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Wipe that brilliant-white smile off your face, says EU
telegraph ^ | 23/02/2003 | Lorraine Fraser

Posted on 02/23/2003 6:21:47 AM PST by 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".


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: dentalhealth; teeth
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Smile!
1 posted on 02/23/2003 6:21:47 AM PST by Between the Lines
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To: Between the Lines
Bureaucrats always look dour and want the public to follow suit.
2 posted on 02/23/2003 6:24:05 AM PST by goldstategop
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To: Between the Lines
The EU is a tyranny.
3 posted on 02/23/2003 6:28:30 AM PST by tomahawk
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To: goldstategop
Gee Whiz,,,THE EUROWEENIES WANT YELLOW TEETH
4 posted on 02/23/2003 6:28:41 AM PST by cajungirl
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To: cajungirl
THE EUROWEENIES WANT YELLOW TEETH ...

But it goes so well with the B.O...

5 posted on 02/23/2003 6:30:10 AM PST by mewzilla
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To: Between the Lines
Wow, this sounds like a great business opportunity. I think I'll become a tooth whiting black-marketeer. Thank you EU for showing yet another American capitalist pig how to turn a buck via your stupidity
6 posted on 02/23/2003 6:32:10 AM PST by foolscap
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To: MadIvan
The joys of the EU! ping.
7 posted on 02/23/2003 6:34:44 AM PST by FreedomPoster (This Space Intentionally Blank)
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To: Between the Lines
And people here fear the EU competing with America???

Why???

The EU is a TOTAL regulation zone. They're hopelessly self destructive...
8 posted on 02/23/2003 6:36:53 AM PST by DB (©)
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To: Between the Lines
Q: What is the difference between individual freedoms under the present-day EU and individual freedoms under Stalinist Russia??

A: Nothing.
9 posted on 02/23/2003 6:37:24 AM PST by UncleSamUSA
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To: Between the Lines
Why would any state voluntarily join the EU?

We in the United States chafe under own overblown Washington bureaucracy, and wish it would go away.

10 posted on 02/23/2003 6:55:22 AM PST by Tax Government
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To: Between the Lines
I have to laugh at the idea of putting dentists in jail for the crime of tooth whitening. It just shows you what happens when you let the government make personal decisions for the people. The nanny state lives.

Hopefully the Brits will wake up and realize that they have a better future if they break their ties with the EU. They have a lot more in common, politically and culturally, with us than they do with the rest of socialist Europe.
11 posted on 02/23/2003 6:56:01 AM PST by redheadtoo (Wonder were the yeller went when I brushed my teeth with Pepsident.)
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To: UncleSamUSA
Just another result of junk science. This is only a limitation on people's cosmetic freedom. But worse result has been the limitation of water fluoridation here for the past 50 years causing loss of health and severe economic tolls for people. There are also junk science nuts wanting to ban amalgams in dentistry which will also cause economic hardships and inability of some people to afford dental care.

Never underestimate the idiocy of a politician or a bureaucrat.
12 posted on 02/23/2003 6:56:59 AM PST by chyk
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To: Between the Lines
I wonder how the EU's "Playthings for Pigs" mandate is coming along.

13 posted on 02/23/2003 6:58:43 AM PST by ladylib
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To: Between the Lines
We may laugh at the EU bureaucrats who are threatening to jail dentists for whitening teeth, fine shopkeepers for selling produce in pounds and ounces rather than grams and mandating that pig farmers provide "toys " for their pigs, but the USA is rapidly heading in the same direction. There are groups who would seek to ban us from driving SUV's or putting fertilizer on our lawns and we already have government dictats on how much water we can use to flush out toilets.
14 posted on 02/23/2003 7:00:13 AM PST by The Great RJ
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To: Between the Lines
Did we knock down the Berlin wall to free the East Germans or did the East Germans knock it down to spread their philosophy?
15 posted on 02/23/2003 7:01:47 AM PST by scouse
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To: Between the Lines
I didn't know there were that many adults in Britain who still had teeth.
16 posted on 02/23/2003 7:07:43 AM PST by Paleo Conservative
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To: chyk
The difference between tooth whitening in GB and water floridation in the States is that tooth whitening is a choice by the consumer, while water floridation is forced upon people,whether they want it or not. If floridation was treated like a consumer product and a choice the people who support it would support and encourage purchasing it in stores and in the media and provide low cost floridation supplies to the poor.
17 posted on 02/23/2003 7:11:08 AM PST by mlmr
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To: Between the Lines
Whitening teeth = Jailed for 6 months and fined 5,000 pounds.

Aborting a baby = Celebrated as a champion of "choice."

18 posted on 02/23/2003 7:15:57 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest
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To: mlmr
The CDC lists water fluoridation as one of the top 10 public health measures of the twentieth century - all the others, mostly vaccinations are required. Soon we may be required to do others - like smallpox. The government regulates every part of our lives and picks our pockets besides - and people are still quibbling about less than 1 ppm Fl in the drinking water that will save society and individuals billions of dollars, not to mention save millions of kids(who have no control of their circumstances) from disease, disfigurement, disability, and pain. Fluoridation actually gives kids freedom from all of these - it doesn't take it away. It also frees kids in the future from seeking government or corporate handouts to fix their teeth.

But I know it also softens brains. And the proof is all around us.
19 posted on 02/23/2003 7:26:27 AM PST by chyk
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To: DB
The EU is a TOTAL regulation zone. They're hopelessly self destructive...

Not quite yet. They haven't adopted sharia law...

20 posted on 02/23/2003 7:34:39 AM PST by null and void
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