Smilequest - teeth whitening

[Nick SmileQuest]

Hi Sam.

The case in point was in reference to a gentleman called Ben Faddi. Ben is a qualified Dentist in Iraq who had not taken his English conversion course to practice Dentistry in the UK.

Ben was performing a clinic at a Beauty Salon when a local Dentist saw that the salon was performing Lazer Teeth Whitening. The Dentist was obviously unhappy about this and took down the contact number. The Dentist invited Ben to his Dental Surgery to demonstrate the treatment.

As Ben had not taken the relevant conversion course he was not registered as a legal Dentist in the uk. As such he was in a Dental Surgery perfoming what the GDC see as a Dental treatment and took him to court for being non - qualified. As the GDC can only prosecute 'in house' this is the case they are using. If Ben had performed the demonstration at the salon he would of been fine as it is deemed a cosmetic treatment.

Treatment Risk Insurance is available in the industry. Depending on the company you buy your equipment from you would need to verify what requirements are needed to attain the insurance.

I hope this clarifies.

regards,

Nick. :green:

 

[moley332]

A breast Enlargement Surgery is hardly comparable to Whitening teeth Ive seen no anasethetics being administered or scalpals being waved about during a teeth whiteining treatment ( Im sure some people would like the anasethetic though due to the sensitivity some people endure lol ) At the end of the day it is the use of the levels of hydrogen administered which is the legal issue which both Teeth whitening people and Dentists are in the same boat Just because the GDC says it is ok doesnt make it legal for them to do and not anybody else Imagine the uproar if a doctor prescribed 220 times the legal level of a drug !

 

[Nick SmileQuest]

http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=759

Regards,

Nick. :green:

 

[JOM]

Treatment Risk Insurance is available in the industry. Depending on the company you buy your equipment from you would need to verify what requirements are needed to attain the insurance.

I hope this clarifies.

regards,

Nick. :green:

What about clinics?
Your therapist doing the treatment... how does the salon stand insurance cover wise?

 

[charlie100]

I have heard of Smile Quest, but i would do your research if you are planning to set up Teeth Whitening. There are plenty of companies that offer, the teeth whitening equipment just do a simple GOOGLE search.

I currently offer the service, and so FAR its been quite a success.

Charlie

hi,

do any of you do teeth whitening?
could you create a demand? is it a good earner?
have you heard of smilequest? if so what are your thoughts?

cheers

 

[JOM]

charlie... did you buy the equipment?
can you PM me the equipment you are using, costs involved in your set-up if that isn't to personal please?

much appreciated

 

[Dan Smith]

Have you seen all the BAD publicity about Salon tooth whitening recently ?

It's been in all the papers, Salons being sued, making Asthma worse, Insurance not covering and Trading Standards looking to target Salons, using undercover investigators etc.

What is going on ?

I'm sooooo glad I wasn't tempted by all those smooth talking salesmen - who wants to be left with £6k of useless whitening equipment ?

Can Salons get their money back from any companies mis-selling Tooth Whitening Equipment if they've just signed the contracts ?

Well I don't need all this grief and bad publicity - this site should really warn all Salons about the dangers - this is serious problems !

Thankyou Sam for at least trying to warning us - buyer beware - if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.

Dan.

 

[Dan Smith]

Charlie100,

Have you read all the Newspapers this week?

Here is link to Which ? magazine article

Illegal tooth whitening exposed

Are you Dentist or do you get Dentist in ?

Have you spoken to your Insurance company about Tooth Whitening?

I called to ask if i can tooth Whiten and at first they said "probably yes", but when i asked for it in writing they then called me ack and told me if anything happens to customer on my premises like burn lip or gums or they get worse Asthma or medical problem, even if I get someone else in to do this, I will be personally liable too, if sued for Tooth Whitening problems, so no they won't cover me or my Salon.

I asked if someone (not Dentist) does it am I OK then, but they said it's my Salon so I could get sued for providing premises and they were sure I'm not covered for anything deemed illegal or maybe harmful, like Tooth Whitening.

