly, using mouth wash, brushing teeth or vaping some menthol type eliquids. The idea behind using menthol/mint products is to clear your nasal cavity.
Expanding and refining your palette can also help a great deal, not only with vapers tongue, but can improve your sensing ability in general and actually make things taste better (or worse). Especially when e.g you are a fuzzy eater and simply don't have a whole lot of experience with different foods, let alone the nuances. If your brain can't recognize the information its getting, it's likely that you won't taste much apart from what it can recognize. Broadening your palette by trying different variations of the same flavor profile will add to your experience and perception and give your brain something to reference to. Palettes and preferences for food and tastes changes every so many years. This holds true for flavors more than for textures.
Due to genetics, age and lifestyle choices we don't all have the same set, amount and function of olfactory receptors. E.g Many can't sense the majority of strawberry flavorings. Some perceive vanilla bean icecream or custards as a pepper flavor. There are many differences from person to person, because of varying genetic make up. However, some of these things can be trained or overcome and some can or will change over time. As you age, your immune system will become more prone to conditions, diseases and infections, etc, which will affect your olfactory and neurological functions. Smoking affects your ability to smell significantly as well. Most vapers are ex-smokers. Depending on how long and frequently you smoked, your olfactory reception was at one point up to six times worse than a non-smokers'. This is said to return to normal state when you quit smoking, but no research has been done to show if it fully restores.
In its essence the phenomenon of vapers tongue is olfactory fatigue. And if there's an infection or a cold involved you could call it an olfactory block. What would you rename vapers tongue to?
First of all nice write up.
I used to think "Vapers tongue" mean actual tongue irritation. I used to get it from not drinking water enough I'm assuming. Since drinking lots of water while vaping I haven't got it. That irritation took away any enjoyment in using an ecig. It usually took a day to get over it as well.
I know now that most people just mean they cant taste their liquid anymore. That's happened to me also. No amout of coffee or lemon juice worked for me. Giving the flavor a break and using other flavors/recipes is the only thing that did.
Nice info. I don't think vapers tongue needs to be changed though. It's a misnomer but I think everyone already knows it means olfactory fatigue. I think people think vapers tongue sounds cooler and it's already too widely accepted to be changed
>everyone already knows it means olfactory fatigue
They don't and this is why I wrote this post. Apart from newcomers, you can assume the majority of this subreddit does, but you still see many posts here and on other subs almost daily which show people haven't got a clue.
Anyway I'm going to keep on calling it olfactory fatigue or block depending on context. These things take time I suppose.
> olfactory fatigue or block
Fatigue is exhaustion from physical or mental exertion I think. Having trouble picturing a gland being physically exhausted. I'm sure if it was on a Sponge Bob cartoon with visuals I'd understand lol.
> It's a misnomer but I think everyone already knows
Kind of like the 'Steeping' gets peoples panties in a bunch.
"My tea bags steep. It's called aging or maturing."
Ummmm no. We decided that steeping is okay to say and you wont change us. lol
Since you mentioned strawberry blindness, I have a question for everyone...Is blue raspberry blindness a thing? Every blue raspberry I've ever tried either doesn't taste like blue raspberry, OR it tastes like perfume. Like straight from the bottle perfume.
Does anyone else have this problem with blue raspberry? I seem to be able to taste strawberry so I'm wondering if Im broken in wrong way =(
Yeah, I can’t do blue razz flavors either. I get the same overpowering fragrance taste, with just some sweetness in there. But I love me some blue razz ICEE or slurpees. It’s weird for sure.
I'm not a big mint or menthol fan so would ws-23 or polar ice have a similar effect? If so I'll be making a nice icy cold ice cream recipe
I am vaping for over 3 years now and never experienced vaper's tongue.
Olfactory fatigue is the right term in my opinion. And that is why I never suffered from it. "Premium juices" and even many recipes from this sub are way too overflavored for me and I don't vape them. Usually about 50% of the recommended flavor concentration is about right for me. And obviously with that amount I do not overwhelm my nose and never get olfactory fatigue.
tldr; most juices are disgustingly overflavored, that is why you get vaper`s tongue.
You sound like you know what your talking about and I could use your help. Before I started diy I would get olfactory fatigue every 2 weeks for a few days until my taste returned to normal. Tried all the simple remedies and nothing but light vaping and time seemed to help. I started diy 4 months ago and my issue has gotten progressively worse since. Now I only can go 3-4 days and my taste will then go out for 3-4 days. Heres the weird part the only way my taste comes back is if I switch back to premium ejuice. If I keep vaping diy mixes that I prefer with little sweetener my taste stays gone. So somehow I am assuming sweetener makes it easier on my olfactory to process taste. But I also think they may use higher flavor percents so that could be apart of it too. From what I can tell noone has ever dealt with anything like this and I thought maybe you might have some clue as to whats going on with all this olfactory fatigue talk. Let me know if you have any ideas.
Commercial eliquids generally contain a lot of sweetener. In some cases, sweeteners like sucralose can boost flavor perception, especially for the vapor that is sticky enough to hit your tongue. Some use a lot of flavoring in their eliquids. Olfactory fatigue is mostly about vaping too much of the same flavoring.
I switch flavors regularly 4-5 times a day and I have tasted perfectly fine without sweetener just not for long especially in complex recipes with a lot of subtleties. Its been pretty infuriating trying to figure out why I can taste perfectly fine and then out of nowhere the flavor dissapears.
I have the same problem as you man, but I'm using store bought ejuice. I buy like 4 or 5 different flavors. I'm using rdas with a squonk mod. I might fill the squonk bladder up like 3 times with each wick and flavor. Then I rewick an do another flavor and still even doin this I get like a week of awesome flavor. Then after about week I stop being able to taste again. This last for like a week and the all of a sudden my taste come back and it's over and over again man idk what to do. I brush my tongue and use mouth wash. Drink lots of water nothing help. My taste just comes back when it wants to it's crazy.
If your really like me then eventually you will lose your ability to taste your vape completely, and it just won't really come back to the vivid beautiful flavor that we got used to when we first started vaping. Sorry for tve bad news mate but youll notice that it will take longer and longer to come back, until it eventually just doesnt. I also did/tried everything, and never found something that helped. In retrospect, the only help I can offer is to not vape the same flavor for more than a day.
Jesus man, you just ruined my whole day. Lol that's crazy man. I really hope that doesn't happen, but just like said it really does take longer and longer to come back I've noticed that already. At first it was just a few days man. And the last two times it happened it was atleast a week each time cuz both times my mom was worried I had COVID lol. Then I found out about vape tongue. It's just started again though the night before last, but this time I can still taste it some it's just not you know crisp. I swear bro I have empathy for you and I really hope I don't get there. I tried to change it up as much as possible so hopefully. Your advice can keep me from the same fate.
Im sorry it is not the point of discussion bit do any of u felloe vapers feel some chest pain from vaping? Pain is too strong of a word but i do feel some little strain on my lungs these few days. I dont know how to describe it. But im worried. And i dont chain vape. Ty in advance
Omg that’s crazy. I had no clue. Thank you for this post! I get this problem a lot. Since I quit cigarettes it’s gotten a lot better. But I’m in the process of getting a lot of bad teeth removed too so I’m sure my bad teeth have a lot to do with still getting “vapors tongue”.
im having a weird problem where my mint juice that I've been using for like a year for some reason has been tasting almost like apple juice?? it smells kind of like it too. is this a problem with the actual flavor or could it be something like vapers tongue? thanks for the in-depth post!