A factory that allegedly produced dentures using waste metals and shoe polish has been raided by both the municipal and Tongzhou district drug authorities. 

The sub-standard dentures were mostly purchased by some clinics and hospitals at below market price.

An anonymous media officer from the Beijing Drug Administration told the Global Times Tuesday that the case has been passed to the court.

"I can't tell you anything more than that," she said.

It is not known if the hospitals will also be prosecuted.

The Beijing Jingjiayichi Tooth Processing Factory in Tongzhou district, established in 2004, produced the dentures for merely 10s of yuan, the Beijing News reported Monday.

Dozens of small clinics and hospitals may have been complicit in the scam, selling them to patients for nine times the cost price. The factory received around 60 orders daily, the report said.

Owner Huang Yuchao confirmed that his factory is closed.

"I can't tell you anything. Now I'm nothing but a criminal," Huang told the Global Times Tuesday.

A media officer from Tongzhou Drug Administration, surnamed Li, said they had inspected the factory on Sunday, but denied reports that it had used shoe polish on the teeth.  

"The factory used a harmless sterilizer, not shoe polish,"  he said, although he could not give the name of the sterilizer.

Asked what people should do if they suspected they had bought fake dentures, he said there would be no way to identify whether the teeth included suspect materials.   

"If people have doubts about the quality of their dentures, they may send a complaint to us for investigation," said Li.

Li Zhuo, an attending physician at Beijing Jinri Stomatological Hospital in Xicheng district, told the Global Times that it is common for metal to be used for making dentures.

"The dentures need to be polished, but not with shoe oil," she said. Li Zhuo said that their clinic receives medical supplies from larger, licensed factories.

Although stainless steel is the cheapest material for producing dentures, its manufacturing cost would be at least 100 yuan ($16), and can go up to  thousands of yuan, depending on the brand and quality of the teeth, said Li Zhuo.

"Dentures would be sterilized with 100 degree hot water at the factory and clinics before being fitted on patients," she said, adding that a good pair of dentures will be hard and durable, but low quality ones will cause mouth inflammation.

Zhou Zijun, professor with the School of Public Health at Peking University, said that although there was a lack of government supervision, the hospitals and clinics that did  business with the factory should also take responsibility.

"Some doctors might use their position as a way to get commission from medical supplies purchased from unlicensed factories," he said.