The Explorer Winter 2018 Explorer_Fall_2018 | Page 6

THE FUTURE OF THE DENTAL LAB INDUSTRY: THE LAB INDUSTRY AIN'T NEVER GONNA BE THE SAME (CONT.)
Take a quick look online to see how
many products from China have been
found to contain lead within the last few
years. Houses have been forced to be
dismantled due to contaminated
Sheetrock. Dog food, toys, and
numerous other products have been
recalled due to lead contamination.
Why would our dental prosthetics be
any different? In these countries, US
labor laws are not enforced, thus
allowing long-outlawed, 19th-century
sweatshop practices to prevail.
Just like in your dental practice, my
biggest expense is labor. I take pride in
the handcrafted work we produce,
similarly to how you are proud of the
dental team you have assembled. But
that means we have to pay salary,
overtime, vacation, medical, social
security, state taxes, unemployment, and
so forth. Competing with offshore labs
is impossible for domestic labs, so I
don't even try. The same goes for dental
offices. How does a small office
compete with large corporations that
have massive marketing budgets as well
as the buying power to get the lowest
rates on materials?
TECHNOLOGY TO THE RESCUE
Digital dentistry has arguably been the
biggest advancement in years for both
dental labs and practices. Digital
scanning in-office can reduce overhead
and expedite procedures. We have seen
previous systems that only resulted in
milled or printed models and that still
required hand-waxed crowns, but the
latest generation enables the digital
design and production of restorations
that can be fit and adjusted on a final
model or produced without a model.
Open-architecture scanners give
dentists a choice about where to send
the scan and allow more labs to
participate than previous systems.
In-lab scanners, milling machines, and
wax printers now offer labs the ability to
merge old-school techniques with new
technology. Milled implant frames
result in strong, precise frameworks
that, if done correctly, can be more
precise than traditional cast frames. My
lab participated in the original Procera
studies in titanium and zirconia crowns
and milled titanium bars. We had the
first-generation 3M ESPE Lava,
Procera, iTero, Encode, Cresco, and
Atlantis systems.
Today's machines are much more
advanced and simpler to use. Open-
architecture machines such as those
offered by 3Shape and Dental Wings
enable a lab to buy one scanner and
send the scan to numerous facilities to
get substructures made, while finishing
the final porcelain or acrylic in-lab.
Labs can also buy their own milling
machines and produce on the premises.
This is a more expensive option, but the
option exists.
Milled zirconia and milled e.max hold
so much promise for the future, and I
think we're almost 100% there. I am a
big supporter of CAD/CAM
restorations, but we recognize the few
remaining limitations that exist. Even
when those final barriers are gone,
scanners, milling units, and printers will
always be tools in technicians' arsenals.
When done correctly by a skilled dentist
and a CDT, the end result will be
stupendous. When done in an office or
a lab that values quantity over quality,
the result might be disastrous.
THE FUTURE OF DENTAL
LABORATORIES
Small labs, staffed by five people or
fewer, will likely be unable to purchase
the necessary traditional products or
new technology and will certainly not
be able to compete financially with the
larger labs. These smaller, quality labs
will probably close due to inability to
compete.
The midsized and larger quality labs
will be able to carry on, but getting new
labor and affording the continuous
upgrades to technology and training will
be very costly. Deciding to be "bought
out" by allowing a larger entity to
finance the business and supply the
merchandise will necessarily be
attractive.
I believe that dentists will continue to
demand the best for their patients and
that they will seek out fine
craftsmanship from their laboratory
partners. To sound like that dentist from
my early days, are labs getting "too
big"? Have we sacrificed quality to stay
in business? I would disagree. Midsized
and larger dental labs can maintain their
levels of quality by using technology
responsibly and resisting the "factory"
philosophy. 䡲
Los Angeles Dental Society Explorer