Labs and Dental Practices: Not So Different After All

By Dr. Eric Nunnally, DMD

Posted Apr 28, 2011 in Labs & Profiles



In Part III of his ongoing column, Eric Nunnally, CDT, finds that technicians and dentists have more parallels than he thought, and that his technician background is finally giving him a leg up.




We dental lab people love to worry. Offshore competition, lab school closures, increased FDA involvement, lack of workforce, denturists and the cost of CAD/CAM systems keep many of us up at night, sweating.


Rest assured that dentists also have their fair share of threats and worries. Labs and dental practices have a lot more in common than I realized--both are minimally regulated businesses with great potential to be lucrative, and both technicians and dentists want to protect the future of their professions. Here are two other commonalities I've discovered:


In LMT, I read the prediction that by 2020 we may lose 2,240 laboratories due to retirement. Similarly, 6,500 U.S. dentists retire every year and only 5,000...

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About The Author

  • Dr. Eric Nunnally, DMD

    Dentist at Triple Crown Dentistry · Prospect, KY

    I am a dental lab tech (of 15 years) who returned to school a age 30 to pursue my DMD degree which I obtained in May of 2013. I am a lab tech first and love to stay in touch and be a part of the dental lab industry.

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