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Health inspectors shocked by conditions at Framingham dental lab

It might be assumed that the dentures people put in their mouths are manufactured to high standards in a clean, sterile environment. But health inspectors say the conditions they found recently at a makeshift denture lab in a downtown warehouse are not only unsanitary, but revolting.

"It's hard to describe, because it was so bad," said Board of Health Director Ethan Mascoop, who said he found hundreds of things wrong at Newton Dental Lab's 763 Waverly St. facility.

Despite that, the town and state are powerless to shut down the business.

Local officials are calling for legislators to solve the root problem: licenses aren't required for such laboratories; that means no regulatory oversight.

Police found technician Donald Canton's lab on June 3 when they investigated a local woman's complaint. She told police Canton had taken her dental impressions, and her $380, but failed to have her dentures ready on time.

After looking around the lab, police called the Board of Health.

Canton was making and handling dentures amid piles of trash, discarded food, materials and debris. Inspectors watched him perform intricate work in the small industrial space near broken egg shells and orange peels. There was water damage, and mold growing on the wall, Mascoop said.

Inspectors learned Canton was working directly with patients, and also filling prescriptions for fitted dentures sent in by dentists in Newton, Wellesley and Waltham, Mascoop said.

After a call from the town, the state Board of Registration in Dentistry ordered Canton to stop practicing dentistry without a license.

Still, the town and state can't stop him from manufacturing dentures.

"It does not come squarely under the Board of Health's authority or jurisdiction," Mascoop said. "It doesn't come under anyone. ... From my perspective it is very, very frustrating because we don't have the ability to take action."

The state, too, is concerned, said Jean Pontikas, director of the state Division of Health Professions Licensure. The economy is driving more people to buy dentures or dental appliances directly from manufacturers, rather than through a dentist, she said.

"Individuals aren't able to access dental services for economic reasons," Pontikas said.

Canton previously ran his business in Newtonville, where inspectors there found he was hoarding trash, rotten food and other debris. Newton found the conditions there amounted to a public health nuisance.

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