They also told me they have stopped any past cover for this and soon will print actual exclusion in policy and said any toothwhitening legal problems could affect my ability to get renewal insurance in future.

Please get proper legal advice as soon as possible to protect yourself and your business - if you are self-employed like me your home/car/savings/family is at risk if sued, not like being employed is it?

Dan.

I have heard of Smile Quest, but i would do your research if you are planning to set up Teeth Whitening. There are plenty of companies that offer, the teeth whitening equipment just do a simple GOOGLE search.

I currently offer the service, and so FAR its been quite a success.

Charlie

 

[BABTAC Manager]

Charlie

Be very careful.

Click here BABTAC - The Official Site of the British Association of Beauty Therapy and Cosmetology to get the full facts, or you could be in real trouble.

Regards

PHILIP SWINFORD
Marketing Services Manager
BABTAC

 

[Tooth Fairy]

Charlie

Be very careful.

Click here BABTAC - The Official Site of the British Association of Beauty Therapy and Cosmetology to get the full facts, or you could be in real trouble.

Regards

PHILIP SWINFORD
Marketing Services Manager
BABTAC

But are you really quoting the full facts?
Your website only states that it is illegal to use a higher concentration than 0.1%.

It doesn't mention the fact that according to the Dental Act 2006 it is a criminal act to practice any dentistry - including whitening teeth - unless you are a registered member of The General Dental Council.

I wouldn't touch Smile Quest or any other scheme with a barge pole !

Tooth whitening is restricted to dentists

The GDC believes that only registered dentists should be offering tooth whitening treatments and that the practice of tooth whitening by non-dental professionals is illegal.
We advise any member of the public wanting tooth whitening to speak to their dentist.
It is the GDC’s view that tooth whitening amounts to the practice of dentistry. The carrying out of dentistry by non-registrants is a criminal offence.
The GDC is committed to protecting the public by investigating and prosecuting people who are not registered with the GDC and who perform, or provide clinical advice about tooth whitening.
If anyone has any information that suggests an unregistered person may be undertaking tooth whitening, they should report this matter to us:
Call us on 020 7009 2773 or email us on [email protected]
For more information please see our statement about tooth whitening by following this link.

 

[JOM]

To draw a line under this for everyone.

We did agree to run a clinic with smilequest doing the treatments.
We didn't get much interest at all.

We also phoned Salon Gold (our insurers) and it would cost us another £600 liability to do the whitening even without us doing it and Smilequest having there own insurance.

We would be allowed to do the teeth whitening without us doing it if we didn't advertise or recommend.
As they explained t even if we recommended someone to go over the road to Spar as they did good butties and they got ill from the buttie we could get sued for recommending them.

So that's basically it.
Not illegal as the dentists like to make out, but expensive on the insurance.
This is from me from a totally un-biased point of veiw.

 

[sam redman]

Hi JOM,

Thanks for your objective view - as my insurers wouldn't touch tooth whitening and told me they wouldn't cover anything that might be illegal, I was pleased to see that your insurers Salon Gold would offer cover, even if it wasn't cheap, I wouldn't want to be personally liable if anything went wrong on my premises - people are just too quick to sue these days and there are plenty of no-win no-fee Lawyers with little work to help them do it too.

So I asked Salon Gold about cover (especially as their website says they cover tooth whitening and tooth jewelry) and this is what they replied by email yesterday,

"Hello Sam

Thank you for your email. However, we have presently suspended this cover
pending further decisions from our underwriters.

We are sorry we are unable to help you on this occasion.

Kind regards

Alison French
Salon Gold Insurance"

My gut feeling is to definately stay well clear of this now and I agree not advertising it or recommending it or anything to do with this mess is a sensible way to go - I have enough other work to do and develop anyway without taking on what might be a nightmare.

But thanks for trying to make some sense of it all - without insurance you can count on 100% if/when a Lawyer's letter lands on the doorstep, it's just not worth the grief.

What do all those poor Salons who have been mis-sold tooth whitening equipment for many thousands of pounds do now - risk everything or take a loss on their accounts - will these companies take back their equipment and their promises of easy money ?

