'Crack down' on dangerous dental craze

However, the Dental Council has called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban the sale of dental supplies to anyone but dentists from next week.

The FDA said yesterday that it would ask the Medical Supply Committee to list |fashionable tooth braces as a medical item so that they become controlled products.

The move follows headlines about a Khon Kaen student who died from a mouth infection after undergoing an orthodontic operation performed by an amateur because it was fashionable.

The president of the council's sub-panel for dental |consumer protection, Thongchai Wachirarojpaisal, said a "google" search found 57,000 websites offering trendy orthodontic services, selling dental supplies and offering orthodontic courses.

One-day course

Some sites selling dental supplies boast about a handbook that can teach anyone orthodontic techniques "by themselves" or via a one-day course for a fee of Bt6,900.

There are more than 10,000 fashion orthodontic businesses nationwide and it yields huge profits of Bt10,000 to Bt20,000 per day, or Bt100,000 a month in net profit if entrepreneurs use low-quality cheap materials.