Hi everyone!
Doctor Shervin here from Artistic Dental Studio with another blog from my dental tips series. I want to answer a question which is a grey area to many of our patients. There are some services in dentistry which require involvement of a third party, like a dental lab, for instance making crowns, veneers, dentures, etc. The issue is that patients often ask why the prices are so different among dentists.
To answer this, one needs to know what happens behind the scenes and this is the topic of my blog today. There’s an option nowadays to make everything in house without sending it to the lab which has its own pros and cons and it’s beyond the scope of this blog, but as you may know, after the mouth is prepared to receive any of these aforementioned treatments (I mean either crown, veneer, denture, etc), dentist needs to either take an impression or a scan to transfer the information from mouth to lab. This is the first step that determines the fee, because the more sophisticated the technology used, the better the quality and therefore the more the price.
Once all data is transferred to the lab, depending on qualifications of lab technician and material and equipment used, lab fee could vary greatly. For example, the crown could be made of a non-precious alloy utilising the technology which has been available in dentistry for over 100 years or On the contrary, a crown could be made from the newest type of ceramics layered with state of the art porcelain to mimic the shape and shade of a natural tooth utilising ground-breaking milling technology. Lab fee normally constitutes a big part of fees involved and as you can see, it could vary depending on these factors.
Also, the experience and qualifications of the dentist and type of materials used in the operatory are amongst the other factors determining the final cost.
So, as you can see, as a layperson it’s impossible to figure out exactly how these types of treatments are being carried out, but if you are quite concerned of the treatment quality you’re about to receive, asking some questions from your dentist regarding the previous factors could shed some light on the process you are about to begin.
I hope this quick blog could help somehow. If you have concerns or questions you can either check our website at www.artisticdentalstudio.com.au or call us at 32541811.
Have a fantastic day!