Glad I didn't jump in too early,

Sam.

 

[EMMA AT ELITE]

Hi All,
I have had my teeth whiten with smile quest and smile spa.
I much prefered and would highly recommend smile spa.
You have to be SO very careful with the products used, and please dont quote me as i am not 100% sure but i think i was told that smile quest use peroxide that shouldnt be used as it causes sensitivity.
I had my teeth done first with smile quest, and during procedue was fine, but after and the following 24hrs the sensitivity was horried! I can take pain, but even i had to take nurofen!!! I have never suffered with sensite teeth before so it was a NASTY surprise.
3 months later i then had my teeth whiten with smile spa, what a difference, confident, professional, and the best thing lovely longer lasting white teeth with no pain or sensitivty!
So there you go i have tried both, and my honest answer would be to go with smile spa.
Mad having my teeth done twice in 3 months you may be thinking but personally i wont be happy til they are as white as Simon Cowell!!!
It was my quest to try both out and see what i prefered as i wanted to do teeth whitening myself, but in the end i decided against, as i would of gone for smile spa, but found the lady too pushy, expecting me to make a decison then and there, when i had just found out how much it would cost, then she phoned everyday for a week, and in the end when i said i could not finanically afford it , she turned round and said "i didnt think you would!"
HOW RUDE!!!
So at the end of the day good results but rude staff!!
:irked:

 

[BABTAC Manager]

But are you really quoting the full facts?
Your website only states that it is illegal to use a higher concentration than 0.1%.

It doesn't mention the fact that according to the Dental Act 2006 it is a criminal act to practice any dentistry - including whitening teeth - unless you are a registered member of The General Dental Council.

I wouldn't touch Smile Quest or any other scheme with a barge pole !

Tooth whitening is restricted to dentists

The GDC believes that only registered dentists should be offering tooth whitening treatments and that the practice of tooth whitening by non-dental professionals is illegal.
We advise any member of the public wanting tooth whitening to speak to their dentist.
It is the GDC’s view that tooth whitening amounts to the practice of dentistry. The carrying out of dentistry by non-registrants is a criminal offence.
The GDC is committed to protecting the public by investigating and prosecuting people who are not registered with the GDC and who perform, or provide clinical advice about tooth whitening.
If anyone has any information that suggests an unregistered person may be undertaking tooth whitening, they should report this matter to us:
Call us on 020 7009 2773 or email us on [email protected]
For more information please see our statement about tooth whitening by following this link.

Tooth Fairy - actually, unless I'm missing something, I think you're referring to The Dentists Act 1984 which does not mention tooth whitening at all! I can't find reference to a 'Dental Act 2006', but I'd be interested if you know of one.

The bottom line is that hydrogen peroxide (carbamide, urea et al) is illegal above 0.1% - and that's statute under the Cosmetics Products Safety Regs. And chlorine dioxide, which is technically legal at the moment, is often considered to be less than 100% safe by many scientists.

Until there is a test case brought by Trading Standards specifically because a therapist whitened with chlorine dioxide AND there were no complaints or problems with their client - in other words, a precedent about the act of whitening itself - there is a grey area. Although the Health Secretary has stated in Parliament that the Depatment agrees with the GDC, there has been no legal test yet. (In case anyone wants to refer to it; the Ben Nahab case was not a fair test as there were other considerations regarding what he actually did.)

For what it's worth though; BABTAC's official position is that ALL tooth whitening should be considered the preserve of the dentist.

We publish Vitality Magazine for our members. I find it interesting that all the other magazines take reams of pages of ads from tooth whitening companies who are selling equipment and compounds illegally. We believe that this is irresponsible and adding fuel to the fire.

Regards

PHILIP SWINFORD
Marketing Services Manager
BABTAC

 

[LooLoo]

Hi There,

Was reading some of your info there and I am now slightly worried as I have just purchased the system 2 months ago???


Loo Loo

 

[BABTAC Manager]

Looloo

Take a look at the Latest News pages of BABTAC - The Official Site of the British Association of Beauty Therapy and Cosmetology, and if you think you need any advice or asistance help get in touch with me [email protected] or 0845 065 9003.

