Frequently Asked Questions for Dentists.
The questions that come up most often from practices, answered from the laboratory side.
What is the minimum information you actually need?
Practice and doctor identification with a reachable number, patient identifier, tooth numbers, restoration type, the material stated explicitly, the shade with the guide named, the margin type prepared, the antagonist, and the date you need it.
For implant work, add the system, product line, platform diameter, connection type and whether screw or cement retention is intended. For anterior work, add photographs.
Anything unusual about the case — a short preparation, clearance deliberately accepted as tight, a margin uncertain on one surface — belongs there too. It changes what we do and it prevents a call.
Can you tell what material a previous restoration is made from?
Not reliably from a die or a scan. Some inferences are possible from appearance and radiographic density, but distinguishing between similar materials, or identifying which of several zirconia formulations was used, is guesswork.
If you are restoring adjacent to an existing restoration and want to match it, the useful information is a photograph and, where you have it, the original prescription or laboratory. Matching an unknown ceramic is harder than matching a natural tooth, because the material's optical behaviour is part of what has to be reproduced.
Where the existing restoration is old, discoloured or a poor match itself, the better conversation is often about replacing it rather than matching it.
Why do you call about clearance rather than just making it thinner?
Because a restoration built thinner than the material tolerates will fracture, usually in the first year, and the remake costs everyone more than the phone call.
The alternatives are to change to a material that performs in less space, to have the patient back for further reduction, or to adjust the opposing tooth. All three are clinical decisions, which is why they come back to you rather than being resolved at the bench.
If you would prefer we exercise judgement on marginal cases rather than calling every time, tell us. Some practices want to be consulted on everything; others would rather we proceed conservatively and flag it. Either works if we know which.
Can you make a definitive restoration from a scan of the provisional?
Not as the fit surface — the definitive restoration needs a record of the preparation itself. But a scan of a working provisional is extremely valuable alongside the preparation record, because it communicates the form, contour, emergence and occlusal scheme that have been tested in the mouth.
This is the single most useful additional record on complex anterior and full-mouth cases. Send both, and say explicitly that the definitive restoration should reproduce the provisional.
Without it, we build to the original plan, which may be exactly what the provisional phase demonstrated does not work.
Can a restoration be remade from an archived digital file?
Often, provided the preparation has not changed. If a restoration fractures or is lost and the tooth is intact, a replacement can frequently be produced from the original scan without re-appointing the patient for a new record.
The caveats matter. If the tooth has been re-prepared, if a margin has been refined, if there has been recession or tissue change, or if adjacent teeth have drifted, the archived file no longer describes the situation.
Ask what the retention arrangement is before relying on it, and confirm the preparation is unchanged before requesting a remake this way.
What if I adjust the preparation after taking the impression?
Tell us, or retake the record. This is one of the most difficult problems to diagnose after the fact, because the record was accurate when it was taken and the restoration is accurate to the record.
Even small refinements matter — opening a contact, rounding an edge, removing an undercut. The restoration is then made to a tooth that no longer exists, and it typically fits nowhere properly.
A note describing exactly what was changed is sometimes enough for minor adjustments. Anything more than that needs a new record.
Do you need the opposing arch if the patient wears a denture?
Yes, and the denture itself is usually the most useful record. The occlusal scheme of the denture is what the restoration has to work against, and it cannot be inferred from the arch beneath it.
Where the denture is being replaced as part of the same treatment, that changes the sequencing — restoring against a denture that is about to be replaced produces a restoration designed for an occlusion that will not exist.
Say what the plan is so the case can be staged sensibly.
Can I send a case without a bite record?
For a single unit with stable, intact adjacent teeth and a clearly reproducible intercuspation, the models can sometimes be articulated reliably from the teeth themselves. It is not ideal and it is not always possible.
For anything more than that — multiple units, unstable occlusion, a restoration establishing guidance — a bite record is essential and its accuracy determines the outcome.
If you have a case where the record was difficult or you are unsure of it, say so rather than sending it silently. We would rather know than discover it when the models will not articulate consistently.
What happens if I disagree with something you have done?
Say so directly and specifically, and describe what you observed rather than only the conclusion. Where it bound, what you adjusted, what the patient said, what looked wrong.
That is a diagnosis rather than a complaint, and it is the difference between a remake that solves the problem and one that repeats it. It is also how a laboratory calibrates to a particular practice over time.
A pattern is more useful still. Six cases with tight contacts is a solvable, specific problem in a way that a general sense of dissatisfaction is not.
In short
- State material, shade with guide, margin type, antagonist and anything unusual
- Existing restoration materials cannot be identified reliably from a die
- Send a scan of a working provisional alongside the preparation record
- Archived files allow remakes only if the preparation is genuinely unchanged
- Describe what you observed, not just the conclusion, when something is wrong
More on clinical
Discuss a case
Where a case sits between options, a short conversation before preparation is usually quicker than resolving it afterwards.