subject: Lady salon owner encounters lawsuit after offering teeth whitening service [print this page] Lady salon owner encounters lawsuit after offering teeth whitening service
It was believed by this salon owner that teeth whitening would boost her upscale salon, with this good feature in her posh lineup of eyelash extensions, temporary tattoos and conventional makeup. But she had to stop after an inspector for the Alabama Board of Dental Examiners ordered her to, saying that she was committing illegal dentistry. Her ongoing court case with the state has waded into the murky part of regulating teeth whitening products that are seen today even in parlors and mall kiosks, all beyond the four corners of a dentist's office.
The dental industry claims it's a health and safety issue, the beauty parlors say the dentists are just trying to brush them out of a lucrative niche. All I wanted was to create something new and innovative for my business, the lady swore. She also recalls as she was blow drying a customer's freshly cut hair about how frustrating it was for her that even before she had it going, she was already being threatened to be shut down forcefully. She adheres to what she thinks that they are on the law's right side with this being a cosmetic treatment.
It is roughly not viable to establish whether those ultraviolet lights or trays are sanitary or safe, states a dentist for 43 years now who is also serving the American Dental Association as their spokesman and consumer adviser. Then you see that today, there are some salons, where people that are wearing white coats and aid customers as they put these on their own mouths from a tray or finetune the lights over their teeth. But what the ADA is worried about is this customers wrongly seeing these salon employees as health care professionals. We do not know about what level of sterilization and disinfection is being done. Understand that you are dealing with something so unregulated.
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. Consumers should have the right to whiten their teeth any way they want to whiten them just as long as it's done in a very safe manner and this is what we ultimately feel this boils down to a consumer rights issue. Get ready with a hundred to two hundred dollars if you would opt to whiten your teeth at a salon or mall shop which would involve ultraviolet light or bleaching dishes. It can cost up to $400 and more at a dentist's office.
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. It was duly affirmed by the Birmingham lawyer who represented the Alabama board in the court case, that the same anxiety is now being addressed in the states of North Carolina, New Mexico, Wyoming, Louisiana and Minnesota adding that most of them had come to with the Alabama judge had settled on.
The Tennessee board of dentistry in the last month, after a salvo of complaints about mall stalls, changed its rules to explain that whitening can only be executed by duly licensed dental professionals or hygienists and dental assistants under their direct supervision of these professionals only. One owner of a salon who was just so disconcerted as he discussed the situation stated that it is annoying how they never even touch the mouths of their patrons and yet they are being blamed to be rampantly practicing dentistry in their salons.
Ohio's dental board agreed, finding that while it does have some concerns about unregulated use of the materials, whitening by nondentists is OK as long as consumers position the light by themselves, put the material on their own teeth, and no one else touches their mouths. When you teach people how to make trays and apply substances on teeth for teeth whitening purposes it does not mean that you are practicing dentistry and the board agrees with this.
Practice of teeth whitening has taken root in the past 4 or 5 years only, according to an ADA spokesman who states that whitening was done on a cruise seven years ago. He shares that there is a policy under the American Dental Association but there is no way that such is enforceable. The dental boards and governments of states are going to have to figure out how they're going to handle it.
