PETALING JAYA: An expert has warned that the cheap and easily available dental products and equipment available online bypass the regulations controlling the quality and safety of such items under the Medical Devices Act 2012.
Dr P Mahendran, past president of the Malaysian Private Dental Practitioners’ Association, said this posed a danger to patients as dental devices and substances are mainly for oral treatment – the fastest way to absorb toxic elements from items such as fillings, braces and dentures.
He said the association was told of a case where a private practitioner even made an online purchase of a dental chair from China with all the associated parts, adding that this also encouraged the emergence of fake dentists.
Mahendran said some of the items purchased online were several times cheaper than those brought from registered distributors who are subject to checks by the health ministry and other authorities.
“These dentists are actually resorting to purchasing medical devices and dental applications online in order to provide cheaper services and offer packages, gifts and discounts,” he told FMT.
“These products come very cheap and there is no quality control. This is also in clear violation of the Medical Devices Act, which controls the type of materials used for dental fillings, implants and braces, among others.”
He also said the proliferation of advertisements for such products on social media had gone out of control, turning the dental practice in the private sector into a “cheap sale” battle to attract business.
Mahendran said there was a dire need for the tightening of regulations controlling devices and parts, which he said would save the profession from “going down the drain”.
On another matter, he said private practitioners were facing real threats from the proliferation of unethical advertisements offering discounts, packages and freebies on social media.
He said the health ministry’s guideline on advertising under the Private Healthcare and Facilities and Services Act 2018 clearly prohibits this practice.
“It says that private practitioners should not entice prospective patients by offering packages, discounts or special promotions. However, scores of clinics are doing just that,” he said.
Mahendran attributed the situation to an overproduction of dentists and a steep rise in the number of private clinics, among others.
“This shows that all professionalism has been thrown out of the window by the professionals in private practice, and quality is suffering as a result,” he added.
He said the health ministry’s senior director of dental health, Dr Noormi Othman, had been working hard to resolve the problem, to restore decorum to the profession.
“However, violations continue because the existing punishments are not enough of a deterrent. There is a need to make the laws tougher,” he said. - FMT
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