Join us for the fourteenth episode of GFN Voices 2023!
In this episode, Claude Bamberger recaps his favourite scientific takeaways from #GFN23 including opportunities to further educate healthcare professionals about the science of nicotine.
Transcription:
00:00:09 --> 00:00:16
Joanna Junak: Hello Claude, it's nice to see you in Warsaw. Can you tell me what do you think about this year's GFN conference?
00:00:16 --> 00:02:05
Claude Bamberger: Oh, very, very interesting. Well, as usual, it's strange seeing the other consumer organization representative. It's hugely important and enlightening. To see others fighting, of course it's encouraging, but also to see that each continent, sometimes each country, has different issues, different point of views. Sometimes we are fighting for nearly opposite things in a way. It's important to understand it, what we have, what we don't have, and what we should also perhaps help others have for their citizens. And I was very happy with the conferences, I think, of course, because I'm really interested in better understanding the science behind nicotine, how it works, how it doesn't work. We've got the chance in France to have good exchanges with the community around quitting smoking, helping people quit smoking, with vaping or with NRT or other approach. So basically, I can have a lot of knowledge around that and experience around that, but the science around nicotine, it's more worldwide and a bit more complex for simple citizens. So, basically, it's like a feast.
00:02:05 --> 00:02:11
Joanna Junak: So, which session or topic on the conference seems to be most interesting for you?
00:02:15 --> 00:05:07
Claude Bamberger: I would say, and it's a bit of personal happiness on that, there was a conference yesterday with a dentist, well, an academic, but coming from oral hygiene, that was talking about using results around That's the nicotine issue with the and in the support group, I mean, support groups. I mean, we have a lot, a lot of issues that seems to be small compared to the risk of smoking, of course. But people, when they quit smoking, It's nearly systematic. They have issues in the mouth. That's something you feel very fast. It's not like a very serious thing, like a disease or something like that, but you feel it every day. And every day they ask themselves, oh, is it vaping that causes problems in my mouth or is it the gum? Because there are also people using NRT. Or should they go back to smoking? Because it's for everybody as well. And sometimes the dentist will give very, very bad advices around that. It's madness, because it's a small thing. At the end, the best thing, it's not cancers or things like that. Nevertheless, having tea for a long time, it's quite useful. So, in the long term, nuts working, using NRT enough, long enough, is the key to protect the mouth. If every dentist could have the material to have the proof and stop saying things that basically are not based in any science, there is nothing. Just, oh nicotine because there is nicotine in cigarettes. there are other things in cigarettes and that could change the game for a lot of people just to encourage them to continue and say oh no it's not the nicotine so I can continue to also have treat issues with also that because people think it's because I quit smoking or because I vape, I have issues in the mouth, but no, it's because you must go to the dentist. There are very simple things to alleviate things that are not comfortable. Sometimes it's necessary to have interventions, but most of the time it's just water, rest, smaller things with the dentist, so that's okay. So that was my preferred one.