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<blockquote data-quote="2thm8kr" data-source="post: 226265" data-attributes="member: 1367"><p>When I was a kid my mother worked in a denture lab. I used to fake being sick so I could go to the lab with her. (wasn't trusted to be on my own at 6 <img src="/forums/images/smilies/test/hmmmm2.gif" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt="Hmmmm2" title="Hmmmm2 Hmmmm2" data-shortname="Hmmmm2" />)</p><p>After some time she took a gig in a dental office and I somehow completely forgot about the denture lab considering how enamored I was with it originally.</p><p>So after years of small part time jobs growing up and trying different things I had NO idea what I wanted to be when I grew up or if I even wanted to grow up.</p><p>Back then I did a lot of drawing and painting, an acquaintance of my family saw some of my drawings and asked me if I would like to try out working in</p><p>a C & B lab. I was bored with the job that I had at the time and decided to give it a try. Walking in to the lab brought me right back to being a little kid.</p><p></p><p>It was an in-house lab with some hotshot Pankey/Schuyler trained old doctor. Come to find out my grandmother used to run his front desk way before</p><p>I was born. I worked there part time after school in a vocational training program for school credit hours. My friends in the same program had jobs in restaurants,</p><p>lawn services, etc. That is when it dawned on me that this was a unique gig. Being able to work with my hands, use artistic vision, and be challenged mentally</p><p>every day was exactly what I needed. Since I had no idea what I wanted to do for a career I figured going to college would be a huge waste of time and money for</p><p>me. That was the day I decided I was going to be a technician. My friends that went to college had/have a lot of school loan debt. I got to hang out with them and live</p><p>the college student life without incurring the debt or mooching off my parents to live. I used a lot of the money I made working in the lab to travel to a few places around the world, but mostly to self educate myself in dentistry and technology through books, hands on courses and lectures. The techs that mentored me did everything they could to impress upon me the importance of education, not just the technical side, but what the dentists are learning as well. I took every Dr. Spear course that he offered when he used to come to Orlando as well as Dr. Dawson's courses in St. Pete.</p><p></p><p>One of the labs I worked at full time had a little trouble with an agency known as the IRS. I was asked to take some time off while the owner tried to get them self</p><p>straightened out with Uncle Sam. I didn't have time to wait around for that nonsense, so I started looking for some gigs elsewhere. I had some friends living in another part of the state. While visiting them for a few days, I decided to see if any of the local labs were hiring. Scored two part time jobs in less than 15 minutes. I had only planned on staying around for a year or so and moving on to some other place. While I was living there I was contacted by one of my mentors and asked if I though that there was an opportunity for a new lab where I lived. Since I worked at two of the four labs in the area and knew what the quality level and service was around the area I thought that it was a good place to try a new lab. We started a 50/50 partnership with a bunch of used equipment and a few thousand bucks. The lab really took off and was profitable, we had 6-7 employees and were really killing it, but I hated the direction we were going. That direction was mediocrity and that is what the labs that were already here provided. I was miserable! I worked with a few doctors closely on large cases and had built quite a rapport with them. A few of them asked me if I would like to work in-house for them. I passed on that and started a small quality driven lab that specialized in aesthetics and difficult rehab cases. That did great for several years and I constantly had a backlog of work up to 8 weeks before I even started the cases. We had a few hurricanes come through here and take out my source of income for several months and then the onset of CAD/CAM. I was feeling like a dinosaur, even though I could do every thing in a C & B lab with a great degree of competence I felt like I was about to be pushed out of the industry I had spent the better part of my life working at. The only other thing I am qualified to do is work the midnight shift at 7-11. One of my clients had already looked into Cerec and decided it wasn't what they were looking for but they did by an iTero scanner and started me into my journey into CAD/CAM. I had played around with Procera and Lava prior, but never really delved into it. I always had to do waxups etc. to get what I wanted from the labs that had the CAD equipment. Then another one of my clients scored a chairside system and all the gravy cases from that office were in jeopardy of going away. All I could think of was being wired on coffee trying to stay awake on the night shift a 7-11. I asked who would be running that chair side system and they had planned on possibly hiring someone to do it. I snatched that gig up and started my journey deep into CAD. It's been a wild and crazy run, I have no idea what I would do with out the challenges of dental technology and am glad that I have found a way to rejuvenate my passion for what I do (30 years into it) and stay off the night shift.