Dandy

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Affinity

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I cant be anymore clear about this point, a company like dandy will NOT help a struggling mom and pop. Giving a middleman a cut will only allow them to make less than they would if you just sent them the case directly, its simple math. If a mom and pop cant afford to get into digital, then they are destined for failure anyways. I dealt with this a few years ago when a bankrupt client, who stole a lot of money from me, sold to a large multi-practice Dr. They said they would continue to work with me if I could do emax crowns for $68. I laughed and said goodbye. When an emax ingot is $15-20, add in other overhead, I would have to pay them to not send to me. Our industry is in the hands of good dentists that care about their patients and do good work. Shortcuts be damned. Its the story of walmart/amazon vs mom and pops. You will end up with very limited choices in the end after the rest of the small labs close. That has already happened and Dandy (and drs who support them) will finish the job. But when there is no network for dandy to use, who will be left?
 
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Sorry Rob no clue, a doctor using Dandy lab gave me these prices.
Dandy's current prices to dentist. FCZ $99.00 Emax $125. PFZ $175. Nightguard $109. PFM $125. (didn't ask about ship chg)
 
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I am testing this and reporting back to the mother ship. After seeing it first hand there is a market for this. There are dentists who need this push. There are also folks who get their eye exams at Walmart. I am neither.

I agree 100% about the $99 crown...

However, I have already learned a few things I honestly didn't know about IOS in their training. I am going to keep testing, and hopefully soon I can do some more scientific comparisons as well. Hell at this point it has been cheaper than a lot of CE I have taken over the years.

Good stuff
 
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This is going to sound preachy, so I am prepared for the thrown tomatoes and pipe wrenches...

I understand that in the larger picture this is a shot at the way good labs need to operate.

I am more in tune with it than most.

I deal with shots every day at the way I choose to practice. My office is 4 people. We are completely out of network with insurance, and I see about 4 patients a day. We pay double what the 6-Dr.-practice up the road pays for some of our supplies (and probably 25% more for the rest).

Because we go slow, my high wage employees cost me twice. We're either slow and expensive or it's that we take our time and do it right... sometimes it is a fine line on which of those two it really is.

Something I haven't seen a lot of talk about on here recently is cost-of-doing-business advantages mega labs have. I also haven't seen the finger of blame pointed at the suppliers for selling us out to prefer the huge mega corporate labs and dental offices.

We lose patients sometimes to offices that do it cheaper/faster (but never better :) ),or have the glitzy advertisement (sound familiar Inclusive, gag)?

Some of this may hit close to the mark for some of you who have evolved to a manager role of a huge lab or "Dentist-owner" of 16 practices. Sorry, us little guys are tired of it.

But, I have to decide where to save costs myself too, and like it or not I have to experiment with stuff like Dandy. Feels like selling my soul to the Devil, but again where do I make the cuts to remain viable?

It is possible I am going to have to let the patients go elsewhere for the basic, and I bet you guys have let the dentists go elsewhere for the basic and charge them appropriately for the high end and fantastic.
 
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Affinity

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If you want to compare cost of doing business for me as a one man lab, to glidewells childcare and fitness center in order to manipulate people to work there.. Im pretty sure you just did that with the comparison to offices with tons of advertising and free flat screens. Ive seen quite a few of those type practices go out of business/file bankruptcy/settle in court for sexual harassment.. while the Dr with one operatory produces more than most of my other accounts. The bigger they are the harder they fall.
I dont think theres a formula for doing it the 'right way' .. different strokes for different folks. I just wonder how good the training is from dandy. This is like learning to tune your engine from the car salesman, not the mechanic.
 
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This is going to sound preachy, so I am prepared for the thrown tomatoes and pipe wrenches...

I understand that in the larger picture this is a shot at the way good labs need to operate.

I am more in tune with it than most.

I deal with shots every day at the way I choose to practice. My office is 4 people. We are completely out of network with insurance, and I see about 4 patients a day. We pay double what the 6-Dr.-practice up the road pays for some of our supplies (and probably 25% more for the rest).

Because we go slow, my high wage employees cost me twice. We're either slow and expensive or it's that we take our time and do it right... sometimes it is a fine line on which of those two it really is.

Something I haven't seen a lot of talk about on here recently is cost-of-doing-business advantages mega labs have. I also haven't seen the finger of blame pointed at the suppliers for selling us out to prefer the huge mega corporate labs and dental offices.

We lose patients sometimes to offices that do it cheaper/faster (but never better :) ),or have the glitzy advertisement (sound familiar Inclusive, gag)?

