- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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."
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- 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."
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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".
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- 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.
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- 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".
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- http://news.telegraph.co.uk
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