Editorial

Abstract

Have you seen any cases of acute necrotising ulcerating gingivitis (ANUG) among your patients recently? Having not seen any for years, we have had a flurry of cases in Liverpool. Why are we seeing cases again? It does not appear to be simply related to oral hygiene. Is it that our patients are vaping and is this related to their use of social media? Electronic nicotine delivery systemsElectronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS or e-cigarettes) were originally developed as a 'safe' alternative to smoking and marketed to help smokers quit cigarettes. However, it quickly became apparent that e-cigarette use or vaping was popular amongst adolescents and young adults who had never smoked. Although e-cigarettes do not contain tobacco, most contain nicotine. Nicotine is highly addictive and dangerous for the young brain because it can harm the parts of an adolescent's brain that control attention, learning, mood, and impulse control (Balogun, 2024).Concerns have started to be raised about the health impact of e-cigarettes themselves as well as the potential for e-cigarette users to then progress to tobacco smoking. In other words, are e-cigarettes and vaping another smoking innovation used by tobacco companies to hook the next generation?