Specialist Dental Group has launched an on-going series of blog posts by our individual dental specialists. All views provided are the dentist’s own opinions and are posted on this blog as part of our on-going efforts to educate the public about dental issues and other matters of interest relating to dentistry and healthcare.

We all know that smoking is hazardous to health. Numerous research studies have shown that smoking is the cause of cancers, heart disease, and other ailments. Due to the addictive nature of smoking, it is simply a hard habit to get rid of. Some people compare smoking with eating junk food except that smoking does not add on additional calories to our body. Peer pressure may also be an issue as it may be hard to refrain when people around you are all doing the same thing.

A recent newspaper article told an interesting story. Like many smart people, this Florida man was trying to kick his smoking habit. He was using an electronic smokeless cigarette. The idea was to slowly cut back to zero puffing instead of going cold-turkey. However, on this eventful day, his electronic cigarette blew up in his face, ending up damaging part of his lip, face, and tongue. He described it as if a firecracker exploded in between his teeth!! Imagine how much pain and shock he was in after that!

Speculation was that it was the lithium battery (LiPo) inside the cigarette that caused the explosion. Rechargeable batteries are great invention but these high-power LiPo batteries are known to be temperamental and many incidents of fire have been reported as a result of misuse of the LiPo battery or simply misbehavior of the LiPo itself. Watch this video to see how overcharging LiPo batteries causes fire.

Luckily, these electronic cigarettes are not being sold in Singapore.

Well, I hope this is not an excuse for the victim to switch back to the ‘safer traditional’ version. After all, the best method to get rid of the habit is to never start it.

Dr. Ansgar C. Cheng is a Dental Specialist in Prosthodontics (Teeth Replacement) with Specialist Dental Group™. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor with the National University of Singapore.  He has a special interest in dental implants, cosmetic dentistry and treatment of  medically compromised patients, including cancer patients. For more information about Dr. Cheng, click here