Outgoing National President of the Nigerian Dental Association, Dr. Tope Adeyemi, says the offering of dental treatments, especially teeth whitening, scaling and polishing, in beauty parlors is illegal.
He also warned that people who undergo teeth whitening procedures in salons and beauty salons are at risk of tooth sensitivity and possibly death.
A sensitive tooth occurs when the dentin is exposed, causing discomfort whenever hot, cold, sweet or acidic foods and drinks are consumed.
Furthermore, the NDA president argued that most beauticians who performed the services were not dentists and were not licensed to offer such services.
Adeyemi further decried the lack of cooperation with law enforcement agents to arrest and shut down salons and parlors offering illegal dental services, stating that the reported cases often did not lead to any meaningful action.
The outgoing president called on law enforcement agencies to work with the association to ensure the closure of illegal clinics for the safety and health of citizens.
PUNCH Healthwise reports that there has been a proliferation of beauty parlors and institutes offering dental services such as teeth whitening and peeling and polishing, alongside facials, hairdressing, nail and spa services.
Further checks at some physical stores revealed that there were no separate areas for dental procedures.
Also, the procedure was performed by attendants who did not wear the required protective covering, such as face masks or gloves.
However, teeth whitening, according to the UK’s National Health Service, is a form of dentistry that should “only be carried out by a dentist or other dental professional, such as a dental hygienist or dentist, on a dental prescription.”
WebMD notes that teeth whitening is a procedure to lighten the color of teeth and remove stains.
Methods, according to another health blog, Healthline, include sanding stains, using bleach or UV light therapy.
Additionally, the active ingredient in the whitening product is hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide.
The European Commission’s Public Health department notes that 62 percent of people who used teeth whitening products containing hydrogen peroxide complained of hypersensitivity (tooth sensitivity), while 45.9 percent reported soft tissue irritation.
According to the World Health Organization, oral diseases affect approximately 3.5 billion people worldwide with far-reaching consequences.
He adds that while oral diseases are preventable, they are a significant health burden in many countries and affect people throughout their lives, causing pain, discomfort, disfigurement and even death.
Continuing, the outgoing NDA president said: “The people who do these procedures in beauty parlors are most often not dentists. The general public is usually tricked into accessing these services in these places, but ideally, they shouldn’t and shouldn’t be allowed to.
“Doing dental procedures in a beauty shop is very illegal. The treatment or manipulation of human tissue, which includes the mouth, should be done by trained professionals and dentists. So if these beauticians do it, it is illegal and not allowed.”
He also noted that many efforts by the club to curb the illegal practice have yielded no results.
“Well, in the past and recently, we have had the police arrest quite a few of them, but you know how Nigeria is. After being arrested, they take money and go free. Like a vicious circle, they are arrested, released and continue their services. This is the situation we are in,” Adeyemi said.
The dentist further noted that some people exposed to the whitening gels used in teeth whitening procedures were at risk of tooth sensitivity.
He added, “Some come with burning gums because all the necessary precautions that need to be taken, the unlicensed people don’t know about it, and so it causes more complications for those people.”
The NDA chairman condemned the activities of unlicensed beauty salons and clinics that offer dental services without a dentist’s license.
He argued that clinics and institutes that wanted to provide oral and dental services without a dentist should not be registered or licensed.
Adeyemi, however, said: “But what we learned was that in some states, they bypass the process and go and register. In other states, they somehow find a doctor’s license and use it to register the facility. So in the records of the state, you can check the owner of the clinic and he would show a doctor, meanwhile, it’s just the doctor’s license that they got, legally or illegally, those puppets who continue to destroy people.”.
He advised Nigerians not to seek dental procedures at beauticians, stating that beauticians are not trained to handle emergencies that could arise.
“If there is an emergency that requires serious treatment, this beautician who is not trained to handle emergencies will not be able to deal with it. An emergency is an emergency situation, it can lead to death.
“Imagine the procedure is done on someone who has asthma, for example, and the person has an asthma attack. What does an esthetician know about asthma management? Before the person even knows what is happening to the person they are caring for, the person will likely die.
“So there are many other complications or other confounding factors that the esthetician is not trained to be able to detect or address if they occur. All they care about is the quick money they want to collect from the individual.
“So they are not allowed, by law, to medicate, because it is a form of therapy. Scaling and polishing and teeth whitening are treatments and they are not allowed to treat anyone if they are not trained as a dentist,” Adeyemi said.
He called on law enforcement agents to work with the NDA to ensure that illegal clinics are shut down for the good of the citizens.