Some of this may hit close to the mark for some of you who have evolved to a manager role of a huge lab or "Dentist-owner" of 16 practices. Sorry, us little guys are tired of it.

But, I have to decide where to save costs myself too, and like it or not I have to experiment with stuff like Dandy. Feels like selling my soul to the Devil, but again where do I make the cuts to remain viable?

It is possible I am going to have to let the patients go elsewhere for the basic, and I bet you guys have let the dentists go elsewhere for the basic and charge them appropriately for the high end and fantastic.
I actually just started working there recently, I started off in a Laboratory that wound up selling to one of those huge lab companies, then went to a mom and pop with about 15 employees. I can tell you this place has the technicians. I joined willingly and gladly. I don't understand the business aspects of it all but I am impressed with the attention to detail this place considers (way more so than either of the labs I worked in before.) I work remotely and I can say without a doubt this company treats its employees, dental techs and otherwise way better than I've experienced at the labs I physically worked at. The motto at both labs always just seemed to be "send it" regardless of the quality of work being shipped to the Dr. Each place has its good technicians but with every good tech there's a bad one, and the good ones are over worked trying to compensate for the poor quality of what was given to them to work on by the bad ones. Here, this doesn't seem to be the case. I'm a ceramist and designer, I hated getting cases from the people the bosses put in charge of designing because it was grind away all day just to get it to look like a tooth sometimes. Because it's digitised here every design has to be just right and just to the drs preferences. I feel like I've finally found a place that will show me the respect I deserve as a technician. I hope this doesn't sound super preachy as well. I don't know what lies ahead in the future here but I know I ran road runner style to this place from the previous lab I worked.
 
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Oh i created a new acct here because I want to stay private just in case! Don't want an NDA being filed against me from any of the places!
 
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How long have you been working in dental technology? Looks like you have a cdt? Where do you physically work, from home or at your own lab? Thanks for posting, glad to hear from someone on the inside.
 
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How long have you been working in dental technology? Looks like you have a cdt? Where do you physically work, from home or at your own lab? Thanks for posting, glad to hear from someone on the inside.
I started in the field in 2011. I worked my way up within the lab to doing porcelain then was put into digital about 7 years ago. I worked my butt off to get my CDT in 2017 specialising in porcelain. I'm on the east coast and I'd gladly give you info of where I worked privately but do not feel comfortable posting it to this forum. (That whole pesky NDA thing with one of the previous places I worked) how about yourself?
 
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jcbdmd

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. I just wonder how good the training is from dandy. This is like learning to tune your engine from the car salesman, not the mechanic.

I would say that the training was from someone who seemed to know a focused subset of the 3Shape training manual backwards and forwards. Excellent stepwise regurgitation. Trainer was pretty awesome to work with. However, no clinical experience as far as I could tell, so I got no "pearls of wisdom" from the half-a-tennis-ball spit bucket we work in.

That will definitely lead to some problems with the wrong Dr., trainer, and technician combination... some cases will not turn out even "clinically acceptable," let alone the standard we should strive for.

Trainer has followed up 2 times by phone and emailed to try and answer various questions I had, but it is definitely a dual function call... here are your answers, when are you scheduling your next case "so we can have someone ready on standby." Good for the Dr., good for them (also has the dual role to push more cases you do with them).

Oh i created a new acct here because I want to stay private just in case! Don't want an NDA being filed against me from any of the places!

Hear you there, agree 100%, I protected myself as much as possible with them before I signed an agreement to pre-pay for services. When a company is unknown, best practice is to keep at arms length.
 
sidesh0wb0b

sidesh0wb0b

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I was also interested in who among labs possibly on here might be approached to subcontract for the work. If they are taking this nation wide at all of these trade shows no way in hell they can do all that work with a few NY local labs subcontracted.

I would think that you guys might not divulge to one another if you accepted to be a subcontracted lab, but I would think if anyone on here told them Hell No! it might get shared on here. From a lab perspective, how attractive IS subcontracting (and not having to deal with my impression was perfect Dr.'s).

I intend to share on here what we Dentists think about/ go through with this model while I try it (even though this type of bulk quantity vendor lock-in is not the type of lab services I am after).

