Beware the Dental Bootlegger!
Dental racketeers are menacing your
family's health with a multimillion-dollar
coast-to-coast health fraud.
Unscrupulous dental laboratory technicians,
defying Federal and state laws, are actually
performing bootleg dentistry upon many thou
sands of persons all over the nation.
These operators are not qualified dentists.
Some did not even attend high school, and in
many cases all the dental knowledge they pos
sess was obtained by mail-order schooling ! Yet
they do not hesitate to solicit "patients" and
perform complex procedures ranging from
extracting teeth to making bridgework or full
plates for them.
The unfortunate fact is that their customers
go to them willingly, lured by promises of den
tistry at bargain-basement prices. Each year,
many millions of dollars are f unneled into the
coffers of the charlatans. Sooner or later, their
victims learn that there is no cut-rate road to
dental health.
Let me cite just a few of the tragic results that have come to light.
: . In Illinois, a 31-year-old housewife had to lose more than a dozen
perfectly sound teeth that might have lasted her a lifetime. Improperly
made clasps on a bridge prepared by a dental bootlegger put the wrong
kind of pressure on her own teeth, causing them to loosen. By the time
she went to a qualified dentist, it was too late to save them.
She was one of the more fortunate ones, at that. In a Western state,
a woman must remain toothless for the rest of her life because her
mouth cannot support artificial teeth of any kind. Poorly made den
tures, constructed for her by a technician, so altered the bone ridges,
that there is nothing left to support a dental appliance. . ' t
In Missouri, a small boy must wear a bridge for the remainder of
his days because of a dental bootlegger's bungling. .
In New York State, a storekeeper developed severe digestive trouble
because of bootleg dentistry. Chewing was so painful following sessions
with a charlatan that he was swallowing his food in large chunks.
In Ohio, a mother of four young children became so severely under
nourished that she nearly died of influenza. Her mouth had been so
lacerated that she was unable to eat at all.
I want to make one point clear. The vast majority of dental labora
'. tories in America are certainly efficient and law-abiding. These employ
skilled technicians who are trained to prepare dentures and other
appliances in accordance with a dentist's instructions.
However, a number of fringe operators and their employees are
causing all the trouble. These individuals, interested only in making a
MSP I
By CHARLES H. PATTON, D.D.S.
. President, American Dental Association
fast dollar, set themselves up as "dentists."
They attract people by spreading the word that
they are "much cheaper" than licensed dentists.
"Why go to them?" they ask. "After all, a den
tist will only take impressions and send them to
us. We're the ones who really make the dental
appliances. Why not skip the middleman and
save all that money?" .
Let me explain why they are wrong.
A dentist, you see, does far more than merely
fit a crown, bridge, or other appliance into the
mouth of a patient.1 He must fit it to the body
as well. Artificial teeth not only function locally
but have an important effect upon the entire
body because of the forces that are utilized, the
tissues and bone upon which they rest, and the
food that is eaten. .
The dentist must answer these vital questions :
Are the dentures the correct height so that
natural facial appearance is not changed? Do
the jaws work properly? (If not, a patient can
be afflicted with excruciating ear and neck
pains). How is speech affected? Are the dentures hurting supporting
bone or tissue? Do teeth come together as they should?
Serious consequences can result if any one of these points is over
looked, and a licensed dentist searches for the answers. He has
devoted thousands of hours to the study of the complex physiological,
biological, and mechanical factors required to diagnose and treat den
tal ills. Moreover, he is trained to look for diseases that reveal their
first symptoms in the mouth and teeth oral cancer, diabetes, certain
heart diseases, and other ailments. Illegal technicians do not they
cannot possess this knowledge.
And they are breaking the law as well. Legally, only a licensed den
tist is permitted to diagnose or determine the design of a denture or
to work in a patient's mouth. Whenever possible, state enforcement
agencies are bringing these violators to book.
My urgent advice is this: Don't put yourself or any member of your
family into the untrained hands of a dental bootlegger. Make sure you
have work done only by licensed dentists highly trained professional
people whose "shingles" outside their offices and on their cards state
that they are actually dentists. On their walls are diplomas from
accredited dental schools. On the other hand, the bootlegger is easily
recognized: he operates in a laboratory, he has no diploma from a
dental school, he does not call himself a dentist.
Allowing him to work in your mouth can cost you more than money.
It may even cost you something far more precious your health.
Unscrupulous technicians can give you bargain-basement prices and a lifetime of trouble
COVER:
Photographed by Ozzie Sweet, dark-haired
Kathleen Johnson from Trenton, S. J., is
the sixth Mist Somebody to grace Family
Weekly' cover. Read about her on page 6.
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