Dental Editorial: Contrary to US Law, Veterans May Be Getting Foreign Dental Work

Contrary to US Law, Veterans May Be Getting Foreign Dental Work

It’s Hard to “Buy American” When US Labs Secretly Outsource

Remember WBNS, the Ohio TV station that originally broke the story of lead-tainted dental lab restorations? Well, their investigative team is back with another report about dental labs.

VA hospitals and clinics provide US veterans with medical and dental care. In using government funds, these hospitals and clinics are legally committed (or at least, they’re supposed to be) to “Buy American” when it comes to medical products.

What is the Buy American Act?

In 1933, the US passed the “Buy America Act.” This legislation declared that the US government should preferentially purchase American products over foreign-made goods.

The exceptions to the law are as follows:

Foreign-made product is substantially cheaper than its US equivalent.
Foreign-made product is substantially higher in quality.
Product is not available domestically.
The President has waived the Act within international free-trade agreements such as the US-Canada FTA.

Learn more about the Buy American Act

In Columbus, Ohio, veterans may go to the Chalmers P. Wylie Veterans Clinic for dental work. Though the clinic manufactures some of their own dental restorations, the majority are sent to a Florida dental laboratory.

Florida: that’s buying American, right? Well, WBNS reports that’s not necessarily so.

They spoke to two former employees of the Florida lab who claim that most of the work is actually manufactured in China. Moreover, the station reports hearing similar stories about other dental labs that work with VA clinics. One ex-employee of a Texas lab alleged that the lab intentionally misled dentists into believing that Chinese-made work was produced in the US.

The lead scandal has raised awareness of the fact that many American labs outsource work to other countries. Not only do dental patients not know they’re getting foreign-made dental work, but often the dentists themselves don’t even know where the product was manufactured.

This is particularly relevant to veterans’ health because of the Buy American Act. While there aren’t laws in place to protect the average American consumer from foreign-made work (or, indeed, even inform them of it), veterans are in a different category. The law demands that their work be made domestically.