Remakes and adjustments.
Something will occasionally not be right. What determines whether the replacement solves the problem or repeats it is the information that comes back with the case.
Send the diagnosis, not just the restoration
A restoration returned with no explanation is the hardest kind of case to handle well, because the fault is frequently not visible on the restoration itself.
A crown that would not seat may have been obstructed by an undercut, a proximal contact, residual cement, tissue, or a preparation that has been adjusted since the record was taken. Inspecting the returned crown will not distinguish between those.
Tell us where it bound, what you adjusted, what the patient said, and whether anything changed clinically between the impression and the seat appointment. That converts a remake into a diagnosis.
What to include
The restoration itself, and the original models or a note that the case was digital. A description of what happened, in enough detail to be actionable.
Where the problem is shade, photographs of the restoration in the mouth alongside the adjacent teeth, taken hydrated and in natural lip position. Where it is fit, a note on where it bound and whether it seated on the model.
Where a new record is needed, take it properly rather than reusing the original — particularly if the preparation has been refined in the interim.
Categorize before you conclude
Restorations come back for fit, for contacts and occlusion, for shade, for contour and emergence, and for fracture. Those five categories have almost entirely different causes.
Fit problems usually trace to records or to a preparation altered after recording. Shade problems almost always trace to the conditions in which the shade was taken. Fractures usually trace to clearance.
Recording only the category of each case that comes back makes patterns visible within fifteen or twenty cases, and the pattern is frequently not what anyone would have guessed. See avoiding remakes.
Patterns are worth raising specifically
An individual remake is noise. Six cases in twenty needing occlusal adjustment on the same cusp is a solvable problem, and one we can act on.
Bring it as a specific observation rather than a general dissatisfaction. A laboratory can adjust how it builds contacts, how it interprets a bite record, or how it finishes occlusal surfaces for your practice specifically — but only if it knows what is happening at your chair.
That exchange is how a laboratory relationship improves rather than merely continues.
What is behind the work
Fairmont has stood behind the restorations it produces since 1988, and unbeatable service and a quality guarantee back everything the laboratory makes.
Where something is not right, the response is to establish the cause rather than assign it, and to put it right. For the specific terms that apply to your practice, call the laboratory — they are best set out directly rather than generally.
What a laboratory guarantee normally covers
Across the Canadian market, laboratory guarantees are generally structured by product category rather than as a single blanket term. Fixed restorations typically carry the longest cover, removable prosthetics a shorter one, and provisional restorations and appliances shorter again.
Implant restorative work is frequently treated separately, because the components involved — abutment, screws and related parts — are as relevant to a failure as the restoration itself.
What every credible policy has in common is a definition of what it covers: defects in materials or workmanship, rather than clinical outcome, patient behaviour or damage in service.
What a guarantee does not cover anywhere
Fracture from parafunction that was not disclosed. Failure of the underlying tooth — caries, endodontic or periodontal breakdown. Damage from adjustment, improper cementation or trauma. Restorations altered after delivery. And results that were compromised by the records supplied.
That last one matters and is worth stating plainly rather than leaving implicit. A restoration made accurately to an inaccurate record has not failed; it has faithfully reproduced what it was given.
None of that is an argument for not standing behind the work. It is an argument for the two sides being clear about which category a given problem falls into, which is why the description you send back matters so much.
Fairmont's terms
Unbeatable service and a quality guarantee back everything the laboratory produces, and have done since 1988. The specific cover that applies to your practice and to each product category is set out directly rather than generally — call the laboratory and we will confirm it in writing.
Where something is not right, the response is to establish the cause rather than assign it, and to put it right.
Handling it with the patient
Patients tolerate a remake considerably better than they tolerate a surprise. A clinician who identifies the issue clearly, explains it without blaming, arranges the remedy without argument and does not charge the patient for the correction converts a failure into evidence of integrity.
What patients remember is not that something went wrong but how it was handled. That is worth more to a practice's reputation than the case that went smoothly.
Give a realistic timeframe rather than an optimistic one, and contact them proactively if it moves.
Preventing the next one
Most of what reduces remakes sits upstream: verified clearance before the record is taken, tissue managed before capture, a prescription that states intent and constraints, and a call before preparing on anything borderline.
The preparation guides cover the chairside checks by case type, and ask a technician covers the conversation worth having first.
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Send a case
Digital scans and conventional impressions are both accepted. Cases move by UPS and Purolator, and Fairmont works with practices throughout British Columbia and across Canada.