Crown and Bridge Posts

Can someone recommend a C & B casting investment that is good for implant abutments? I've used GC Fugivest II w/ full strength liquid and they still come out tight. — tagged Crown and Bridge and Abutments

I would love to hear other technicians take on this. I have tried many different approaches but it still seems random when I get a really good glaze on an eMax crown. I don't fancy super glazed crowns but I find it hard to achieve a natural shine. — tagged Crown and Bridge and Ivoclar Vivadent Inc.

I am from India running a crown and bridge lab ,doing implant prosthesis in lab need some good training can someone help me? — tagged Networking

I have a new client that "loves " the double impression technique ...however we are his third pick of laboratory because they can't seem to give him consistent results...they do not see the contraindication for this tech.At best it is inconsistent esp. in the fabrication of bridges.As a ceramist of 30 yrs I cringe when I see this ..it has been my experience that the finished restoration presents short,tight frames and high occlusions. The first rx we received asked for TEN coats of die spacer.which was so telling.If you have any advice on how to treat these cases I am open.However I have never...See more had consistent good results.How do I approach this subject respectfully with my client. The preps are outstanding and retraction is some of the best I have seen...Frustrating — tagged Crown and Bridge

Your checklist for optimizing search terms:

We have covered this topic in some of the earlier posts but I thought I would touch on it again in a more practical approach. Many dental labs use their websites as a gallery, contact info, introduction to the lab tool and for many they all achieve this goal, put some content on it and some photo's and presto! And for the most part it does suffice when their current dentists forget the lab phone number or need an email address. For all the other dentists in your target market (remember that term it's very important) how are they supposed to find you...See more if they don't know your lab name?

First we need to define our target market, do you service any dentist? Do you provide all possible dental lab products and services? Do the dentists know what services you provide? Do the dentists know what restoration they should be using? Do we target nation wide? State? City?
So you can see from defining your target market we can get a better idea of how dentists will try to find your lab.
For example (and I choose the 1-4 man technician lab due to the demographic of majority), if I run a small boutique lab that specializes in crown and bridge and I service 30 accounts in a small area with the potential to service 30 more in the same geographical area my search terms would be:

Dental, crown and bridge, restorations, implants, city, main intersection of 2 roads defining geographical location in built up commercial area where the main population of targeted dentists is located, dental laboratory and finally the name of your lab.

Each term is not targeted at what you think the dentist is going to type in to magically find you without knowing the name of your business, they are specifically targeted at what dentists or dental practice receptionists will be typing into search engines to find you e.g. crown and bridge dental lab near main and 2nd street.

Once you work out which search terms you are targeting (and they change all the time, don't ever think you have the magical final combination) where do you put them?

No.1 TITLE literally the html for this web page feature is Your lab name and search term here this is really important and really cheap to change.
No.2 Meta Tag - the description used by search engines to give you the little descriptive paragraph under the page description in a search results page.
No.3 Content - your content on your web page should be littered with these search terms, but it also still needs to make sense.
No.4 Links - try to include the search terms in the links as well, not as important as links also go toward your over all search score in a different way.

So now you know you need a benchmark - google your business, but don't use your business name. How did you find your lab? Now look at the other pages that rank higher than yours. Now use the search terms they use also to help you climb the rank. Now search your business again without using the business name and see where you came up on the list - the change in rank can take anywhere between 24 hours to a month. You should also have registered your website with google, yahoo and bing.

Not doing this is like buying an F150 and then using it as a family vehicle. Sure it works but you could be doing so much more! Hope these inspired some thought and possible change. If anyone has any specific challenges send them along and we can work on them together. I don't sell websites or SEO my specialty is in dental lab software so there's no sale pitch here, just trying to help those that don't necessarily know. Looking forward to your submissions!

Yes we are located in the heart of Los Angeles please call to discuss 818-921-7111 we are crown and bridge lab.

Seeking experienced ceramist for 15 person crown and bridge lab in West Atlanta. Four day work week! Resumes to tidental@bellsouth.net

Hi everyone I am new to this group,,,I have been a crown and bridge technician in Illinois for over 10 years,,,my children are grown and I,m ready to make a change to a new state ,,,please let me know if there are any jobs out there. I am a waxer,,finisher,models,and opaques. But i,m always egar to learn new things in this field...Thank you

The Best B-to-B Email Marketing Practices

We hear e-mail marketing is becoming obsolete and social networking is morphing into the medium of choice for online communication. But in the B-to-B community, it hasn’t happened yet.

So, what are some of the best practices in B-to-B e-mail marketing today?

A. E-lists

To begin, instead of renting lists and sending emails to cold prospects, get people to opt-in to your e-list. Then concentrate on email marketing to your house file.

