Chuck Yenkner

Ah, the good ‘ole PFM: the staple of fixed prosthetics since the 1960s. Even in this new age of all-ceramic restorations, gold alloys are still used in a significant percentage of the cases done in most labs. IdentAlloy/IdentCeram, which certifies materials used in dental restorations, reports that in 2008 high-noble and noble alloy certificates comprised 69% of the certificates shipped by the organization. Final figures for 2009 are not available yet, however early indications are that this figure will be down but not as much as you might think.

I recently read an article about a nursery school employee who embezzled more than $150,000 from a private school over a five-year period. The nursery school was a small nonprofit, and the suspect worked there as a trusted bookkeeper for about 30 years. She did this by issuing checks to herself from school accounts for money she was not owed and was able to conceal her actions.

CAD/CAM has been a topic of discussion in the dental lab business for a number of years now, and there are numerous opinions about it-examples of many appear in this issue of DLP. Now that we have you thinking about CAD/CAM, I figure this is a good opportunity to get my 2 cents worth out there too.

I am always amused by the fact that we call ourselves Dental Technicians, our field Dental Technology and yet in some ways many of us are reluctant to use newer technologies to improve the productivity of our dental laboratories. Perhaps an even larger problem is under using technologies.

Knowing the right material (or materials) for a particular case is part of the equation, but if it’s not the material requested on the prescription, the first step becomes getting the dentist to agree to your recommendation.

The more time I spend working with my consulting clients and analyzing the dental laboratory business, the more convinced I become that productivity is the most important contributor to profitability. Right now, you are probably thinking “OK Chuck, that’s cool, but what exactly are you talking about?” Fortunately, the good folks at DLP give me a whole page to explain it.

The likelihood of large companies and organizations not having an annual budget and business plan is fairly remote. To succeed, they need to plan on a formal basis what the expectations of future periods will be, and how they will react to changes. Additionally, during the period they will track their performance against this budget and analyze changes that occur. On the other hand, many owners of dental laboratory businesses do not routinely create a budget, let alone a business plan. There are reasons large organizations use these tools and they can help you, too.

Many lab owners start their dental lab with visions of “growing” the business. Everyone’s idea of what constitutes growth is different, and unfortunately, many lab owners don’t have a specific plan for how to go about it. A simple look around the industry illustrates that there are dozens if not hundreds of ways to do it. So the question becomes, what’s the best way for you?

In today’s economy businesses of all types in many industries are being squeezed by increased costs and their inability or reluctance to pass the costs along via increased prices. No one likes higher prices. Customers resist and higher prices make selling more volume that much more difficult. The situation really heats up when not only can the business not pass along price increases, but the business is pressured for price reductions.