E-Cigarettes have been on the rise in the past five years. Many were under the impression that they're a safer alternative to cigarettes but that might not be entirely true. According to NBC, a 17-year-old boy's jaw shattered after an incident with an e-cigarette.
Austin Adams had his mother to purchase the device while he tried to replace tobacco products with e-cigarettes. While using it, the e-cigarette exploded and knocked out a several of his teeth and shattered his jaw. His mother explained that the family lives in rural Nevada had was forced to drive five hours to the closest hospital that could treat his injury. "This child had a blast injury to his lower jaw, as well as burns around his lip," Dr. Katie Russell, one of the trauma surgeons who treated Adams, said. "He didn’t recall doing anything wrong with the device beforehand, and it just exploded."
In the past week, the FDA concluded a new guidance for manufacturers of tobacco products and e-cigarettes which suggests companies provide through details surrounding the batteries they use in fear of overheating. The FDA said e-cigarettes explode when the lithium-ion battery inside of the pen overheats.
Dr. Jonathan Skirko, a pediatric ear nose and throat surgeon who helped Adams, said that the explosion tore a whole through the boy's gums. "The tissue kind of got vaporized," Dr. Skirko said.
