How I Started with Zero Knowledge of Dentistry

Unlike many lab owners, I entered the industry with zero knowledge of the dental field. I was a successful entrepreneur for 15 years in the commercial charter aviation industry but my wife and I didn’t want to put all our eggs in one basket so I started looking for another business opportunity.

A small, full service lab in Hanover, PA, the only lab in this small town, was for sale, it was a reasonable price and we decided to buy it. The removable prosthetics department was doing well but the C&B department was on life support with barely enough technicians to do the work. One of the previous owners stayed on as an employee; the other did not.

I’m reasonably sure I looked like a total idiot to my dentist-clients as I was thrust into the position of talking with them about cases and probably gave them what may have been seen as endless blank stares.

I dove in head first and learned as much as I could, as fast as I could, and even attempted...