Cheating with gold dental crowns
Company Oversea Labs, over 900 Danish dentists use, and many have used for decades, has been revealed to dabble with, among other gold content of the crowns. The DR news magazine 21 Sunday - with the help of a dentist who could reveal the suspected fraud.
Cheap dental crowns from China
Crowns from Oversea Labs is primarily manufactured in China, where wages are significantly lower than for example in Denmark. And it is one of the main explanations for the firm's success.
This will now overtandlæge Ulla Pallesen from School of Dentistry at the University to address a sharp criticism of the company's methods.
"I understand maybe a little better why these crowns can be sold so cheaply. If you cheat with the gold, one can easily sell it cheaper. The fact that there is so much less gold in it, I regard as a very serious matter, "says overtandlæge Ulla Pallesen.
However, not only Oversea Labs who get made dental crowns and other tooth replacements in China. It's a business model used by several other Danish suppliers of crowns, bridges and other dental replacements.
Traces of Nickel and Lead in dental crowns
One is that there may have been cheated with the content of gold in dental crowns, but in the study as 21 Sunday was conducted by the independent laboratory Force Technology, also found the remains of both nickel and lead in crowns, drugs which should never be found in tooth crowns. This has led to Medicines Agency will now investigate whether dental crowns pose a health risk to patients.
Overtandlæge concerned about the metals used for dental crowns
"We are concerned that the crowns, besides being cheaply made, can also harm people. If we find out that they do, we will contact the dentists who have purchased crowns and gave them to patients, "says Christian Howard-Jessen.
Also overtandlæge Ulla Pallesen from the University expresses concern over who ever else is put in the tooth crowns.
"So would I be concerned about whether they live up to other agreements on the uncomfortable metal could also be in it," says Ulla Pallesen to 21 Sunday.
Police report on the way
Oversea Labs, also known as PTL, can most likely expect a police report from the Medicines Agency. Is cheated by the amount of gold in your teeth, there's been fraud, and it will certainly end up with a police report.
"Now we shall hear what the company says in the interview, but my assessment is that the grant was so extensive that we will take the matter further," says Christian Howard-Jessen, Communications Medicines Agency.
According Oversea Labs had crowns contain 75 percent gold, but 21 Sunday has thus revealed that the gold rate can be as low as 27 percent. None of the 5 tested dental crowns lived up to the stated 75 percent.
"There were 27 to 54 percent of gold in his teeth, so it must be said is a significant deviation from the specification," says head of department at Force Technology, Ole Bundgaard.
Oversea Labs
Company Oversea Labs is a giant in the Danish market for dental crowns and supplies approx. 5,000 dental crowns for dentists in Denmark, in addition to that there is also a net exporter of tooth replacements from the company to Greenland, the Faroe Islands and other countries.
Recommended Articles:The broadcast Sunday from 21 to 30 august 2010 can be seen here:
http://www.dr.dk/DR1/soendag/Udsendelser/2010/0830104333.htm