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="2thm8kr, post: 226265, member: 1367"] When I was a kid my mother worked in a denture lab. I used to fake being sick so I could go to the lab with her. (wasn't trusted to be on my own at 6 Hmmmm2) After some time she took a gig in a dental office and I somehow completely forgot about the denture lab considering how enamored I was with it originally. So after years of small part time jobs growing up and trying different things I had NO idea what I wanted to be when I grew up or if I even wanted to grow up. Back then I did a lot of drawing and painting, an acquaintance of my family saw some of my drawings and asked me if I would like to try out working in a C & B lab. I was bored with the job that I had at the time and decided to give it a try. Walking in to the lab brought me right back to being a little kid. It was an in-house lab with some hotshot Pankey/Schuyler trained old doctor. Come to find out my grandmother used to run his front desk way before I was born. I worked there part time after school in a vocational training program for school credit hours. My friends in the same program had jobs in restaurants, lawn services, etc. That is when it dawned on me that this was a unique gig. Being able to work with my hands, use artistic vision, and be challenged mentally every day was exactly what I needed. Since I had no idea what I wanted to do for a career I figured going to college would be a huge waste of time and money for me. That was the day I decided I was going to be a technician. My friends that went to college had/have a lot of school loan debt. I got to hang out with them and live the college student life without incurring the debt or mooching off my parents to live. I used a lot of the money I made working in the lab to travel to a few places around the world, but mostly to self educate myself in dentistry and technology through books, hands on courses and lectures. The techs that mentored me did everything they could to impress upon me the importance of education, not just the technical side, but what the dentists are learning as well. I took every Dr. Spear course that he offered when he used to come to Orlando as well as Dr. Dawson's courses in St. Pete. One of the labs I worked at full time had a little trouble with an agency known as the IRS. I was asked to take some time off while the owner tried to get them self straightened out with Uncle Sam. I didn't have time to wait around for that nonsense, so I started looking for some gigs elsewhere. I had some friends living in another part of the state. While visiting them for a few days, I decided to see if any of the local labs were hiring. Scored two part time jobs in less than 15 minutes. I had only planned on staying around for a year or so and moving on to some other place. While I was living there I was contacted by one of my mentors and asked if I though that there was an opportunity for a new lab where I lived. Since I worked at two of the four labs in the area and knew what the quality level and service was around the area I thought that it was a good place to try a new lab. We started a 50/50 partnership with a bunch of used equipment and a few thousand bucks. The lab really took off and was profitable, we had 6-7 employees and were really killing it, but I hated the direction we were going. That direction was mediocrity and that is what the labs that were already here provided. I was miserable! I worked with a few doctors closely on large cases and had built quite a rapport with them. A few of them asked me if I would like to work in-house for them. I passed on that and started a small quality driven lab that specialized in aesthetics and difficult rehab cases. That did great for several years and I constantly had a backlog of work up to 8 weeks before I even started the cases. We had a few hurricanes come through here and take out my source of income for several months and then the onset of CAD/CAM. I was feeling like a dinosaur, even though I could do every thing in a C & B lab with a great degree of competence I felt like I was about to be pushed out of the industry I had spent the better part of my life working at. The only other thing I am qualified to do is work the midnight shift at 7-11. One of my clients had already looked into Cerec and decided it wasn't what they were looking for but they did by an iTero scanner and started me into my journey into CAD/CAM. I had played around with Procera and Lava prior, but never really delved into it. I always had to do waxups etc. to get what I wanted from the labs that had the CAD equipment. Then another one of my clients scored a chairside system and all the gravy cases from that office were in jeopardy of going away. All I could think of was being wired on coffee trying to stay awake on the night shift a 7-11. I asked who would be running that chair side system and they had planned on possibly hiring someone to do it. I snatched that gig up and started my journey deep into CAD. It's been a wild and crazy run, I have no idea what I would do with out the challenges of dental technology and am glad that I have found a way to rejuvenate my passion for what I do (30 years into it) and stay off the night shift. [/QUOTE]
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