MHRA warns dentists about the dangers of counterfeit equipment
- Details
- Published: Monday, 20 October 2014 07:14
- Written by News Editor
- Hits: 1670
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is warning dentists about the potential danger of buying and using counterfeit and unapproved dental equipment. This follows the seizure of over 12,000 different pieces of poor quality dental equipment imported into the UK from China and Pakistan and sold on auction websites such as eBay, Amazon and Alibaba in the past 6 months.
The MHRA – the UK’s regulator for medical devices and medicines – has six ongoing investigations involving the purchase of counterfeit and unapproved dental equipment such as high-speed hand piece drills from auction websites by UK dentists. The seized items include:
- 24 dental x-ray machines that emit high levels of radiation
- 384 hand-piece drills that could malfunction and disintegrate inside patient’s mouths
- 3,242 poor quality root canal files that could break
While there is no evidence to suggest that buying equipment from auction websites is a widespread or deliberate practice among dentists, the MHRA is concerned about the growing range of dental equipment that is being advertised to dentists at cheap prices, both online and at dental trade fairs in China.
The MHRA issued a safety alert to all dentistry professionals in January 2014, following an incident in November 2013 when a counterfeit product for drilling and cleaning teeth shattered while being used on a patient. The patient was unharmed but the MHRA aims to raise awareness among dentistry professionals so that other patients are not put at risk.
Tony Reed, British Dental Industry Association’s Executive Director, said: “We are delighted to be working closely with the MHRA to raise awareness of counterfeit and non-compliant products through our Counterfeit and Substandard Instruments and Devices Initiative (CSIDI).”
You need to be logged in to leave comments.
Report