When the Laboratory Contacts You.
A call from the laboratory is not a delay. It is the point at which a case would otherwise have become a remake, caught early enough that it does not have to.
Why we stop rather than proceed
A laboratory can always produce something. The question is whether what it produces will seat, function and last, and there are situations where the records make that impossible to guarantee.
In those situations there are two options. Proceed on an assumption and deliver a restoration that may not work, which costs you chair time, costs the patient another appointment, and costs us the remake. Or stop and ask, which costs a phone call.
Laboratories that never call are not necessarily producing better work. They may simply be making assumptions and absorbing the remake rate, which ultimately shows up in the consistency you experience.
Inadequate clearance
The most frequent reason. A preparation that does not provide the space the specified material needs leaves three options, all bad: build thin and risk fracture, build to correct thickness and leave the restoration high in occlusion, or change the material without asking.
When we call about clearance, we are usually asking whether you would prefer to see the patient for further reduction, adjust the opposing tooth, or change to a material that performs in less space. That is your decision, not ours, because only you know what the patient will accept and what the wider treatment plan looks like.
No clear path of insertion
An undercut means the restoration will not seat. The laboratory can block it out digitally or on the die, but doing so deliberately sacrifices fit at that surface — we are making the restoration to a shape the tooth does not have.
For a minor undercut that may be acceptable and you may prefer it to re-preparing. For a significant one it is not, and the honest answer is that the preparation needs adjusting and the record retaking. Either way it is a clinical decision.
A margin that cannot be read
Where the finish line is indistinct, obscured by tissue or fluid, or runs into an existing restoration, we have to decide where the margin is. An interpreted margin produces either an open margin or an overextension, and neither is discovered until seating.
Sometimes you can tell us over the phone — you prepared the tooth and you know where the finish line is, even if the record is ambiguous on one surface. Sometimes the answer is a new record. Both are better than us guessing.
Bite and opposing problems
A bite record that does not seat on the casts, an opposing arch captured incompletely, or an occlusal relationship that appears inconsistent between the record and the models. Any of these mean the restoration would be designed against an occlusion that does not match the patient's.
This is worth catching early because it is invisible in the finished restoration until it is in the mouth, at which point the adjustment required can be substantial enough to compromise the result.
Implant component uncertainty
Where the prescription does not identify the implant system, platform or connection, or where what is written does not match what the record shows, we will always call. Ordering the wrong component wastes time and money, and fitting an incompatible component is not something to discover at the seat appointment.
A photograph of the packaging from the placement appointment usually settles it in one message.
What happens if we cannot reach you
The case waits. That is the honest answer, and it is worth stating plainly because it is the point at which a laboratory query turns into a scheduling problem for the practice.
We will keep trying, and where a decision is genuinely minor we will sometimes proceed on the most conservative interpretation and flag it clearly when the case is returned. But where the question is structural — clearance, path of insertion, implant components — proceeding on an assumption risks producing a restoration that cannot be seated, and waiting is the better of two poor options.
The practical consequence is that an unreachable practice experiences longer cases without necessarily knowing why. A number that reaches a person who can relay a clinical question is worth more to your scheduling than almost any other single thing.
The cases we will not proceed on
There is a short list of situations where no responsible laboratory should fabricate regardless of instruction. A margin that cannot be identified anywhere on a surface. An implant component that does not match the stated system. A bite record that cannot be reconciled with the models. A prescription requesting a material the preparation cannot accommodate.
In each of these the restoration would be built on an assumption that has a meaningful chance of being wrong, and the failure would present at the seat appointment with the patient in the chair. Declining to proceed is not obstruction; it is the point of having a laboratory that inspects what arrives rather than simply processing it.
What helps when we call
A named person at the practice who can find the case notes, and a number that reaches someone who can make or relay a clinical decision. If the dentist is in surgery all day, knowing when they can be reached lets us plan around it rather than leaving messages.
It also helps to know your preference in advance for common situations. Some practices want to be called about everything; others would rather we proceed on our judgement for anything minor and only call for decisions that change the treatment. Either is workable — but only if we know which you want.
In short
- A call prevents a remake; laboratories that never call are making assumptions
- Clearance, undercuts, unreadable margins and bite errors are the usual triggers
- Blocking out an undercut deliberately sacrifices fit at that surface
- Implant component mismatches are settled fastest with a photograph of the packaging
- Tell us in advance how much you want to be consulted
More on laboratory communication
Discuss a case
Where a case sits between options, a short conversation before preparation is usually quicker than resolving it afterwards.