CAD/CAM Technology: How to Maximize the Lab-to-Lab Partnership

By Kim Molinaro

Posted Apr 28, 2011 in Digital Dentistry


A few years ago, the burning question in our industry was if laboratories should get involved in CAD/CAM technology. Today, with zirconia and digital manufacturing taking the industry by storm, the question has become not if, but how should laboratories get involved.



Given the high costs of the systems, rate at which technology is advancing and desire to keep operations simple, the answer for many laboratory owners is outsourcing their CAD/CAM copings and frameworks to another laboratory. "Since I don't own a system, am I going to tell my clients to send their work to some other lab? No--I'll outsource it and doing so allows me to compete with anybody," says Evan Penrod, owner of Crown Laboratories, Sandy, Utah.


While outsourcing is not new to our industry, CAD/CAM has brought it to a whole new level: Of the respondents to a recent LMT e-survey, 83% offer CAD/CAM-fabricated restorations and nearly 60% of that group have the understructures fabricated...

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About The Author

  • Kim Molinaro

    Managing Editor at LMT Communications, Inc. · West Hartford, CT

    In her 25+ years with LMT, Kim has managed to combine her creative flair—infusing energy into our content and orchestrating some of our most popular theme issues—with the practical focus of keeping our processes...

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