Always pleased to help.

Regards

PHILIP SWINFORD
Marketing Services Manager
BABTAC

 

[JenSta]

Hi LooLoo and everyone else concerned with teeth whitening.

I was approached by teeth whitening company Mist Air Beauty last November. I was told the system was completely safe, completely legal and was becoming massively popular. After looking and reading info (what limited info there was) seeing the masses of ads in the popular trade magazines, Professional Beauty et al, and asking the clients in my salon if they woud like it, it did indeed look like this was a great business concept - the companies flogging this stuff were also - and still are - exhibiting at all the big shows. So, I bought the system for £4,000 plus VAT. The product uses 6% Peroxide.
And what a nightmare ever since.

Not only is the treatment UNpopular, I received several anonymous threats of being sued within 2 weeks of advertising the treatments, ( I assume fron dentists in my area) spent hundreds and hundreds of pounds on advertising and print materials, and have indeed been told by Trading Standards that IT IS ILLEGAL to supply treatments that contain more than 0.1% peroxide in the UK and if I carry out any treatments I would be prosecuted. Period.

Strangely, Mist Air Beauty Limited refuse to take my calls, I have had no reply to letters sent to Bank of Scotland with whom I took out a rental agreement for the equipment, the broker who arranged it all said "sorry it's nothing to do with us" and I've just spend a further £240 with a solicitor to see what I can do about it all.

So please, please, please do not even think about buying ANY teeth whitening system, because you'll be stuck like me, and I'm sure lots of other people, with worthless equipment that I have to pay for, for the next 4 years.

As regards BABTAC and the other professional organisations - please do something!!!! It's not good enough to post a statement on your site months after the trouble has started. Therapists and the industry as a whole need your heavyweight action. Stop these unscrupulous suppliers advertising, stop them exhibiting at shows that you sponsor. Someone needs to DO something!!

Sorry everyone for ranting, but I'm so frustrated. I'm just an ordinary person trying to make a living and provide for my family and I'm tired of getting ripped off.

 

[BABTAC Manager]

Hi JenSta

Ow, that hurts!

We DID do quite a lot.

We did one hell of a lot of research to establish exactly what the situation actually was; nobody really wanted to talk about it, and it took us (me personally, actually) a lot of time. As a result of our work several insurers now refuse cover.

We told all our members OVER A YEAR AGO through our magazine, and on our website (both in the public and members' area) that teeth whitening was illegal.

We put a 3 page feature in Professional Beauty in February saying the same thing. Strange that most magazines (who take ads from teeth whitening companies) didn't run with it...

We accept NO advertising from teeth whitening companies in our magazine, Vitality - but we can't stop the other mags from taking it. We will NOT have a teeth whitening company on our exhibitions, seminars and events but, again, we can't stop others from doing so.

We have already helped quite a few members and even non-members with legal fights (if you're having trouble contact me).

We have helped quite a few journalists (print and broadcast) put their news and editorial features together.

I have hung around as many Forums as I can to help therapists and to spread the truth when it's needed!

What else could we do?

Regards

PHILIP SWINFORD
Marketing Services Manager
BABTAC

 

[JenSta]

Hi Richard

It seems I have upset you. It was certainly not my intention to have a go at you personally please accept my apologies if that's they way it came across. I think I was having a particularly bad day.

My point really is, there just isn't enough information around. Girls are still getting calls from companies trying to sell this stuff and getting hoodwinked into parting with their cash with promises of earning a good return. I think Professional Beauty are an absolulate disgrace. They accept advertising, having these people at their exhibition and yet they themselves don't offer insurance for the treatment - where's the logic in that? oh yes... revenue.

I will contact you Richard and thank you for the offer to help if you can, it's appreciated.

 

[BABTAC Manager]

JenSta

No offence taken - except I assume I'm now Richard. I feel similarly, and please contact me if you need anything. My name is plastered all over the BABTAC website.

Regards

PHILIP SWINFORD
Marketing Services Manager
BABTAC