In-House Dental Laboratory
Several years ago, our office opened up its own dental laboratory. The purpose of this move was two-fold:
1. Quality control – having our laboratory on site provides better control and communications between the dentist, our patients and our lab technicians for each and every case that is fabricated. Modifications in colors and shades, contours and shapes of our crowns and bridgework can be easily corrected, when needed, while our patients are still in the dental chair. Our laboratory takes pride in providing a quality product for all our patients.
2. Selecting our own laboratory materials – I’ve seen over the last 10 years just how important it is to use compatible, dental materials in our patient’s mouths. Although this may not be a major concern for most dentists and dental laboratories in this country at this time; as a biological dentist, I am absolutely convinced that choices in materials, especially the metal alloys, is crucial to our patient’s long term health and wellness.
In our laboratory, we use an alloy called Holistic gold. This product contains two precious metals: approx. 88% gold and 11% platinum. Trace amounts of Iridium, Indium and Rhodium are present in less than 1% and are evaporated during the firing process.
Although gold and platinum are reaching record prices, I strongly believe these metals still provide the most compatible materials available for my patients. MRT results (blood compatibility testing) reveal this product to be 98 – 99% compatible with all patients that use this material. Although cheaper metal products can be used, thus lowering the cost of dentist’s laboratory bills, substituting these precious metals; i.e., gold/platinum for heavy metal alloys such as nickel, palladium, aluminum, copper and beryllium are simply not acceptable in our office.
Instead of porcelain, which is used for the tooth colored portion of crowns, we use Belleglass NG or Diamond Crown. Both of these materials are hard, composite resins that offer excellent esthetics for our patients and are also considered as a highly compatible dental material when placed in the oral cavity.
An interesting news report was aired just recently, regarding the practice of out-sourcing dental products to China in an effort to reduce laboratory costs. A copy of this report is available for your review. Chinese Dental Products May Hide Danger.
Should you ever you have any questions about any of our dental products used in our office, please feel free to ask us and well be happy to show you exactly what we’re using in your mouth. You have a right to know what’s being used!
For more information regarding the compatibility of dental materials, go to Dr. Rehme’s Articles and choose “Carefully Choose Your Dental Materials.”
