Great Esthetics with an In House Laboratory

The Importance of In-House Laboratory Control

Since 1985, Elite Prosthetic Dentistry has maintained an in-house dental laboratory within the practice. This decision was made based on the belief that establishing effective control over the esthetics, precision fit, and optimal bite of our patients’ crowns is essential to providing exceptional results. While many dental practices send their crown work to remote commercial laboratories, our commitment to in-house fabrication reflects our dedication to quality and patient satisfaction.

An in-house laboratory creates significant advantages for prosthodontic treatment. When a dental technician works in the same facility as the doctor, they can communicate directly and frequently about patient cases. Most importantly, the technician can work chairside with patients to observe their natural teeth, facial features, and tooth characteristics firsthand.

The Chairside Advantage: Direct Observation and Customization

With our technician working chairside with patients, he is able to create natural looking teeth by applying inherent color in the lower layers of the porcelain, which mimics the three-dimensional appearance of natural teeth. In essence, the color of a tooth comes from its dentin, which is the underlying structure beneath the more translucent enamel. By shading the porcelain in this manner, we provide a more natural “glow” to the crown, which cannot be achieved with just surface staining the porcelain to match adjacent teeth.

This principle is crucial for achieving natural-looking restorations. Commercial laboratories, no matter how skilled, fabricate crowns from photographs and shade guides without seeing the patient in person. They cannot observe how light reflects off the patient’s natural teeth, how the teeth appear under different lighting conditions, or subtle individual characteristics that make each person’s smile unique.

Translucency and Internal Color: The Key to Natural Appearance

In addition, many crowns made in remote laboratories lack the proper translucency. Technicians who never see the patient often err on the side of opacity, avoiding what they perceive as “errors” when fabricating the crown. However, natural teeth have specific translucency characteristics that allow light to pass through them in particular ways.

The proper combination of internal coloration and the correct translucency is difficult to create without the technician actually seeing the patient and their natural teeth. Even the best commercial laboratories cannot provide this level of customization and observation-based craftsmanship.

The Single Anterior Crown: The Most Challenging Restoration

The following case demonstrates the most difficult tooth to restore: the single central incisor crown. This tooth is located on the midline of the smile, meaning it is the most visible tooth. The internal color and the translucency have to perfectly match the natural tooth next to it, and any mismatch will be immediately obvious.

When you restore a single front tooth with a crown, it sits directly adjacent to the patient’s natural tooth. Any difference in color, translucency, shade, or light reflection will be apparent. This is why the chairside involvement of our technician is so critical. By observing the patient and their natural tooth directly, our technician can create a crown that is virtually indistinguishable from the natural tooth.

Superior Results Through In-House Expertise

The results of in-house laboratory work demonstrate dramatically superior esthetics compared to crowns fabricated at remote laboratories. Patients consistently report that their new crown looks more natural than they expected, that it matches their natural teeth beautifully, and that the appearance is completely natural.

For patients seeking custom-crafted crowns or other cosmetic dentistry restorations, the in-house laboratory advantage at Elite Prosthetic Dentistry provides peace of mind that their restoration will be created with the highest level of skill and attention to detail.

Contact Elite Prosthetic Dentistry for Your Smile Restoration

If you need a crown restoration and want to ensure that you receive the most natural-looking result possible, contact Elite Prosthetic Dentistry at 202-244-2101. Dr. Gerald Marlin and his team, along with our skilled in-house laboratory technician, will work together to create restorations that match your natural teeth perfectly.