Wipe that brilliant-white smile off your face, says EU

telegraph ^ | 23/02/2003 | Lorraine Fraser

[Between the Lines]

British dentists have been warned that they face criminal prosecution under EU law if they use tooth- whitening treatments to give their patients hollywood smiles.

The Department of Trade and Industry says that the nation's most common tooth-whitening procedure - thought to have been used by Britney Spears, Catherine Zeta Jones, Julia Roberts, Elizabeth Hurley, Tom Cruise and even Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer - is illegal under EU rules governing the supply of hydrogen peroxide bleach.

Dentists have now been warned that they face six months in jail or a £5,000 fine if they offer the treatment, which involves applying bleaching gel to the surface of the teeth using an individually- fashioned mouth mould. A 30-minute whitening session, in which laser light is used to enhance results, can cost up to £1,000 and some 100,000 people in Britain are thought to have used the treatment.

The warning also applies to at-home treatments, which cost about £200, in which the dentist provides the bleaching gel and prepares a mould that the patient can wear over their teeth for an hour or so each day over three to four weeks. British dentists claim that they are being singled out over a perfectly safe treatment which is legal in America and tolerated elsewhere across Europe.

Mervyn Druian, a specialist in cosmetic dentistry and a spokesman for the British Dental Association, said: "The whole thing is ridiculous. Tooth whitening is effective and it means that, for a one-off sum without any major intervention, the patient can walk out of the surgery looking and feeling better." Dentists should be able to do whatever they need to do for patients."

George Rodgers, a dentist in Wigan who has received a warning letter from trading standards officers about the treatment, said: "It is immoral of this government to make illegal by petty bureaucracy a treatment which is safe and far less destructive than its alternatives, especially as this tooth whitening is available in America and across Europe."

The legal issue lies in an EU ruling that classifies tooth whitening products as "cosmetic" and makes it illegal to supply hydrogen peroxide bleach for them at greater than 0.1 per cent concentration.

Kits prepared by dentists for use by patients at home can contain 40 times that concentration: the faster-acting treatments given in surgeries use hydrogen peroxide in concentrations as high as 38 per cent.

Although the supply of concentrated tooth whitening bleach has technically been illegal for several years, the rules are enforced by local authorities, who have never previously applied them to dentists.

Following an investigation into a supply company, however, trading standards officers began writing to dentists in Wigan warning them that they also faced investigation and possible charges. More local authorities are now expected to follow suit.

Alan Blundell, the chief trading standards officer for Wigan, said that officers had to be "sensitive" to whether a prosecution would be considered reasonable but they nevertheless had an obligation to inform dentists of the law.

His letter also warned dentists that they could end up in difficulties if a patient reacted badly to the treatment as the client could claim that they had not been given goods that were "fit for their purpose".

The Dental Defence Union has also warned dentists that they may have problems claiming that their patients have properly consented to a treatment if it is deemed illegal. The EU's scientific committee for cosmetics and non-food products has recommended that the permitted level of hydrogen peroxide be raised to 6 per cent: however, it is not known when this recommendation will become law.

Reports that Gordon Brown had undergone tooth- whitening treatment surfaced last year as colleagues noticed a brightening of his smile. A Treasury spokesman said: "We are not in the habit of commenting on this sort of thing".

[mlmr]

But this is a government handout. And exactly where are you getting the information that children without floridated water are disfigured, diseased, disabled or in pain? There is a huge difference between inoculating the herd against communicable diseases, and forcing everyone to ingest a substance "for their own good."

[chyk]

This is one of my "core issues". I'm a dentist. Fluoridation reduces the incidence of dental decay by 50-70%. Dental decay leads to infection, loss of teeth - with resultant loss of function and appearance, it is the leading cause of loss of time from work and school. We all pay for its results in one way or another. Fluoridation cost pennies as oppossed to billions for government, private, or corporate insurance to restore health and funntion. But again due to junk science/politics around 40-50% of the kids in this country are without the benefit.

Again government should empower people, and this is a government measure - a small trivial one that people still quibble over - that empowers children to live healthy lives. And saves society billions in costs and lost man-hours.

[KeyWest]

Check Lord of the Rings and see what unflouridated water did to the orcs. Really bad teeth and terrible disposition.

[Nebullis]

...water floridation is forced upon people,whether they want it or not.