I guess it's just the scientist in me, I want to poke it with a stick and see how it responds... :)
we often do subcontract work for other labs....and have no issues admitting it publically. many people we help are here on the forums too.
but, we do not do anything for dandy, nor have we been contacted by them
 
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sidesh0wb0b

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Sorry Rob no clue, a doctor using Dandy lab gave me these prices.
Dandy's current prices to dentist. FCZ $99.00 Emax $125. PFZ $175. Nightguard $109. PFM $125. (didn't ask about ship chg)
i can tell you for sure those prices mean the crowns are most likely not made in NYC
LOLOL
cost of labor in NY is absurd, and worse in NYC
 
Cdtflb

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I would say that the training was from someone who seemed to know a focused subset of the 3Shape training manual backwards and forwards. Excellent stepwise regurgitation. Trainer was pretty awesome to work with. However, no clinical experience as far as I could tell, so I got no "pearls of wisdom" from the half-a-tennis-ball spit bucket we work in.

That will definitely lead to some problems with the wrong Dr., trainer, and technician combination... some cases will not turn out even "clinically acceptable," let alone the standard we should strive for.

Trainer has followed up 2 times by phone and emailed to try and answer various questions I had, but it is definitely a dual function call... here are your answers, when are you scheduling your next case "so we can have someone ready on standby." Good for the Dr., good for them (also has the dual role to push more cases you do with them).



Hear you there, agree 100%, I protected myself as much as possible with them before I signed an agreement to pre-pay for services. When a company is unknown, best practice is to keep at arms length.

For me, my bigger concern was the labs I worked at previously! 😳
 
sidesh0wb0b

sidesh0wb0b

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Something I haven't seen a lot of talk about on here recently is cost-of-doing-business advantages mega labs have. I also haven't seen the finger of blame pointed at the suppliers for selling us out to prefer the huge mega corporate labs and dental offices.
this right here is spot on!
had a giant supplier come through offering a "deal" to buy a ton of zirconia. he made the comparison that the big lab down the road "gets a big discount because they order so much every month". then proceeded to tell me how he wanted to seem 'fair' with pricing to me. i told him fair pricing would be to offer me the same as the big lab down the road....LOL. he didnt go for it. and i dont purchase from that supplier.

as a smaller lab (6ppl) we choose to do higher quality as you do. and it costs in labor twice as well. especially when its slower. BUT, our quality outshines the competition and our work environment is top notch. (so is the moonshine in the refrigerator! LOL)

its a strange balance with the Dandy setup. I dont know of any practices taking them up on their services....but we have placed scanners in offices to help some of the ones on the fence with moving digital. its been a success, both for us and the practices. there are other options out there beyond Dandy.
 
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jloppnow20

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I started in the field in 2011. I worked my way up within the lab to doing porcelain then was put into digital about 7 years ago. I worked my butt off to get my CDT in 2017 specialising in porcelain. I'm on the east coast and I'd gladly give you info of where I worked privately but do not feel comfortable posting it to this forum. (That whole pesky NDA thing with one of the previous places I worked) how about yourself?
Following. Connect with
me on LinkedIn?
Jennifer L
 
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drmelrusso

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Sounds like they took my idea to a new level.

I predicted this years ago . He who controls the file gets paid.

My lab has been doing this for 7 years now. The only difference is that I never asked for a commitment.
what is the name of your lab?
 
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Drbob

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I've been testing out Dandy for about a month. All of my crowns and bridges have had needed little to no adjustments and i have had no remakes needed. They are quick to call when there is a concern and have a fast turnaround time: ~5 days for single unit, 7 days for multi-unit, and 12-14 for clear aligners.

Most labs are using the same systems they use and Dandy doesn't limit you to only using their lab. Yes, they want you to to do at least 1000$ worth of lab work with them/month, but beyond that I still send locally and support the "little guys".
No one else has offered me a scanner with no long term commitment.

The scanning tech reduces processing time, material costs, and allows you to view, adjust, and modify your preps in real-time.

If it's not for you, that's ok, but don't knock it until you try it.

We will see what month #2 brings bit I'm very happy with the results so far.
 
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sidesh0wb0b

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I've been testing out Dandy for about a month. All of my crowns and bridges have had needed little to no adjustments and i have had no remakes needed. They are quick to call when there is a concern and have a fast turnaround time: ~5 days for single unit, 7 days for multi-unit, and 12-14 for clear aligners.

Most labs are using the same systems they use and Dandy doesn't limit you to only using their lab. Yes, they want you to to do at least 1000$ worth of lab work with them/month, but beyond that I still send locally and support the "little guys".
No one else has offered me a scanner with no long term commitment.

The scanning tech reduces processing time, material costs, and allows you to view, adjust, and modify your preps in real-time.

If it's not for you, that's ok, but don't knock it until you try it.

We will see what month #2 brings bit I'm very happy with the results so far.
its nice to hear an honest review, please keep coming back and telling us more!
 
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