The Explorer Winter 2018 Explorer_Fall_2018 | Seite 5

THE FUTURE OF THE
DENTAL LAB INDUSTRY:
THE LAB INDUSTRY
AIN'T NEVER GONNA
BE THE SAME
By Steven Pigliacelli, CDT, MDT
Reprinted with permission from Dental Economics
Dental Economics Chief Editor, Chris
Salierno, DDS, asked me to write about
three trends that worry lab owners. To
be honest, I can come up with many
more than that, and I can also come up
with many positive trends. But the
trends that are affecting both labs and
dentists are the ones that truly concern
me. I don't begrudge anyone for
earning a living or for making choices
about how they run their businesses. In
the past, it was always up to us to make
choices about how we ran our practices
and labs, but these days it seems that
forces beyond our control are dictating
more for our industry.
THE AGE OF SMALL DENTAL
LABORATORIES
My partner and I started our lab in a
basement more than 30 years ago. It was
just the two of us, and our business
model privileged quality over volume.
The prevailing attitude at the time was:
the larger the lab, the more frequently
quality would be sacrificed.
I will never forget a particular incident
that happened when we were still in that
basement. One of our first accounts
loved our work, but he would never
refer his colleagues to us because he
didn't want us to get "too big." He
stopped sending us work when we grew
from a two-person lab to an eight-
person lab. Even though the quality of
our work was maintained (or improved),
his perception of our size drove him
Los Angeles Dental Society Explorer
away. That dentist is probably having a
difficult time finding a lab these days.
Have you noticed the disappearance of
"basement labs" in your area? Small,
quality labs are stuck with paying the
highest labor rates for top certified
dental technicians (CDTs). They are not
able to stamp out a lot of units because
the price for CAD equipment is
between $25,000 and $250,000. Smaller
labs don't have the buying power to get
better deals on equipment or materials.
If they can't lower prices and increase
production, the only way to keep the
doors open is to raise the price. In an
age when dentists are facing decreased
patient visits and PPO fees, increasing
the lab cost of a crown is a daunting
business practice.
THE AGE OF LARGER DENTAL
LABORATORIES
The labs that are able to remain in
business have grown to become
midsized (like mine) or large-scale.
Hiring more technicians and investing
in sophisticated equipment allows us to
increase production and keep costs
competitive; however, the challenge that
we all face is maintaining quality.
Imagine the fabrication of your crown
being reduced to an assembly line of
technicians, each doing one part of a
multiple-step procedure. Imagine
dipping dies all day while the next
person waxes, followed by the next
person who waxes the margins, then the
next one who sprues, and so on. The
personal touch of a well-trained
technician would become lost as
technicians would become cogs in the
machine of commercial dentistry.
Assembly lines worked for Henry Ford
and the automobile industry, but I don't
think they can effectively translate into
the dental laboratory industry. An
assembly line for manufacturing cars
works because there is only one design
to follow. We must wonder if individual,
custom prosthetic restorations can be
made this way.
In the last 15 years, we have seen a
dramatic decrease in the quantity of
dental technicians and dental labs.
Between the sharp decline in dental
technician schools and the increase in
retiring technicians, the overall number
of CDTs is about half of what it used to
be-in contrast with the increasing
number of dental school graduates.
Where will this new generation of
dentists send their work?
THE LURE OF OFFSHORE
Offshoring is double jeopardy. The
work is sent overseas, most commonly
to China, where labs may employ up to
1,500 technicians in one factory. We
now have the large, corporate assembly
line, as well as concerns about foreign-
made products. FDA, ADA, HIPAA,
and OSHA regulations do not apply
there; therefore, we have no guarantee
that approved materials are being used.