Foreign Dental Work Put To Test

WBNS-10TV ^ | 27 Feb, 2008 | 10tv investigative team

[George from New England]

Is anybody surprised?

[RepublitarianRoger2]

Another casualty of outsourcing and of trade with China.

If you can, ALWAYS pay more for non-metallic crowns. The bonus is that they look almost exactly like teeth, too.

[steve86]

Gee, isn’t that special.

[Responsibility2nd]

American Dentists are placing LEAD contaminated crowns from China

---

Now I know YOU would never do this, right?

[glock rocks]

I’ve been really good at not buying food that says ‘product of china’ and don’t buy generic drugs anymore... but apparently that isn’t good enough with a majority of precursors coming from over there, and major pharmaceutical companies relocating manufacturing over there.

Nixon went to China.

‘Global trade’ is just another way of saying Welcome to the third (turd) world, Americans. We’ve sunk to their level with the gracious help of our friends in power. It didn’t have to happen though. We encouraged it. Ask any bot.

[utherdoul]

well now we can get salmonella infected crowns from Mexico or lead tainted crowns from China. Which would you pick?

[Kay Ludlow]

I wonder how the lead you absorb from dental parts from China compares with the leas absorbed from using leaded gasoline...

[1066AD]

I had one break the other week, it looked like porcelain on the outside but the inside was lined with some metallic looking stuff, never thought anything of it. I can’t tolerate the metal temporary crowns at all, instant pain.

I wonder if there’s any dentists here who could comment ?

[steve86]

If you can, ALWAYS pay more for non-metallic crowns. The bonus is that they look almost exactly like teeth, too.

Aren't they typically porcelain bonded to metal? I don't see how they could be completely non-metallic.

[RepublitarianRoger2]

I think there are both porcelain crowns (which may also have some resin or acrylic parts), and then there are metal crowns with porcelain bonded to them on the outside. Sounds like you got the latter.

[RepublitarianRoger2]

OK, I’m no dental expert, but I googled for “metal-free crowns” and it appears that they use some kind of tooth-colored zirconium oxide for the inner part.

Feel free to correct me if you know more about dentistry than I do (which wouldn’t be very hard!)

[proxy_user]

My dentist uses porcelain crowns made by a Japanese artisan living in California. Cheap they are not!

[tongass kid]

The metal could be non-precious or contain gold and other expensive metals. You need to ask the dentist that place the crown. The metal thimble shape is usually fabricated first and the porcelain is baked to the metal.

[steve86]

Well, I’ll have to do research. I did look in my Schedule of Services, shows:

Crown - porcelain fused to high noble metal $629
Crown - porcelain fused to predominately base metal $590
Crown - full cast high noble metal $608
Crown - full cast predominately base metal $532

And then the temporary stainless steel crowns

[tacticalogic]

Toys leaching lead over 90 parts per million are hazardous, so what about 210 parts per million in your mouth?

Let's think about that. How long will it take that crown to "leach" that 210 parts per million? How long does it take a crown to dissolve in your mouth? Is this really a lead poisoning hazard, or just a lot of innuendo that creates the perception. Public service, or fearmongering sensationalism?

[steve86]

I guess for the lady with abscesses and infections, it happened pretty quick

[spectre]

I got two crowns last week, to the tune of $2,200....they must be filled with gold!

sw

[steve86]

I did get a $629 model last year. Seems fine.

[tacticalogic]

Kind of odd that people can walk around with bullets (990,000 ppm?) in them for years and not have that happen.