An Ohio CBS-TV affiliate is airing today an investigative report about outsourcing dental lab work offshore and the story’s hook is that one of the crowns received from a Chinese lab contained lead.

The reporter worked with a local dentist to order eight dental crowns (porcelain and full metal) from several labs in China, which were then sent to NSL Analytics in Cleveland for testing. One of the crowns tested positive for lead at 210 ppm. The story also includes information about a woman from Kent, Ohio, with a partial bridge that apparently tested positive for lead at 160 ppm. The woman apparently filed or will be filing a lawsuit, alleging that the bridge caused infection and swelling, which she attributes to the lead.

Product dangers from China regarding contamination are big in the media these days… witness the recent pet food and toy stories from 2007, so it’s important for you to be armed with the facts.

Here’s what we don’t know and need to find out:

* We don’t know whether this is an isolated incident or indicates a larger problem. We were surprised to learn that any dental prosthetic device might have lead in it.

* We understand that the lead was found in the surface of the crown, so our scientists suspect (but do not know for sure) that it could have come from the pigment. It’s also theoretically possible that the lead could have come through a soldering process or as a contaminant from the lab environment. Again, as noted above, lead should not be in any FDA-approved materials.

Needless to say, this is a very delicate issue. No one is more concerned about the possibility of lead contamination of dental products than dentists. On the other hand, we don’t want to overreact to what could be an isolated incident. For now, be armed with the facts… Ask your dentist if they outsource work to China. If they do, let them know about this, so they can find alternatives.

My Take: I just heard about this, so I’ll be adding more to this story later today… stay tuned