The Wealthy Dentist reports that two out of three dentists view recent reports of lead contamination in dental crowns made in Chinese labs as overblown, although the remaining one-third view the problem as a major health scandal.
"The Wealthy Dentists" acknowledged that the scope of the problem is still not fully known. The National Association of Dental Labs (NADL) estimates that 15 to 20 percent of dental restorations used in the U.S. are fabricated outside of the country.
"The Wealthy Dentists" said "it is likely that significantly more than 10 percent of U.S. dentists are actually placing foreign-made dental prostheses perhaps as high as 25 percent of dentists. However, some of these dentists may not realize their dental lab's work is not produced in the U.S."
"We don't know if this is a crisis," "The Wealthy Dentists" quotes a Washington dentist as saying. "The labs and FDA need to test a large number of prosthetics that are produced in the U.S. with foreign materials and in foreign countries."
Forty-one percent of surveyed dentists feel that dentists are ultimately responsible for protecting the public from tainted dental materials. Thirty-one percent cite the government and say the FDA needs to enforce its regulations more thoroughly.
Twenty-five percent of dentists think dental labs should police themselves, and only 3 percent of dentists say that patients should be responsible for protecting themselves.
Among surveyed dentists, 60 percent are certain that all restorations they use are manufactured in the U.S., and another 20 percent believe that to be the case. Only 10 percent acknowledge that they knowingly use products made overseas.
-Source: The Wealthy Dentist
