Jose Martinez: 'It Just Doesn't Get Old' For This Young Manager

You might say his brother's loss was his gain. When someone at church offered Jose Martinez's brother a job at a local laboratory, his brother wasn't interested. But Martinez was.

"It was supposed to be in the model room, but when I got to the lab, I was told I'd be in the finishing department. I was a little intimidated; I saw those cutting discs and thought, 'Whoa, I'm going to lose a finger'," he laughs.

But he needn't have worried; he was a natural and was quickly up to speed in finishing techniques. During the next few years, he worked tirelessly—often putting in 14-hour days— learning all aspects of partial denture fabrication from the owner of the lab, the late Jim Higgins. When Mike Janes became president in 2006, Martinez gained even more knowledge. "I learned all of the fabrication techniques and mechanics from Jim, but Mike taught me how to assess a case and consider how the framework design would work for the patient," he says. "Neither of...