Market Watch: CAD/CAM Continues to Drive Subcontracting Business

Almost 50% of respondents to LMT's Subcontracting Services Survey say there's been an increase in the amount of work they've been sending out to be fabricated by other laboratories and/or manufacturers in the past five years. Much of this increase is the result of the growing demand for digitally fabricated restorations, and is coming from smaller laboratories. Four of the top five restorations being outsourced are zirconia copings and frameworks, full contour zirconia crowns and bridges, zirconia abutments and titanium abutments.

On average, respondents subcontract 17% of their total workload. The most common reasons for doing so: to offer a wider variety of restorations and because they don't have the equipment, staff or expertise in house. "Few laboratories have the capital to invest in zirconia milling technology, but dentists are increasingly realizing that it's a superior product, leading to an increase in demand for quality outsourcing services," says Russell Barron,...