Why an In-House Dental Lab Means Better Fit and Fewer Visits

When you receive a dental crown, bridge, or implant restoration, the fit needs to be incredibly precise—often down to a few microns. Even a tiny mismatch in your bite can cause discomfort, strain on your jaw, or leave small gaps where bacteria can collect.

The Traditional Lab Wait

Most dental offices take physical or digital impressions and ship them off to an external laboratory. This means you have to wear a temporary crown for about two weeks, wait for shipping, and hope the external lab gets the fit right. If the crown needs any adjustments when it arrives, it often has to be sent back, starting the process all over again.

The In-House Advantage: Custom Care Under One Roof

At AVF Dental Group, we chose to do things differently by building our own full-service, in-house dental laboratory. This setup gives us several key advantages:

• Direct Collaboration: I can walk right over to our laboratory director, review your digital scans, and coordinate the shade and shape of your restoration while you are in the chair.
• Exceptional Fit Accuracy: Using advanced CAD/CAM design software and high-precision milling machines, we can design crowns with margins accurate to 10-15 microns.
• Instant Adjustments: If a contact point is slightly tight or the shade needs a minor tweak, we can handle it immediately in the lab, saving you from a second appointment.

How We Create Your Restoration

We use a fully digital process to keep you comfortable and ensure consistent results:

1. Intraoral Scan: We take a quick 3D digital model of your teeth using a handheld scanner—eliminating the need for messy, uncomfortable putty impressions.
2. CAD Design: Our technician models your new tooth on screen, matching the natural shapes and contour of your bite.
3. Precision Milling: We carve the restoration from a solid block of durable ceramic or zirconia in our milling machine.
4. Characterization: We bake the crown in a special furnace to achieve its full strength and hand-glaze it to match the exact shade of your surrounding teeth.