Waiting to Take My Work to the Next Level

By Peter Ruberto, Owner, Tee’s Dental Lab, Niles, OH

I’ve done some really dumb things over the years, but I think the common thread between most of them is that I waited too long to educate myself. Although I was trained in the Navy and learned the basics from my father—who founded Tee’s Dental Lab in 1963—I waited too long to get seriously educated about what I was doing as a ceramist. Being uneducated created a lot of fears for me and resulted in a lot of arguments with dentist-clients about everything from shades to proper preps for porcelain layering.

After about six years of running my own lab, I was unhappy and frustrated and knew I had to make a change. Back then we didn’t have YouTube or access to online courses as we do now; you had to spend a lot of time and money to get educated. You had to buy a book by a master ceramist or fly...