Dental crowns once were made by hand, like jewelry

When you need a crown, a bridge or a denture, you are not just relying on your dentist, but also on the dental lab and materials from which he or she makes your new teeth.

Dental labs, much like hair salons, are made up of people of differing abilities and experience. When your favorite hair stylist is on vacation, you might be reluctant to try someone new (even at the same hair salon) because you would be unsure of his or her experience and therefore unsure of the results.

Dentists can have much the same problem. We send “work to be done” to a dental lab, hoping that the best technicians in the lab will work on our patient’s stuff. Of course, the better dentists send “stuff” to the better dental labs and are therefore more likely to have the work done by better trained, more experienced, more talented and better paid technicians.

The reverse is also true. The better lab technicians don’t want to work with dentists that don’t meet their standards. And by the way, don’t think that this isn’t also influenced by the type of dental insurance re-imbursement plan that you have. Remember workers in China are paid much less than local talent is probably being paid.

For the sake of this discussion, there are two types of dental labs.

First is a lab that works with porcelain and gold and makes mostly crowns that cement or screw (fixed) onto your teeth or implants.

Second is a “removable” lab that makes dentures, partial dentures, retainers, and appliances that can generally be removed.

Both types of labs can do a little of each other’s work, but this is a good place to start.

(It is important for you to know that I own a “porcelain dental lab” and that my experiences influence my opinions in this article.)

I have always thought that dentistry is simply a blending of engineering and “arts and crafts.” The engineers are the ones that can make things fit well and last a long time. The artists are the ones that can make things pretty. The people with both of these skills can be difficult to find.

How crowns are manufactured has changed radically over the last few years and dental labs are losing the artists. Because of insurance and financial pressures, it is becoming harder and harder to train new artists.

Thirty years ago, when I graduated from dental school, crowns were mostly made by hand, much like making jewelery. Today, computers and milling machines are probably making most dental crowns.

All crowns begin with an impression (or a scanned computer file) that your dentist sends to a dental lab. The lab then scans the impression into a computer program.

From there, all of the design work is done on the computer. When the technician is satisfied with his design, the file is sent to a ‘milling’ machine and your crown is made after a little ‘firing’ in a porcelain furnace.

In order to make a crown, the dental lab needs to receive a prescription from the dentist, and this is where the fun stuff happens. The first decision the dentist must make is to choose the material (or materials) from which your crown will be made.

After that comes the question of how much artistry should the lab use to perfect the crown? The amount of artistry put into crowns is an “upgrade” charge.

Almost all crowns are made of porcelain today, but there are different types of porcelain. Some porcelains specialize in their strength while others are better at ‘pretty’ and are not as strong.

Generally speaking, pretty is more expensive than strong, if only because the ceramist is more “hands on” and needs to go through more steps. To add to my earlier analogy, it might cost a certain amount to get your hair cut, but if you want it colored and blown dry, you’re going to pay more.

Your dentist will make these decisions for you, and sometimes with you, depending on the situation. Now that you have more information you will be able to help make better decisions.

Remember, knowledge is power.

Source: http://www.delawareonline.com/story/life/2015/11/16/dental-crowns-made-hand-like-jewelry/75853002/

In other dental news: Aurident's 3D dental scanners offer superior quality for both model and impression scanning. The Optimet DS 6000 Scanner uses patented proprietary conoscopic holographic technology to generate highly accurate and consistent scans. The DSi 6000 Impression & Model Scanner overcomes the limitation of other scanners by accurately scanning impressions and models where other scanners have difficulty.