Choosing a dental lab is one of the most important decisions you make as it can have a massive impact on the quality of care you provide to your patients. Here are some tips, questions, and guidance on how to choose the best dental lab for your practice.
Ask the dental lab the right questions
When you’re first considering a dental lab, there are a number of key questions you should ask to get a sense of their quality and capabilities and how that relates to your practice. These questions include:
Do you use ADA-compliant materials?
This is important to ensure that your patients are receiving safe and effective care.
What is your clinical support like?
Do you have a team of experienced technicians who can help you with difficult cases? Remember the dental lab is not just your manufacturer, they are your partner in treatment.
What is your quality control process?
How do you ensure that your products are consistently high-quality? Ask specifically about how they test their output and technicians and what they do if there is an issue.
How is your lab adapting to new dental technology and digital dentistry?
It’s important to find a lab that is willing to embrace new dental technologies and techniques so that your practice keeps up in modern treatment.
Do you accept digital impressions?
If you’re using digital impressions—or planning to to in the future—you’ll need to find a lab that can accommodate your workflow.
Who is designing the restoratives?
If the lab does accept digital impressions, who is designing the restoratives? Are they dentists or technicians?
Do you provide training services?
Aligning with your lab’s process and learning the lingo is important as communication is key for you and anyone in your practice who will interact with the lab. And if you’re new to digital dentistry, you may want to find a lab that offers specific training in the modern way so you can get up to speed quickly.
What are your turnaround times and pricing?
Make sure you understand the lab’s turnaround times and pricing so that they work for your practice’s operations and patients’ budgets/your margin.
What type of lab management software do you use?
Make sure that the lab management software is something you can adopt at your practice and is intuitive for every member of your staff who will utilize.
What materials do you work with?
Most dentists have a range of patients with different insurances, budgets, and needs, try to find a lab that has as options that reflect your patient-base.
What products do you offer?
Don’t assume that all labs offer the same portfolio of products and appliances (see Dandy’s Product Guide here) or you may be in too deep before you learn that you’ll have to source a partial denture elsewhere.
Consider your needs from a dental lab
Once you’ve asked the right questions, you need to consider your specific needs. What type of work do you typically send to the lab? How important is turnaround time to you? What is your budget for margins? Once you know your needs, you can start narrowing down your options.
Get dental lab recommendations from peers
Talk to other dentists to see if they have any recommendations for dental labs. They may be able to give you some insights into the different labs in your area or national digital labs.
Local dental lab vs. national dental lab—which is better for you?
There are two main types of dental labs: local labs and national labs. Local labs are typically smaller and more specialized, while national labs are larger and have a wider range of capabilities and proficiencies. Typically local labs have offered more personal relationship-building, but as modernity upgrades communication, national labs are improving dentist-lab interaction. Larger labs tend to have more modern technology, better quality control, and may also be able to offer you lower prices, as they have the advantage of economies of scale.
Specialty dental labs
There are also a number of specialty dental labs that focus on specific types of work. For example, there are labs that specialize in dentures, dental implants, and orthodontics. If you decide to go with a local lab, it is important to also seek a speciality lab or two for the mores complex work you will need to be done. The downfall of this route is juggling multiple relationships.
Working with Dandy’s digital dental lab
Dandy was created for the digital lab workflow and is the only end-to-end digital partner in dentistry. Dandy combines some of most advanced technology in the world with best-in-class technicians to create quality, precision, and speed unparalleled in the industry. Along with a robust portfolio of products and appliances, Dandy’s proprietary software and system increase our dental practice partners’ efficiency and revenue. Plus we’ll give you an intraoral scanner for free. Contact us with any questions you may have as you search for the best dental lab for your practice.
