Robert Elsenpeter

In our most recent feature for Dental Lab Products, we talked a lot about esthetics. As part of that article, we asked the same experts we spoke with in the story what tips they'd give to lab technicians looking to increase the esthetics of their work in a modern context.

Beauty, artistry and esthetics cover a lot of territory. If you ask 10 different technicians what makes a case esthetically pleasing, you’re likely to get 10 different answers. To be sure, they will all include the same components, including tooth shape, color, translucence and the like, but the ratios in each technician’s particular recipe will likely differ.

The past decade has been a remarkable time for cosmetic dentistry. The profession has advanced on several fronts, including exciting new materials and technologies.

Dental and laboratory experts weigh in on what dental technicians need to know about the new workflow.

Dental labs accomplish amazing things. 

The first time you bought a computer, terms like server, gigabyte and RAM (among others) were probably somewhat befuddling. Every technological thingamajig has its own vocabulary and concepts, which can be confusing to those new to the device.

It should come as no surprise that the dental lab industry has-and continues to-grow and evolve. From George Washington’s ivory dentures (despite what you heard on the elementary school playground, they were not wooden) to porcelain-fused to metal crowns to today’s all-digital, full-arch cases, the way we do things has constantly grown. Even within the modern CAD/CAM systems, progress continues.

Money tends not to grow on trees, and given the current state of the economy – not to mention issues specific to the dental industry – buying new equipment is rarely a frivolous endeavor. Doctors have to weigh the pros and cons of their needs and wants against their available funds before making purchases – no matter the size.

There was a time when the purchase of a new piece of software came with a user’s manual the size of a phone book. Now, both phone books and instruction manuals are all but extinct. Instruction duties have been transferred to trainers, online classrooms and tutorials. Unfortunately many dentists don’t take advantage of training opportunities, which is a big mistake.

Every year, the president of the United States delivers his State of the Union Address.

On the 1980s TV show “MacGyver,” the eponymous protagonist was a secret agent who used cunning, skill and whatever was lying around to get out of impossible situations and achieve the mission.

Benjamin Franklin famously opined, “A penny saved is a penny earned." And while that chestnut of wisdom is certainly true as a guiding philosophy for success in life, it can be taken too literally. What may seem like smart cost savings measures can take a more deleterious toll on the doctor’s practice than doing it the right way in the first place.

The relationship is well established: When a dentist needs restorations crafted, the work is outsourced to a dental lab. In most instances, the case leaves the dentist’s office for work across town – or maybe even across the country – coming back a few days or weeks later for final placement with the patient.