The Dynamics of Dentists and Digital Dentistry

A decade ago, many laboratory owners felt “all dressed up with nowhere to go,” as they were fired up about digital dentistry but struggled to get their dentist-clients on board. In fact, in 2010, only 50% of laboratories said clients were interested in trying new technologies and only one-third of their clients were prescribing milled restorations, according to LMT’s 2010 State of the Industry survey.

That’s changed considerably based on LMT’s 2018 Dentist Survey: the percentage of dentist-clients prescribing digital restorations has nearly doubled since 2010—labs say it’s now an average of 70%—and dentists offer overwhelmingly positive feedback on the fit, quality and value of digital restorations.^* (See demographics for...