In a shocking incident, the possible dangers of e-cigarettes have come to light. A 17-year-old boy in the US broke his jaw after an e-cigarette exploded in his mouth. The boy had to travel more than 250 miles to Utah, after the injury which left him with a hole in his jaw. At the emergency centre, a CT scan showed that his jaw was shattered and a few teeth had been blown out. Doctors had to remove many teeth as the sockets were destroyed. They placed a dental plate to help stabilize his injured lower jawbone. For a period of 6 weeks, they also had to wire his jaw shut so that it healed.

Dr. Katie Russell, a pediatric trauma surgeon, who treated the youngster said: “People need to know before they buy these devices that there's a possibility they're going to blow up in your pocket, in your face. When I met this patient, I had no idea that a vape pen could do this. It takes a lot of force to break your jaw. At that time, in my career, I had never seen this. I never heard of this as a possibility. I just wanted to get this out there so other people could know that this was possible.” The teenager was not aware that the e-cigarette could explode and was in a state of shock. Thankfully, he has already started healing according to Russell. The boy still has missing teeth however and hopes to get new ones soon. He has also decided to completely quit all cigarettes after the incident.

This is not the first of such accidents associated with vaping. Between the years of 2015 and 2017, 2000 e-cigarette injuries have been reported and the worst consequence has been death.