Some crowns made in the United States contain lead, WBNS-TV of Columbus, Ohio, reported Friday.
However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the FDA have both discounted the risk from lead in dental work at the reported levels.
WBNS tested dental crowns ordered from labs in Asia and the U.S., and found traces of lead in all of them, it reported.
This test followed an earlier experiment in which the station reported it found lead in eight dental crowns ordered from China.
In the current test, lead concentration ranged from 17 parts per million (ppm) to 250 ppm in the Chinese crowns, WBNS reported. Two crowns imported from Thailand contained 130 ppm and 140 ppm, while the U.S. crowns ranged from 20 ppm to 130 ppm, the station said.
"Such small amounts of lead as reported, however, are extremely unlikely to cause adverse health effects in adults," Kathleen E. Toomey, M.D., M.P.H., health promotion director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote in an April 17 letter to the American Dental Association.
The lead would only be "released in tiny amounts over time," so the agency doesn't recommend patients have their crowns removed or defer dentistry.
And WBNS quoted the FDA as concurring in a letter to the station on Thursday: "Based on a preliminary exposure assessment, FDA does not believe that the levels of lead found in these crowns pose a significant public health risk."
