ANSWERS

How do general dentists choose a dental lab?

General dentists choose a dental lab on five criteria: turnaround time in working days, remake rate under 3%, direct technician access on each case, transparent pricing without procurement gates, and digital workflow compatibility with their intraoral scanner.

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THE FULL PICTURE

Why it works this way

The five criteria that actually decide the partnership

When a general dentist evaluates a lab, the decision rarely comes down to one factor. Per a 2023 Inside Dental Technology reader survey, the top reasons dentists switch labs are slow turnaround (cited by 41% of respondents), remake rates above industry norms (32%), and poor communication with the technician on the case (28%). Price ranked fourth. The pattern is consistent: dentists leave over chair-time losses, not invoice totals.

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What turnaround time should a general dentist expect from a dental lab?

For single-unit crowns and bridges, 5 to 7 working days from case receipt to ship is the working benchmark for digital-workflow labs. Full-arch and All-on-X cases run longer, typically 3 to 6 weeks depending on staging. Dani Dental publishes turnaround by case type rather than quoting an average, because a single average across crown and full-arch hides the number that matters: when does this specific case ship.

How important is the lab technician's direct contact information?

For routine posterior crowns it matters less. For anterior esthetics, implant cases, and full-arch hybrids it is decisive. The technician makes shade, contour, and emergence decisions that a customer service layer cannot translate accurately. Dani Dental routes every case with the technician's direct line on the invoice, so the clinician calls the bench, not a queue. This single workflow change is the most-cited reason dentists move from national networks to boutique labs.

Should general dentists prioritize price or quality when selecting a lab?

Neither in isolation. The real metric is total cost per delivered restoration, which includes the remake rate, chair-time lost on adjustments, and patient retention impact of esthetic failures. A lab quoting 20% less per unit at a 7% remake rate costs the practice more than a lab at full price with a sub-3% remake rate. Dentists who track this number stop optimizing for sticker price within two quarters.

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Read the full guide on all procedures

This answer is one piece of a larger workflow. The pillar page covers materials, turnaround, and how we build the case to your specification.

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