February 2014

For years, porcelain was the material of choice for denture teeth because of its ability to replicate the appearance of natural dentition. But as we entered the 1990s, acrylic denture teeth had replaced porcelain as the industry standard; in fact, the use of porcelain teeth had dropped 50% during the...

LMT took six impressions of the same prep and anonymously sent them to six different laboratories along with prescriptions for non-precious PFM crowns; one was made in the Philippines. In this ground-breaking experiment in 1985—with LMT Publisher Judy Fishman as the patient—we wanted to know:...

In this steb-by-step case study, Jonathan Brooks, CDT, MDT, demonstrates how he uses the Sirona inLab system with his Smile-Vision Template TechniqueTM.

In the 1970s, a buzzer on a porcelain furnace was considered a luxury gadget. Back then, many insisted that a true ceramist should be monitoring the progress of the bake by eye, not depending on a buzzer to tell you when the case is ready.However, by the end of 1984, an LMT survey found that two-thirds...

After years of speculation, CAD/CAM came to fruition in the dental laboratory in 1998 with the official U.S. launch of the Procera® AllCeram Crown, featuring an aluminum oxide coping milled at Nobel Biocare’s production facility in Sweden. The success of Procera—and the introduction...

Invented by Dr. Itzhak Shoher and Aharon Whiteman, CDT, first-generation Captek™ was introduced to the international dental community in 1993. The unique capillary technology took the PFM world by storm because it produced a high noble metal coping right on the refractory die without casting. Dentists...

Although PFMs were still considered by many to be the esthetic standard for clinical longevity, pressable ceramics—starting with IPS Empress and Optimal Pressable Glass (OPC)—began to drive the metal-free dentistry movement in the late 1980s. The improved esthetics and biocompatibility—coupled...

October 1986, IECDT, New York City: Crowds of technicians attended Dr. Francois Duret’s lecture during which he demonstrated his chairside CAD/CAM system for the first time in the U.S. Based on micro-milling technology used to make titanium microchips for computers and missile parts, the system...

It wasn’t unheard of before 1985, but at the Chicago MidWinter meeting that February, cosmetic dentistry became the hottest topic around.

The concept wasn’t new; Dr. Charlie Pincus was air-firing and glazing laminate veneers for Hollywood stars back in the 1930s. But for the dental community,...

In 1987, an HIV-positive dentist in Florida was found to have transmitted the infection to six of his patients. This first-known case of clinical transmission of HIV and the uncertainty during the late 1980s about the exact models of HIV transmission led the ADA to issue recommended infection control...

Since we last heard from Eric Nunnally in LMT’s February 2013 issue, he’s finished dental school, successfully passed his Boards and started practicing dentistry in Louisville.

Historically, the FDA—long involved in overseeing the manufacturers of dental laboratory materials—paid minimal attention to dental laboratories. In 2004, due to the dramatic rise in imports from overseas laboratories, that changed. Concerned that these restorations might not contain FDA-approved...

On the heels of widespread media attention about offshore crowns containing lead, two bills that required laboratories to spell out the origin and content of dental restorations passed in 2008: one in Florida and one in South Carolina. Although both bills only required the lab to provide the information...

Though first developed in the 1950s by Arpad Nagy of Valplast, flexible partial dentures didn’t take off until the 1980s; as the cosmetic wave hit dentistry, dentists and patients alike looked for solutions that were both functional and esthetic.

Today, flexible dentures make up 20% of the average...

The full contour zirconia trend began in 2009, with the launch of Glidewell’s BruxZir® Solid Zirconia crowns and bridges, marketed as a “virtually unbreakable” option for bruxers and grinders. Other manufacturers began to follow suit and introduce their own solid zirconia...

In the early 1980s, industry forecasters predicted a boon in implant placement, a prediction that was premature for a market still in its infancy. Inadequate education, inconsistent techniques and unpredictable results contributed to resistance on the part of many dentists and laboratories.

However,...

