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Lawmaker Urges Regulation Of Dental Restorations To Protect Patient Safety

21 Feb 2008

Florida Rep. Stan Jordan, R-Jacksonville, announced that he has filed legislation backed by the Florida Dental Laboratory Association to implement more stringent regulations to protect patients receiving the dental restorations affixed into the mouths of millions of Americans each year.

Dental-restoration products - the porcelain crowns, dentures and bridges that American dental patients have permanently seated in their mouths - are currently under-regulated, with few legal requirements for technicians to be certified and no mandates for dentists to document or disclose the source of dental work to patients, Jordan said Tuesday.

Although dentists prescribe the type of device they need for a dental patient, the product is actually manufactured by a dental technician employed by a dental laboratory, which could be located in the United States or anywhere in the world. Due to the growing number of Americans seeking dental restorative treatment and the growing pressure by some dentists to cut costs and increase profit margins, much of the dental work Americans carry in their mouths is now imported from countries such as China, Pakistan, the Philippines and India.

Jordan's legislation, HB 923, will require all dental laboratories to disclose to dentists where a product was manufactured and what materials were used, and provide certificates of authenticity. It further requires dentists to include these records in a patient's dental chart so patients can request the information and so health officials can track and trace a dental restoration to its source should a health problem later emerge. Finally, the bill requires dental laboratory technicians to maintain continuing education every two years.