Interested in advice of opening my own removables lab.

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Recon-smiles

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So im a removables tech and have been for 10 years and a dental assistant for 2 years prior to becoming a tech. Just wanted some advice if its time for me to do so. I want to make more money and i average about 43k a year and im in southern california. I plan on having a strictly removables only lab as many doctors have trouble finding a good lab to get dentures from my idea is to have a lab and eventually if i grow enough to employ people it will be a team of highly skilled and overqualified techs specializing in notjing but removables. Anyway what would i need? A regular business lic? Or is it a specific lic because its a lab? Thanks for the read and appreciate all suggestions and help. Have a great day.
 
rkm rdt

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Plan to go digital in the next 2 years.
Due to Covid, many offices will be purchasing intra oral scanners very soon.
Helping them make the transition will bear fruit.
Don't be another dinosaur.
 
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In So Cal? Well, got a call from a bud there once who was trying to help me and someone else out. Wanted to know my denture fees.
I'm not high end. The prevailing rate for denture and wax rim was under $100.

Plan to do lots of UPS/FedEx.
 
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Plan to go digital in the next 2 years.
Due to Covid, many offices will be purchasing intra oral scanners very soon.
Helping them make the transition will bear fruit.
Don't be another dinosaur.

Getting into digital... it seems that the only advocates of Digital Denture fabrication are the manufacturers. Don't believe everything you hear about it just yet.
 
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So im a removables tech and have been for 10 years and a dental assistant for 2 years prior to becoming a tech. Just wanted some advice if its time for me to do so. I want to make more money and i average about 43k a year and im in southern california. I plan on having a strictly removables only lab as many doctors have trouble finding a good lab to get dentures from my idea is to have a lab and eventually if i grow enough to employ people it will be a team of highly skilled and overqualified techs specializing in notjing but removables. Anyway what would i need? A regular business lic? Or is it a specific lic because its a lab? Thanks for the read and appreciate all suggestions and help. Have a great day.
Quality and digital now these days do not go together. All digital manufacturer call their printed dentures Temp or Economy dentures. The reason all is trying to go digital because there is not a whole lot of denture techs in the market. Average age for a removable tech is 59 to 50. To pay these people or would be min of $25 to $30/hr. Quality digital denture is at least 4 to 5 years down the road. Plus spending between $20k and 40k in equipments. For milling denture you have to spend about $80k and it will not be inexpensive denture by the time you put it together. Good luck.
 
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I think you just proved my point.
Dentists won't wait for you to come around.
Let's just say... for argument... I have 10 removable accounts and they average $1000/month each. They have about a nil remake rate and know how to do analog.
Please explain WHY and HOW LONG until their ROI makes sense to their accountants to go digital dentures?
Serious question. Thanks...
I'm gonna let the dentists sway me.... I cant steer them.

PS.
Glued in teeth on denture bases???? Now THAT'S funny.
Sprayed dentures???? Even funnier!
Scanning soft tissue arches??? Kinda like your feet. If it's the beginning of the day your shoes slip on easy. End of the day???? Your feet swell... Where is the patient in their day when the scan is done.....
And how ya gonna orient the edentulous arches for the virtual try in of that monobloc mouth terd?
Merry Christmas!
 
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Inna-Hurry

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Quality and digital now these days do not go together. All digital manufacturer call their printed dentures Temp or Economy dentures. The reason all is trying to go digital because there is not a whole lot of denture techs in the market. Average age for a removable tech is 59 to 50. To pay these people or would be min of $25 to $30/hr. Quality digital denture is at least 4 to 5 years down the road. Plus spending between $20k and 40k in equipments. For milling denture you have to spend about $80k and it will not be inexpensive denture by the time you put it together. Good luck.
I concur.
The lab supply marketers are creating a big deal in hopes of peaking dentists' interest.... IT'S EASIER DOC! Your assistant can do it!
Me gonna let the cutting edge tech savvy FNG dental techs figure out how to do it and jump aboard when all the kinks are worked out.
Until then I will enjoy remaking the cheapo printed "dentures" lol.
 
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My advice opening up a new lab during Covid, make sure you can pick up accounts because it will be much harder now to meet with doctors in these scary times. I'm a c&b tech so I know little about digital dentures but I would suggest keeping up with what a printer can do for denture labs. In other words, be aware of how digital can benefit your lab and don't wait to late to go digital. As of today I haven't heard anything positive about digital dentures from my lab friends across the country, but it will happen and happen quickly once all the problems are solved.
 
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rkm rdt

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My advice opening up a new lab during Covid, make sure you can pick up accounts because it will be much harder now to meet with doctors in these scary times. I'm a c&b tech so I know little about digital dentures but I would suggest keeping up with what a printer can do for denture labs. In other words, be aware of how digital can benefit your lab and don't wait to late to go digital. As of today I haven't heard anything positive about digital dentures from my lab friends across the country, but it will happen and happen quickly once all the problems are solved.
if you can't receive a scan then it doesn't really matter how,you make a denture.
 
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Exactly, keep one eye on current day analog techniques and the other eye on anything digital, dental Cad, printing and milling. Dental computer software improves faster than newer materials and techniques.

Would love to hear from any labs and dentist doing digital dentures for their opinions.
 
