Dental Lab Industry Launches Web Site to Inform Consumers on Lead Scare.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The National Association of Dental Laboratories has launched a Web site to inform consumers concerned about recent reports of lead contamination in dental crowns imported from overseas. The Web site, www.whatsinyourmouth.us, provides consumers an opportunity to contact the association's staff with questions regarding the news reports about the potential for such products to be contaminated with harmful amounts of lead.

Numerous news outlets have reported on this issue since Feb. 27, when WBNS-TV in Columbus, Ohio, reported a confirmed case of a victim made sick by lead contamination from an imported dental restoration. The station further reported that an independent analysis of dental crowns imported from offshore dental laboratories found some products to be contaminated with dangerous levels of lead.

The case confirms long-standing concerns of the National Association of Dental Laboratories, which for years has urged federal and state regulators to implement more stringent regulation to protect patients receiving dental restorations.

These products 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. 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 anywhere in the world. As more and more Americans seek dental restorative treatment and some dentists face pressure to cut costs, a growing percentage of the dental work Americans carry in their mouths is now imported from countries such as China, Pakistan, the Philippines and India.

The National Association of Dental Laboratories, based in Tallahassee, Fla. - the leading trade group for the $8 billion U.S. dental-restoration products industry - has been on record since 2003 supporting federal and state regulation to assure patients their restorations are safe for use, regardless of where they are manufactured. Through public advocacy and outreach, the Association has worked with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, state health officials and the dental industry to support:

* Mandatory certification and continuing education for dental technicians who manufacture restorations;

* Mandatory registration of all dental laboratories with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration or appropriate state government agencies;

* Mandatory documentation of all materials included in a restoration, as well as the point of origin (country and laboratory) where the restoration was manufactured; and

* Mandatory documentation of all these items in a patient's dental records.

The National Association of Dental Labs is a trade association with 43 affiliated state and regional commercial dental laboratory associations representing more than 1,600 members. For more information, please visit www.nadl.org.