subject: Are Teeth Whitening In Salons And Malls Safe? [print this page] Thinking that teeth whitening would be a pleasant addition to her lineup of eyelash extensions, temporary tattoos and custom makeup, this salon owner started offering teeth whitening in her upscale salon. But she was made to stop by this inspector for the Alabama Board of Dental Examiners after she was accused of being active illegal dentistry. Her ongoing lawsuit with the state has waded into the murky area of regulating teeth whitening products that are increasingly offered in settings outside the dentist's office, such as salons and mall kiosks.
The men behind the dental industry claims that it is very much an issue on health and safety but then those from the industry of beauty parlors accuse the dentists of making them lose out on something financially productive. She said recently that as a new business owner, she's trying to bring something new and innovative to the salon. And then to be threatened to be shut down before she really even had it going was more than a little frustrating, she said recently while blow drying a customer's freshly cut hair. The lady adamantly states that they are on the right side of the law and this is very much a cosmetic procedure.
But the American Dental Association's present spokesman and consumer adviser who is also a dentist for the past 43 years state that it's very hard to identify if those bleaching trays or ultraviolet lights are sanitary or safe at all. There are those salons, where people wearing white coats who hand the trays to customers facilitating them, or help them put these on their own mouths or adjust the lights over their teeth as well. But what the ADA is worried about is this customers wrongly seeing these salon employees as health care professionals. We can not tell easily what level of sterilization and disinfection is being done for these. There is no regulation for this so far.
It is now so common to see many of the whitening products now made available in stores for customers to apply on their own at home too. In the end, we feel that this has evolved into a consumer rights issue because people should have command on things like how to whiten their teeth just as long as it is done safely. Be ready to pay between a hundred to two hundred dollars to have a teeth whitening treatment at a salon or mall shop using bleach trays or perhaps ultraviolet lights. Four hundred dollars or more is what it will take when a dentist does it.
One judge from Montgomery decided in favor of Alabama's dental board in a lawsuit brought by a corporation supplying many mall kiosks and salons with whitening products stating that the whitening of teeth constitutes the practice of dentistry and such should only be done under a license. The concern is being addressed in several states now such as Minnesota, Wyoming, Louisiana, New Mexico and even in North Carolina where most of them if not all have come down to the conclusion that is the same with the Alabama judge, states the Birmingham attorney who represented the Alabama board in the court proceedings.
It can be seen how just in this past month, the board of dentistry in Tennessee strongly stated that the whitening of teeth can only be performed by licensed dentists or hygienists and dental assistants under their direct administration after they were barraged by complaints involving mall stores. It is just irritating how we never touch the customer's mouth and neither do we touch the customer, period, and yet we are pointed to as practicing dentistry, states an obviously disconcerted owner of a salon.
This group known as the Ohio dental board still agreed after they have found that there is a need to do something about unregulated use of such products, stating that it would be fine for an individual who is not a dentist to facilitate the whitening just as long as it is the consumers who do everything from positioning the light, applying the materials on their own teeth and never lets anyone touching their mouths. Teaching people how to make trays and apply substances on teeth for bleaching purposes is not the practice of dentistry as what the board decided on.
One spokesman from the ADA shared that such whitening was being done on a cruise about7 years ago, but that the practice has really taken root until the 4 or 5 years that have passed. He shares that there is a policy under the American Dental Association but there is no way that such is enforceable. Handling such matters is what the dental boards and governments of states need to determine.
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