The Importance of Effective Communication Between the Dentist and Dental Lab

“Communication is the key to success in cosmetic dentistry/laboratory relations”⁵. To accurately fabricate dental restorations, effective communication needs to exist between the dental lab and the dentist to ultimately provide dental patients with the best dental care. The communication methods used by the dental lab to collaborate with the dentist is also a major factor that determines the success or failure of dental lab products.

“Prosthodontics is a discipline that requires a synergy between the dentist and dental technician in order to fabricate intraoral prostheses with acceptable fit, function and aesthetics,” reported by Berry et al.. Although restorative dentistry is first about restoring the patient’s oral health, and next the esthetic appearance; the patient’s growing demand for realistic esthetics and long-lasting restorations is challenging the industry to properly manufacture dental lab products that exhibit both attributes. Recreating esthetic details that mimic the patient’s natural teeth is crucial when “subtle details in texture, anatomy, and contours keep the ceramic restoration from looking contrived and can provide the element of ‘prefect imperfection’ that natural teeth exhibit”³. Precise design parameters, shade matching, and available tooth structures should all be effectively communicated by the clinician to the dental lab to achieve a highly esthetic restoration that will match the patient’s natural tooth contours and shades³.

The lab technician’s ability to match the exact shade to the patient’s teeth is a challenging aspect of communication; especially, when an increasing number of patients are demanding esthetically brilliant prostheses. Determining a precise shade (e.g., color, surface texture, shade characteristics) is first dependent on the clinician and must be effectively communicated to the lab technician. Exact shade communication is important because dental technicians are remotely located and usually never see the patient¹. In consonances with a study on color matching, Seal et al. reported “precise color communication is integral to the development of esthetic harmony and overall restorative success.” 

The communication methods used by the dental lab are major factors that influence the accuracy of dental lab products. With the development of software programs and web applications, dental labs can now use web content management systems (WCMS) to communicate to dental offices and manage laboratory cases at a faster and more accurate rate. As stated by Alshiddi, “Laboratory case management is a teamwork that should involve good communications between not only the dentist and the dental technician, but also other staff in the dental office (e.g., dental assistant and receptionist) and dental laboratory (e.g., laboratory owner, receptionist and delivery person)”⁵. When managing a high volume of dental lab cases, the lab must implement an effective content management system that will manage all of the dental cases coming from multiple forms of communication methods (e.g., hand-written lab authorization forms, telephone, email, electronic STL files, etc.). Equally important is the lab’s understanding of individual software requirements and design of the software that will essentially, if implicated correctly, improve communication and will ensure long term relationships between the dental office and dental laboratory⁵.

The dental laboratory must provide great customer service for dentists and their dental office personnel so all parties can work proficiently together. Providing excellent dental lab services will lead to satisfied clinicians and comfortable professional relationships between the clinician and dental technician/laboratory⁵. Collaborative technical advice on routine and complex dental cases is a very important service that dental laboratories should exceed at every time. The dental lab must have an effective logistic team to make sure dental cases are fabricated in time for the patient’s scheduled appointment.

Adequate skills of the dental laboratory and clinician along with collaborative teamwork through effective communication leads to high quality dental restorations. When problems arise from inaccurately fabricated prostheses, the patient will usually blame the dentist for the mishap. For this reason, it’s imperative dentists choose the best dental laboratory that can effectively communicate with their dental office to ensure satisfied patients every time and to ultimately provide better patient care.