What to do when the dental laboratory doesn't follow the dentist s Rx's?


Sometimes even "good labs" don't bother to carefully read our RX's for lab work. For lay readers, who may not be familiar with dental lab prescriptions, this refers to the written instructions that we give labs in order for them to make restorations for patients. Usually I write detailed instructions and it can be frustrating when a lab doesn't follow them.

This can happen for a number of reasons, including the obvious, that they don't care that much about our requests or they think they know better than the dentist sending them their work. Sometimes they actually may have a better way to create their restorations, but that doesn't excuse their failure to properly communicate this to us, prior to not following written instructions. If they feel there is a better way, they should call, email   or even text us with what they have in mind, prior to working on the restoration.

Good communication is the key to good relationships and dentist or labs that fail to make the proper effort  usually do not have a good collaborative experience.  It is not all that unusual for labs and their dentist clients to develop a somewhat dysfunctional relationship due to a lack of proper communication since both parties need to tell the other what they need from one another, in order for the work to come out predictably well.

If I have a lab that seems to have a pattern of not fully following my written instruction, I usually think its time to "shop around" for another laboratory, even if the lab in question has a reputation for quality. Sometimes "quality labs" can become arrogant, since they feel they know better than dentists sending them work. While this sometimes maybe true, it doesn't excuse them from either following our RX's or communicating with us prior to fabricating a restoration in a different way.

from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2019/11/what-to-do-when-dental-laboratory.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

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