Sending a case.
Digital or conventional, the requirements are the same: a complete record and a prescription that says what the restoration has to achieve.
Digital submission
Fairmont is a preferred iTero laboratory, so an iTero practice can select the laboratory at the end of a scan and the case is delivered directly — no exporting, no attaching files.
3Shape TRIOS cases arrive through 3Shape Communicate. Medit, Primescan and CEREC, and Carestream all have equivalent routes, and any system exporting open STL can be used.
Setting the connection up is a one-off — see connecting your scanner. The digital case checklist covers what to check before sending.
Conventional submission
Impressions and models are as welcome as they have been since 1988, and for some cases they remain the better record — deeply subgingival margins, edentulous impressions, and long spans where stitching error accumulates.
Disinfect according to the manufacturer's guidance, rinse and dry, and pack so nothing presses against the preparation areas.
Cases move by UPS and Purolator. See packing and sending a case.
What has to travel with the case
Practice and doctor identification with a reachable number. Patient identifier. Tooth numbers marked on the design chart. The material stated explicitly. The shade with the guide named. The margin type prepared. The antagonist. The date you need it.
For implant work, add the system, product line, platform diameter, connection type and intended retention. For anterior work, add photographs taken before the teeth dehydrate.
Prescription forms are on the Rx forms page, or we can send printed pads.
Say what is unusual
A short preparation. Clearance deliberately accepted as tight. A margin clear on three surfaces and uncertain on the fourth. A bite record that was difficult. A patient who has rejected two previous restorations on appearance.
Each of those changes design decisions, and none is visible in a record. A case arriving with a clear note is handled correctly the first time; the same case sent silently stops partway through fabrication.
There is no penalty for saying a case is not textbook.
Before you book the seat appointment
Book provisionally and confirm once the case has been acknowledged and a date given. That small change to front-desk workflow anchors the appointment to something real rather than an assumption.
If a date genuinely cannot move — a patient travelling, treatment seated alongside other work — say so when the case is sent. A constraint known at the start can usually be planned around.
Your first case
If you have not worked with us before, start with a conversation. Become a client covers what that involves, and it establishes considerably more than a first case does.
Call (604) 875-6055, Monday to Friday, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.
Photographs are worth the seconds
For anterior and shade-critical work, photographs carry more than any written description. Take them at the start of the appointment, before isolation dehydrates the enamel, with the shade tab in the same plane as the tooth.
Include the adjacent and contralateral teeth showing internal character — mamelons, white flecking, incisal halo. That is what separates a restoration matching in shade from one matching in appearance.
Send them unedited and at full resolution. The photography guide gives the standard series.
Stages, where a case warrants them
The prescription carries Try In and Finish dates because some cases are better seen before they are finished. A framework try-in before veneering on a long span; a biscuit-stage try-in on a demanding anterior unit; a set-up try-in on removable work.
Each converts a single high-risk delivery appointment into two lower-risk ones, and each costs an appointment. On a case where a remake would be expensive or the patient hard to reschedule, that is a good trade.
Say at the outset if you want a stage, so the case is sequenced for it.