ANSWERS

What should I look for in a dental lab?

Look for five things: documented turnaround times in business days (not vague ranges), a remake rate the lab will state out loud, named-technician accountability on every case, a digital workflow that accepts your intraoral scans natively, and transparent pricing.

THE SHORT ANSWER

THE FULL PICTURE

Why it works this way

Turnaround time, stated in business days

Ask for the lab's standard turnaround on the three cases you send most. A serious lab answers in business days, not ranges like 'one to three weeks.' At Dani Dental, single-unit crown & bridge ships in 5 business days from scan receipt. Full-arch implant cases run a defined schedule from try-in through delivery. If a lab cannot quote you a number for your specific case type, the workflow is not standardized, and your chair time is the variable that absorbs the slack.

More on this topic

How long should a crown take to come back from the lab?

Industry standard for a single-unit crown runs 7 to 14 business days at most national-network labs. Boutique digital labs with standardized workflows ship faster. Dani Dental's standard crown & bridge turnaround is 5 business days from scan receipt to ship date. Rush cases compress further when the schedule allows. If your current lab quotes 'about two weeks' without a firm date, the workflow has slack built in that costs you chair time when the case slips.

What is a good remake rate for a dental lab?

Industry-wide remake rates sit around 5 to 10% across mixed case loads, per LMT Communications coverage. Anything under 5% indicates a lab with disciplined QC and a calibrated digital workflow. Dani Dental tracks under 2.5% on crown & bridge (2025 internal data). More important than the number: does the lab measure it? A lab that cannot tell you its remake rate is not tracking the metric, which means quality is anecdotal rather than systematic.

Should I switch dental labs if I am unhappy?

The three churn drivers in lab-dentist relationships are price, communication, and quality. If your current lab is failing on any one, the cost of switching (sending a test case, calibrating shade communication, setting up the scanner output) is recovered within the first month of saved remakes and recovered chair time. Send a test case before fully transitioning. Most labs, Dani included, will run a calibration case at standard pricing so you can verify fit, shade, and turnaround before committing volume.

GO DEEPER

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.

Read the guide

REQUEST A DOCTOR KIT

Try the work before you switch.

Request a Doctor Kit and we'll mail RX pads, a shade guide, and pre-paid shipping for your first three cases. No call, no contract.

Request a Doctor Kit Talk to a technician