The changing roles of the dentist and dental laboratory

There are growing pressures on the relationship between the profession and laboratories, including increased use of sophisticated prosthetic services, rapid evolution of materials, more "educated" patients, declining numbers of laboratory training programs and relatively reduced hours in dental schools in traditional prosthodontics subjects, and consolidation in the dental laboratory industry. Restorative services represent the greatest cost/value center in most practices, and the ADA's "Future of Dentistry Report" calls for the profession reasserting its "control" in this area. It is proposed instead that a partnership among the profession, laboratories, manufacturers, and education represents the most effective way to guide the emerging future of restorative dentistry for the benefit of patients and the concerned parties.