Thread: Dental Work Made in China Might Contain Lead

Dental Work Made in China Might Contain Lead

Crowns and Bridges From China May Be Cheaper, but at What Cost?
By ROBERTA BASKIN and SANDY BERGO
May 8, 2008

RSS When Faye Lewis became concerned about her painful new bridgework, she had it checked out and received some disturbing news: Her bridge was manufactured in China and tainted with lead.

Bridges, crowns and fillings imported from China may be tainted with lead.
More dentists are using crowns and bridges made in China. According to the United State Customs Office, the number of dental products coming into the United States from China has doubled in the last year.

An investigation by ABC News affiliate WJLA-TV found that at least some of those dental products contain lead.

Lewis initially went to have a chipped tooth fixed, but her resulting bridgework fit so poorly and painfully, she couldn't chew her food. The 73-year-old told her dentist what she wanted to do was chew out whoever built her bridge.

According to Lewis, her dentist replied, "That will be a little hard to do because they're in China."

Lead accumulates in the body and can affect kidneys, eyes, heart, the immune system and cognitive function.

So Lewis sent her dental work to a lab for testing. The results showed that it did indeed contain lead.

Ricki Braswell, co-executive director of the National Association of Dental Laboratories, said there is little regulation when it comes to dental work.

"Because you have an unregulated industry, you really don't have standards," Braswell said. "You don't have standards in the domestic industry. You certainly don't have standards in the foreign industry."

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Tony Prestipino, who owns Artifex dental lab in Virginia, ordered 10 crowns from three dental labs in China on behalf of WJLA.

Crowns from China sell for $30 to $50 to dentists, who then can charge up to $1,200 to patients who don't know the crowns were made in China.

A Chinese lab representative told Prestipino over the phone, "We follow this military 'don't ask, don't tell' policy."

Within five days the crowns arrived.

"The first thing I see is that this is a horrible color and a horrible shape," Prestipino said.

Faye Lewis shows photos of the bridgework that opened up an investigation into lead-tainted dental products.
(ABCNEWS.com)Those crowns had problems similar to Lewis'. They didn't match the prescription and never would fit properly.

When that happens, Prestipino said, "bacteria seeps right into it. You will end up needing a root canal."

If Lewis' bridge hadn't fit so poorly, she never would have had it removed or tested for toxic materials.

Next, WJLA had the China-made crowns tested for lead at NSL Analytical in Cleveland.

Using a sophisticated process that takes days to complete, the lab did not find lead in any of the metal portion of the crowns. But in every case, lead contamination was discovered in the porcelain parts of the crown at some very high levels.

"We never expected to see lead in teeth," said NSL president Larry Somrack.

In the crowns tested, the lead levels were as high as 490 parts per million. That's five times higher than the 90 ppm a Congressional committee wants the U.S. to set for toys.

Faye Lewis believes that money is behind the increased use of dental work from China. "It's a cost factor. It's the big dollar," she said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it does not believe the lead levels found pose an immediate health risk and isn't recommending people delay dental work, or have prior work redone. Meanwhile, the American Dental Association is conducting an investigation of its own.

The ADA plans to analyze up to 100 crowns blindly, about 50 percent will be from the U.S. and the other half from foreign countries.

Cliff Carey, an analytical chemist with the ADA, says the organization hopes to finish the study within a year and will provide the results to the CDC.

In the testing conducted so far, Carey said that no lead was found in the crowns. The ADA is testing porcelain powders and has found traces of lead, but in very small amounts, he said.
Read a statement from the American Dental Association.

Read a statement from the Centers for Disease Control.

Read a statement from the Food and Drug Administration.

Click here to read the story from WJLA-TV.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Consumer/ ... 193&page=1

Bridges, crowns and fillings imported from China may be tainted with lead.
More dentists are using crowns and bridges made in China. According to the United State Customs Office, the number of dental products coming into the United States from China has doubled in the last year.

OMG!! GREAT!!!! Thanks for the heads up! Another thing from China to be poisoned by because of the greed factor!!!!

Do they make anything without lead there? Didn't the US make it clear to these people that you can't if you want to trade here?

Originally Posted by crazybird

Do they make anything without lead there? Didn't the US make it clear to these people that you can't if you want to trade here?

Not a whole lot comes out of China worth what you pay. They do not have to care about standards because they own the U.S. and have a monopoly over US manufacturing.

So far this year, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has had 127 recalls. Of those 15 were American Made, the other 112 were all imports most of those from China, many due to Lead, some from Mexico and India.

Thats 8-1 recalls for imports.