Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Advice
  • Published:

Importing dental devices and appliances from EU

BDJ In Practice volume 34, page 39 (2021)Cite this article

With the rules on importing goods having changed at the end of the Brexit transition period a number of practices have asked the BDA how this affects the import of dental devices and appliances from the EU. It is also a topic on which the BDA recently had discussions with the British Dental Industry Association (BDIA) for their view on how arrangements, post-Brexit, for importing dental devices and appliances from EU countries are getting along.

Over 75% of dental materials are imported into the UK, most of them from the EU. However, the BDIA had not raised any immediate concerns over supply with us in the run-up to the end of the transition period, and awareness among the dental industry of the new requirements around customs declarations and transport issues is deemed to be good. This does not mean that there have been no problems since January - at present, new systems and procedures do not yet seem to have fully bedded-in. The BDIA reported that delays are now occurring with imports and exports affecting the majority of suppliers, and some companies have noted increased transport costs by up to 70-90% and so could impact on pricing. At the moment, though, it is not possible to say which issues are merely teething troubles and which are a new part of the logistics process. And with Northern Ireland having a special status there are specific new processes that only apply to devices that are sent between Britain and Northern Ireland.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Medical Devices Regulation 2002 (SI 2002 No 618, as amended) (UK MDR 2002)

  2. Directive 93/42/EEC on medical devices (EU MDD).

  3. . HMRC videos, webinars and email alerts. Available online at:www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-webinars-email-alerts-and-videos (Accessed 20 March 2021).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. British Dental Association, 64 Wimpole Street, W1G 8YS, London, UK

    James Dawson

Authors
  1. James Dawson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to James Dawson.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Dawson, J. Importing dental devices and appliances from EU. BDJ In Pract 34, 39 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41404-021-0713-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41404-021-0713-8

Search

Advanced search

Quick links