I had an update this week from a dental supplier who recently had a visit from Trading Standards, which I thought I would share with you here:
“The visit was a follow up from a phone call by Trading Standards that we had a few weeks ago.
From the phone call we were advised to not sell any teeth whitening product that is specifically designed to be given to patients (packs that contain tray boxes and bags etc). As part of this conversation they did confirm they were not telling us to stop selling whitening. Prior actions on our behalf was to label all whitening products with the following “intended for in surgery use only” before it was sent to a customer. At the visit, TS looked over all the products we sold and they confirmed that as we are labelling packs they are very happy that we have taken voluntary steps to advise dentists that it is their duty, not ours as a supplier, not to supply consumers with the product.
TS have reiterated that they are happy with dentists doing in-surgery whitening as this is in a controlled and prescribed environment, the problem lies when a patient takes whitening home as this is when it goes in to the cosmetic regulations in the consumer act. The end result is we are still allowed to sell in-surgery whitening and also syringe packs of whitening as long as they aren’t specifically designed for patients – packs with syringes only are fine.
As part of the meeting they did also say it is only Essex Trading Standards that are working on this due to the initial complaint. They also asked that if we knew of any non GDC registered people providing consumers whitening, saying they would investigate them and the products used and if they feel it is right they will report them to the GDC if they deem them to be providing a dental procedure.
TS were very helpful to us and did say that at no time, except the one company that we all know of, they have not told any other companies to stop selling whitening but advised them on how to be as safe in the supply as possible.”