Dental Lab Products-2011-09-01

With the ability to print highly accurate ultra-thin 16μ layers, Objet’s Eden260V™ 3D printing system helps to provide labs with the ability to rapidly manufacture stone models. The system produces models with exceptionally fine details and smooth surfaces.

Technology has advanced rapidly over the past 40 years. Today we equate new technologies with CAD/CAM advances, milling, wax printing, scanners and other digital equipment. The lab industry has even developed a new language for the computer age. Words like splines, collision lines, wall heights and many others are routine conversation in a growing number of labs.

It’s not uncommon for a lab with a complete in-house CAD/CAM system to open up excess capacity as an outsource option for other labs. That can be a way to maximize return on the technology investment, but it doesn’t make the lab into a milling center. Creating a milling center in the truest sense of concept means building a business dedicated to providing dental labs with access to CAD/CAM produced parts that can then be finished into restorations ready for the prescribing dentist to place into the patient’s mouth.

01. You opened your dental technology lab when you were 21. What do you find fascinating in your profession? In my opinion, dental technology is a wonderful profession. I love my job because it is a combination of artisanship and genuine traditions that requires a large margin of artistic creativity. Those who are serious about this profession are faced every day with ambitious challenges and have many occasions for professional growth.

We all like and enjoy being in a contest to see who is judged best, and more importantly, who wins bragging rights among their colleagues.

On the surface, a little growth in your laboratory business may seem like a great thing. However, if you’re like most dental lab owners, who see themselves more as artists than business owners, growth can become a bad thing, unless you quickly cut through the top layer and develop a plan to manage it.

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?

Modern day dental laboratories are currently operating in a constantly evolving environment. New technologies and changes in preferred materials are altering the way dental labs operate and produce various restorations. Additionally, the rise in the dental implant category has added to the shift in the U.S. dental lab’s production mix.

The Lab

The patient, a 50-year-old female, presented with a large diastema, irregular teeth size and dull color. Furthermore, the shape of the teeth on the right versus left sides was different-as is apparent in the pre-op photo (Fig. A). The teeth on her left side were longer than those on the right.

Through the accelerated advancement of CAD/CAM technology and material science, dentists have several new, high strength all-ceramic materials in the indirect portfolio to choose from. The recent dramatic increase in the cost of gold in combination with current economic conditions is accelerating demand for these new products. Dentists are prescribing these new metal-free all-ceramic restorations at a rapidly accelerating pace.