Thanks to its physical properties, esthetics and ease of use, Ivoclar Vivadent’s IPS e.max—the first lithium disilicate on the market—penetrated the marketplace with unprecedented speed. Introduced in 2005, an estimated 75 million IPS e.max restorations have been fabricated worldwide....

Already widely used in European dental laboratories as well as in other industries, it wasn’t until around 1994 that laser welding took root in the U.S. laboratory market when American Recovery, Dentaurum and Tanaka Dental all introduced laser welding units. A key benefit was the stronger connections;...

Foreign Dental Work Put to Test, an investigative report about lead found in restorations made in China was the talk of the industry when it aired in February 2008 on Ohio’s WBNS 10TV. The story covered an Ohio woman who had experienced pain and infection in her jaw after her dentist placed an...

Two years ago, it wasn’t like Luke Kahng was running out of space, or that his laboratory—LSK121 Oral Prosthetics—was particularly outdated. But when the office condo space right next to his 10,000-sq-ft facility in Naperville, IL went into foreclosure, he quickly bought it. This was...

Many laboratories create esthetic restorations, but some owners and their teams are lucky enough to work in facilities that are as beautiful as the work they create.

As the enormous marketing potential of laminate veneers became evident, patent infringement cases began. While DenMat held various material patents, two other companies—Jaff Investment Co., owned by brothers Al and Frank Faunce, and Deneer, Inc., owned by Tom Greggs—held patents on the fabrication...

The buzz at the Dental Laboratory Owners Association of California’s CAD/CAM Symposium in November 2005: rapid prototyping technology. First developed in the 1980s and used in the automotive and aerospace industries, the technology had laboratory owners enthusiastic about what was called the “next...

"Let me invite you into the pages of Lab Management Today...our goal is to give you the tools you need to build a better, more profitable, smoothly operating dental laboratory business," wrote Publisher Judy Fishman in Lab Management Today's inaugural issue.

After its first few months, it became clear...

Laboratories—most notably Glidewell Laboratories—have long dabbled in the manufacturer/supplier realm. But in the past 15 years, digital technology has been driving a role reversal as manufacturers/suppliers have begun stepping into the laboratory’s shoes.

Nobel Biocare was the first...

In its infancy, laboratory owners didn’t immediately see the internet’s application to their business. However, in the past 15 years, the number of laboratories with internet access has tripled, with 88% of U.S. laboratories LMT surveyed now having online capability. The ability to transmit...

Renfert’s Cim Ozyurt explains the R&D behind lay:art style brushes, designed to fulfill all the requirements of optimal porcelain buildup.

If you’re a regular LAB DAY Chicago attendee it may be hard to believe that a show known to be the largest gathering of dental laboratory decision makers in North America began with just 30 exhibitors and about 275 attendees.

Prior to 1985, the Chicago Dental Society (CDS)’s MidWinter Meeting...

Don’t you just love it when you can go onto a company’s website and see the faces and bios of the people who make that company run? People-centered “pages” help give me a sense of the essence of the operation and sometimes might even persuade me to choose one company’s products...

In 2010, the NADL’s analysis of the new healthcare legislation revealed that a 2.3% excise tax would be applicable to the selling price of completed dental restorations beginning in 2013.

Vague terminology in the legislation indicated that the 2.3% tax would be payable by the manufacturer, producer...

Since their introduction in the 1950s, PFM restorations have been the bread-and-butter of C&B and most full service laboratories. In fact, as recently as 2005, only 17% of C&B workloads were metal-free. However, with the proliferation of metal-free materials and technologies, we’re nearing...

In October 1985, amidst rumblings that U.S. laboratories were farming work out to offshore laboratories, LMT brought the issue out into the open. Our interview with Jerry Doviack, CDT, Owner of California-based Continental Dental Ceramics, took readers inside Interdent, his facility in the Philippines...

Lab Owner Mike Hill explains his reasoning for accepting rush cases and how he handles them internally.

Computer systems across the globe were at risk of failing after midnight, December 31, 1999 thanks to the “Millennium Bug.” For decades prior to 2000, computer software had been designed with a two-digit year code—“98” for 1998, for example—and the fear was that when...