What's your opinion on industry regulations?

My laboratory is in one of these states. Thanks to the Florida Dental Laboratory and Florida Dental Associations collaborations, the industry has 'Changes'. When the law took effect and much was published about it, my lab recieved several calls from Dental offices about it, which was alarming. (flyers were being sent to them) The changes are nothing new to my lab, as we have always disclosed our materials, been registered and attend business and technical clinics each year and made sure our Rx's were signed. The bottom line is that it might seem that your Dental Association is doing you a favor...See more and trying to make it seem as if they are giving some extra 'merritt' to our industry, but it really does not.( In Florida, we pay a $200.00 fee to have a business, a health department fee, a county fee and a FDLA fee per year). There is always someone out there looking at it as a way to make extra money off businesses. You then see flyers in the mail saying you need to go to a seminar to 'learn' what you need to know, for only $65.00. When all you need to do is read the one page regulations and follow them. It is just extra paperwork for the laboratory and the Dentist. I have been to several clinics and over heard many conversations among dentists -the bottom line is they do not want any more regulations and they are sick of the groups of people trying to impose more regulations on them. Real changes need to be in every state including the laboratory and the dental offices to make any real difference to the patients. The new regulations have helped our Florida Health Department, as they have been able to hire more people to make sure 'your prescriptions are signed and dated'. Dentists in Florida can go directly to off shore labs and those labs do not have to abide by the regulations, because the laboratory is not in Florida. Now that is 'real change' that our Laboratory Association did for us! The patient is the issue and the patient needs to be aware of where the work is being fabricated and have a say in where they want it to be made. It is unbelivable that only 9 States have any standards on Dental Labs/Technicians and only 6 States require Dental Labs to be registered. Florida has many rules and regulations and THEY have NOT done anything to improve the professional fees that laboratories charge. If anything, it has made Florida a deluxe 'shipping dock' for off shore labs, adding to the bottom line for UPS and Fed Ex, while taking work from the Florida Laboratories.
Georgia is on the right track with imposing patients rights!
Go Gators!

Dental Laboratories have been under obligation to comply with FDA mandated Good Manufacturing Practices which require all of the things above. How many labs are currently DAMAS or ISO certified? Very few. Most lab owners simply ignore the laws and go about their business. If people ignore the Federal requirments, what makes you think State, County or even city regulations will have any effect? We made this mess ourselves. Now we get to sleep in it.