Emails to house file lists generates two to three times the click through rate (CTR) or higher than outside lists....See more And emailing to your own list eliminates the list rental charges.

The most popular method to building your own opt-in e-list is by offering a free subscription to an online newsletter, a free webinar or white paper report.

Determining how often you should e-mail your subscriber list has been the biggest worry among marketers, as they are worried about offending people. Studies shows that the biggest mistake marketers make is not emailing their list enough.

Here is a method you can use to determine the email frequency to your e-list subscribers.
Measure the opt-out rate, which is the percentage of subscribers who unsubscribe after an email is distributed to the list. As a rule of thumb, your opt-out rate should be 0.1 percent or less.
To increase e-mail frequency, add one more email to your weekly or monthly schedule. If opt-out rate stays the same, you can safely increase email frequency to the new level. If it spikes, cut back to the old frequency.

One reason for the opt-outs other that frequency is the quality of your emails. A good rule of thumb is that at least 50% of your email message should be content. If the ratio of content to sales falls below 50%, your opt-out rate will increase and your open rate will decrease.

B. Email Content

Here are a few tips to finessing your email copy.
1. Begin with an engaging headline or lead-in sentence. For instance, a dental laboratory provides dentures, partials, and crown and bridge restorations. They sent an email to past customers who once used the laboratory for one of the above services but had dropped off the customer and email list. The headline: “You Are Still Practicing Dentistry, Right?” It struck a chord because, of course, in almost every instance, the recipient still practice dentistry. The open rate was 52.3 percent and the click-through rate was 34.6 percent. Dozens of old customers were reactivated.
2. In the first paragraph, deliver a mini-version of your complete message. Readers should know who you are, what you are selling, and why they should be interested.
3. Within the first couple of paragraphs, state the offer and provide a link to a landing page or another immediate response mechanism.
4. After the first paragraph copy, present expanded copy covering features, benefits, and other relevant information.
5. The offer and response mechanism should be repeated in the close of the email.
6. Take it easy on the ALL CAPS. Words in all caps give the impression you are shouting
7. Use wide margins. Limit yourself to about 60 character width per line.
8. The tone should be helpful, friendly, informative and educational - not promotional or hard sell.
9. Be concise. Readers are quickly sorting through many messages and aren’t disposed to stick with you for a a long time.
10. Regardless of the length, get the important points across quickly.

Furthermore, an effective way to organize your email copy is to use the following motivating sequence:
a. Get attention
b. State the problem your prospect has
c. Position your product or service as the solution to that problem
d. Offer proof that your product or services is indeed a superior solution, and
e. Ask for action.

Keep in mind you don’t need to fit all of your product copy and sales points within the email itself. Shorter emails are always better emails. Have multiple links throughout your email. Once at the beginning, one or more in the body, and one at the close.

In conclusion, studies found that one of the biggest influences on open rates and click-through rates is the subject line. Tests of subject lines have shown click-through rate differences of 25% to 50% and in some cases higher. Craig Stouffer, general manager of B-to-B email marketing solutions, says that subject lines 40 to 50 characters in length significantly outperforms subject lines 70 to 80 characters.

Great article for 'Bite of the Day'! Straumann and iTero offer a digital impression system that lets the lab receive digital impression data to design the custom abutment or crown and bridge restoration without a model! Learn more at http://www.straumann-cares-digital-solutions.com

any advice on "where to look" in finding a "skilled" crown and bridge technician? other than the usual adds in papers, craigslist, etc... thanks!


jack

Bur of the week: Every laboratory should promote dentists to use this special bur: The AD20C, for occlussal reduction; not only will it make laboratory life easier but it will create accurate spacing for dentists when working with crown and bridges!

Hi everyone!! first of all thanks to LMT for creating "the bridge" which seems to be a professional "facebook" of the dental technology world. LMT is great, and just want to show appreciation for them!!

I am the owner of a crown and bridge lab that employs 5 technician in ohio and am looking to hire a commission based sales person to attract new clients. Does anyone have any good ideas or experience on this subject. Im not exactly sure how to go about it, and wage etc....

any help would be appreciated. thanks and look forward to meeting a bunch of you thru the bridge!

I do all my own crown and bridge work and do not outsource MY crowns. I have one multi associate practice for the lion share of my business. I do everything from full arch uppers, Cosmetic multi unit Zirconia ( Procera and or Cercon ) singles. Things go so smooth with this place I am spoiled when I get accounts and see BAD, BAD dentistry even for single units that the dentist would like to restore.
I feel bad for the patients when the preps look like Lego blocks preparation design. I just cant figure out why some dentists cant get there heads out of there asses and just do good preps and better...See more impressions ? Do the best you can they say......BS.