You’ve seen them. Vape shops are popping up on every corner, in big cities and suburbs alike, across the nation. And more often than not, it’s teenagers hanging out at them.

The commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently called the use of e-cigarettes among teens an "epidemic," and announced a campaign to educate young people along with an initiative to target retail and online sales of the addictive product.

During a nationwide, undercover effort over the summer, the FDA sent more than 1,300 warning letters and civil money penalty complaints to retailers who illegally sold electronic nicotine delivery system products to minors. In a September news release, the administration called it "the largest coordinated tobacco compliance effort in FDA’s history."

Is it really such a big deal?

Yes.

Some e-cigarette devices can contain as much nicotine as a pack of 20 regular cigarettes, according to information on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

The American Dental Association (ADA) supports public policies to prevent tobacco use and urges its members to become fully informed about tobacco use prevention and cessation. The ADA also plans to continue to educate and inform membership and the public about the health hazards attributed to the use of both traditional and nontraditional tobacco products, according to House of Delegates Resolution 78H-2016.

The FDA campaign will be called "The Real Cost," and will be aimed at educating youth about how e-cigarettes can put them at risk for addiction and other health consequences. Ads will run on YouTube, Spotify, Pandora, Facebook and Instagram. Additionally, posters will be placed in 10,000 high school bathrooms across the country, according to the FDA.

While FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb recently acknowledged that e-cigarettes may help some adult smokers "transition off" more conventional tobacco products and onto products that may not have the same level of risks associated with them, he alluded to a much bigger challenge. The FDA did not anticipate "the extent of what’s now become of our biggest challenges. We didn’t predict what I now believe is an epidemic of e-cigarette use among teenagers," he said.

For more information about the FDA’s campaign to address youth e-cigarette use, visit FDA.gov. Also, tobacco and tobacco cessation are topics covered by the ADA Science Institute on an Oral Health Topics page.