Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed Republican state Rep. Thomas Murt’s May 20 opinion piece titled “Mail order orthodontics on the rise.” In this column, Rep. Murt outlined the reasons that he believes mail-order braces and at-home straightening kits, such as Invisalign, to be (in his words) “a very dangerous practice that needs to be addressed.” He ends the piece by noting that he has introduced legislation to the General Assembly which “requires patients to see a dentist or orthodontist and be cleared for orthodontic treatment, whether it be through the mail or through the traditional in-person approach.”
Rep. Murt’s motivation for writing this piece is worth careful review. You see, at least since Rep. Murt appeared at a meeting of the Pennsylvania Dental Association’s Political Action Committee (PADPAC) in 2012, Rep. Murt has received substantial donations from PADPAC. PADPAC supports Pennsylvania’s dentists; out-of-state distributors of mail-order orthodontics are not among its supporters.
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