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rkm rdt

rkm rdt

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Exactly, keep one eye on current day analog techniques and the other eye on anything digital, dental Cad, printing and milling. Dental computer software improves faster than newer materials and techniques.
Charles, I have 7 Trios drs and 1 Medit dr sending scans .
2 others send PVS but both have an Itero .
I have the software to design dd's but choose to make the models and frames for now.
printed models are very accurate and the frames fit just fine once you tweak the settings.
The rest I do analog . I have the time to do the fun stuff.
 
rkm rdt

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If I was starting out today I'd be all in with complete digital denture fabrication.
So much opportunity especially when the majority of your competitors are looking the other way.
Not many analog only c&b labs around anymore.
 
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charles007

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Even though I haven't made a denture since lab school, if I were 5 years younger I would buy the denture module, find a retired denture tech and jump head first into injection dentures and digital dentures carefully.. Before you know it digital dentures will be as common as the word Bruxzir, FCZ. Even though so many non-digital denture labs say poo poo to digital dentures, I don't believe it ! Dentistry is growing digitally by the month.
I lost about a year in delaying to get into Emax which was a mistake, but jumped on fcz zirconia quickly without a second thought. If you wait on technology it will pass you by. Where digital dentures are today is years past where fcz was at not that many years ago. Try to find all the non digital c&b labs that assumed pfms would never die and zirconia was very opaque, there history.

Recon-smiles, if you have good credit, some saving, are able to pick up accounts from day one, I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to open up a lab.
There are a lot of DLN members who can help with a Plan to setup a denture lab. I would also consider going full service in your plan.
 
Flipperlady

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I concur.
The lab supply marketers are creating a big deal in hopes of peaking dentists' interest.... IT'S EASIER DOC! Your assistant can do it!
Me gonna let the cutting edge tech savvy FNG dental techs figure out how to do it and jump aboard when all the kinks are worked out.
Until then I will enjoy remaking the cheapo printed "dentures" lol.
It's easy to sell to dentists at the shows, they come back all excited about the newest thing, but I hope they hold off until the quality is improved. Dentures aren't like a cheap posterior crown that can be hidden away, the patient takes it out everyday, and if they can't eat with it, along with 10's of other things that can go wrong with dentures, then it isn't going to work. I hope the NADL and states, make a requirement that techs need to pass a minimum requirement to make digital dentures or we will have a lot of crown and bridge people making dentures that don't have the required denture knowledge.
 
rkm rdt

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Lol , I heard you can learn it on a weekend.
 
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So im a removables tech and have been for 10 years and a dental assistant for 2 years prior to becoming a tech. Just wanted some advice if its time for me to do so. I want to make more money and i average about 43k a year and im in southern california. I plan on having a strictly removables only lab as many doctors have trouble finding a good lab to get dentures from my idea is to have a lab and eventually if i grow enough to employ people it will be a team of highly skilled and overqualified techs specializing in notjing but removables. Anyway what would i need? A regular business lic? Or is it a specific lic because its a lab? Thanks for the read and appreciate all suggestions and help. Have a great day.
Kinda went sideways from your op.
As an experienced dental assistant,You have a very unique perspective with regards to removable dentures.
Especially where you say that " many Drs have trouble finding a good lab to get dentures from."
As an experienced dental tech in removables, You know why they say that.

I see this as a huge opportunity for you as well. Chairside experience is in valuable and sets you apart from techs that never see the dr or the patient.

Are you a licensed dental assistant? Can you take impressions ?
 
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Recon-smiles

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Plan to go digital in the next 2 years.
Due to Covid, many offices will be purchasing intra oral scanners very soon.
Helping them make the transition will bear fruit.
Don't be another dinosaur.
Where the **** is the art in that? The passion? Call me old fashion or a dinosaur, but theres nothing like a "bespoke" denture in my opinion. After all going digital only goes as far as prints. And will Need and depend on a "dinosaur" to complete and make look imaculate. What about chairside adjustments? Those are always inevidable even if its digital. So no thank you. I didnt learn to do it the right way all these years just to let a machine do the most critical steps for me. I acknowledge your perspective but you seriously think dentists wanna buy expensive scanners and let alone have the time want to learn how to use them? Also i can do 3 or 4 times more work by hand than waiting for a scanned print. I take pride in my skills and wont let it fade or get taken away by a digital market.
 
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Recon-smiles

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Plan to go digital in the next 2 years.
Due to Covid, many offices will be purchasing intra oral scanners very soon.
Helping them make the transition will bear fruit.
Don't be another dinosaur.
Kinda went sideways from your op.
As an experienced dental assistant,You have a very unique perspective with regards to removable dentures.
Especially where you say that " many Drs have trouble finding a good lab to get dentures from."
As an experienced dental tech in removables, You know why they say that.

I see this as a huge opportunity for you as well. Chairside experience is in valuable and sets you apart from techs that never see the dr or the patient.

Are you a licensed dental assistant? Can you take impressions ?
Im not an rda nor a cdt i did do dental assistant for 2 years before i went into lab work. Ive been a dental tech for about 11 years now and ive done dentures and stayplates and never gotten complaints. Adjustments..sure but always happy when im all done with their product. I get referrals from them too and same response. Yes i know how to take impressions
 

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