Yes, just like clean drinking water is forced upon people, whether they want it or not. Why can't municipalities simply pump untreated creek water or street runoff into homes?

[fella]

And the Demonrats want us to be more like the Euros.

[TomB]

Actually, the idea that "the government" is forcing fluoridation on the people isn't quite true. Each town and municipality with their own water supplies are completely and totally free to make their own decisions on this matter. There is no pressure from the State of Federal government.

Each community can weigh the cost/benefit ratio and decide what to do. That is, in fact, how the founding fathers envisioned things to happen. It just so happens that, since we are essentially forced to pay for the medical treatments of the lower socioeconomic groups in this country, it is a no-brainer to try to prevent as much disease as possible, including dental caries.

BTW, nice to meet another dentist, chyk, where the HELL were you during the great fluoridation/amalgam battles around here? Consider yourself on my ping list. ;-)

[Cicero]

I think we owe the improved state of our teeth to flouridation, and the softening of our brains to Hollywood.

[Nebullis]

There's no question that public health efforts, like drinking water fluoridation, are enormously cost effective and minimally invasive.

[Jakarta ex-pat]

These communist LOSERS need to get a life.

Freedom doesn't need bureaucracy.

Why does bureaucracy require freedom?

[mlmr]

You have your opinion that floridation is good for people's teeth. I am not here to argue the benefits of floride treatments. I think that it is your opinion and that is wonderful. As a dentist you should promote floride treatments, floride toothpaste, floride rinses and voluntary floride treatments at the public schools. I do not think that the goverment, local or otherwise should medicate the public waters that my tax dollars support in order to satisfy your opinion. You prevent choice and the government gets to be a nanny.

You say that without water floridation, poor children will have bad teeth. So subsidize floridation treatments to the poor if they want them. As for needing to repair the teeth of the poor on our tax dollar, that is another issue altogether.

[mlmr]

Actually I think it was all the bad food they ate!!LOL

[mlmr]

Clean drinking water is not a medication forced on people to prevent tooth decay. Public water systems provide water to their customers water to go about their daily lives. Medicating the public waters with floride to prevent tooth decay in the poor because they cannot take care of themselves is like medicating the public waters with birth control because the poor forget to take their pills.

[mlmr]

The smaller municipaities in our area do not have any say on floridation because our water systems are co-joined.

[Nebullis]

Clean drinking water is not a medication forced on people to prevent tooth decay.

That's true. It's forced on people to prevent typhoid, dysentery, giardias, and other serious illnesses.

[mlmr]

Tooth decay is not a life threatening communicable disease. Clean drinking water protects the herd. Tooth decay is a personal problem.

[TomB]

The smaller municipaities in our area do not have any say on floridation because our water systems are co-joined.

IOW, more people want fluoridation than don't.

And technically, dental caries IS a communicable diesase, and left untreated can become very disabling.

[nmh]

On the other hand, lets lower the age of consent for sex. encourage same sex unions and legalize illegal drugs. Yeah, I would imagine that white teeth would be a terrible threat. (sarcasm off)

[gitmo]

Good point. Whatever happened to Gores (Clinton's) mandate that top-loading washers be outlawed by 2005 (I think that was the year.) Is that lunacy still on the books?

[gitmo]

and the softening of our brains to Hollywood.

Don't forget the public school systems.

[chyk]

Actually, "natural" spring drinking water in the midwest for example has too much fluoride in it and fluoridation there is a means of naturally regulating the level to lower levels. In urban areas it is a matter of adjusting it for optimal public health benefit.

Even conservatives recognize the government should and has assumed a role in public health through the years. They therefore should take common sense measures to do that (common sense being in short supply in government is besides the fact) which is why we chlorinate the water, require appropriate vaccinations, regulate food service, etc.

We don't even have to go into how the government has over regulated just about everything in our lives, but just leave it to a little old small town dentist to suggest a common sense public health measure such as fluoridation and the hot buttons have been pushed.

But again it fits with both common sense conservative and libertarian principles to help empower peoples to live healthy, productive lives with little or no cost to pocket book, liberty, or common sense. This is not liked by government because they like to spend lots of money not the pennies fluoridation requires, they like to take our liberties, and have no common sense. This is not liked by the media because it is more entertaining and increases ratings to scare people not to talk of common sense, boring public health measures. And finally it is not like by people who are influenced by junk science/political notions based on fraud, scientific errors, and medical superstions.