Pam Johnson

When it comes to marketing laboratory services to potential clients, Dena Lanier, owner of The Lab 2000 located in Columbus, Georgia, has always thought outside the box. So when she saw an opportunity to engage her clients by tapping into the potential new business presented by the soldiers stationed at Fort Benning military base in town, she needed to think big. That’s when she decided to turn to billboards. She wanted to drive the public to dentistry and indirectly to her laboratory.

Lee Culp’s move to join Dental Technologies Inc. (DTI) as Chief Technology Officer is one more step Culp sees to further support a dental technology industry that is rapidly evolving. Owned by Healthpoint Capital, DTI is a network of 17 North American laboratories, including its flagship laboratory, Microdental in Dublin, Calif. DLP talked to Culp on his first day on the job about his decision to join DTI and how he envisions his role there. DLP: What do you want the industry to understand about your most recent move to DTI?

The rising cost of gold and other precious metals combined with the relatively low profile of dental offices and laboratories has put them on the radar of crafty theives who see an easy target. The first month of 2010 witnessed at least 53 burglaries of West Coast dental laboratories and dental practices for their inventory of gold and platinum alloys or for the precious metal contained in metal-based cracked or chipped gold crowns that dentists removed from patients.

“I’m really excited and honored that the American Prosthodontic Society (APS) elected me to their Executive Council,” said Robert Kreyer, CDT on hearing the election results Friday, February 26 at this year’s annual APS meeting held during the Chicago Midwinter meeting. Kreyer, owner of Kreyer Dental Prosthetics in Larkspur, Calif. and well-known continuing education provider, is one of a growing number of technicians who have joined the only international dental society that recognizes dental technologists as equal voting members.

Titanium is becoming the new buzzword in dentistry these days. With gold more than $1100 an ounce and platinum topping out at nearly $2,000, the cost of the traditional high noble PFM crown, the bread and butter of dentistry, continues to skyrocket. This has kept laboratories and dentists searching for lower cost alternatives especially in an economy where everyone is doing some belt-tightening.