Foreign Dental Labs Cause a Stir Among Dentists (video)

Thanks Jim for highlighting this subject again.

Our company was created to import the finest dental restorations in the world. Our laboratory, located just outside of Hong Kong in Shenzhen China, is the largest dental laboratory in the world. They have been very successful in Europe for two decades and for the last five years been available to US Dentists through our company. We believe in complete transparency, so all our clients know exactly where our restorations are assembled and we even track the lot numbers of all materials through to the patient for five years.

The best way for a Dentist to determine if the restoration is a safe and a quality product is through 3rd party verification of adherence to international quality standards. Fortunately, our laboratory is certified by the German ISO registrar TUV to ISO 13485, the international quality management standard for medical devices. This is recognized by the FDA as supassing the GMP requirements that apply to all dental laboraotories.

There are many very fine laboratories here in the US and abroad in Europe and Asia. Unfortunately, only 326 US dental labs out of over 12,000 have earned the designation, Certified Dental Laboratory (CDL) by the NBC. That is less than 3%. In addition, only about 12% of all dental technicians have acheived the Certified Dental Technician credential (CDT). These are the basic credentials available to all US labs.

If Dentists could value these 3rd party credentitals, they could more easily be able to determine the laboratories that pursued professionalism that results in quality products. And not rely on inaccurate perceptions based on the location of the manufacturing facility. This would in turn motivate self-regulation rather than placing more burden on Govermental organizations.

Patrick Tessier, MBA
CEO & President
Northwest Laboratories