Serving dental practices across Greater Vancouver.
Fairmont Dental Lab has worked with practices across the metropolitan area from Burnaby since 1988, and the laboratory's position near the centre of the region is part of why that has been practical.
A region of very different practices
Metro Vancouver contains roughly two dozen municipalities and an unusually wide spread of practice types — dense downtown clinics working in restricted operatory space, established suburban family practices with patients they have treated for decades, and newer clinics in fast-growing communities south and east of the Fraser.
The case mix that reaches a laboratory from this region is correspondingly broad. A laboratory serving it well has to be competent across the full range rather than specialized in one part of it, because a practice that sends posterior monolithic work today may need demanding anterior aesthetics or implant restorative work within the year.
Where the laboratory sits
Fairmont is at 5349 Imperial Street in Burnaby, which places it close to the geographic centre of the region — between Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, and reachable from the North Shore, Richmond and the Tri-Cities without crossing the whole metropolitan area.
That matters most for the things that require physical proximity: patients attending for shade matching on demanding anterior cases, and cases that benefit from a try-in or verification stage partway through.
It matters much less for routine work submitted digitally, where a file arrives at the same moment regardless of distance.
What the laboratory produces
Fixed restorative work across ceramic, porcelain-fused-to-metal, full metal, composite and provisional categories. Implant restorative components including crowns, pontics, custom abutments and attachment castings. Orthodontic and occlusal appliances including night guards, sport guards, TMJ appliances and bleaching trays.
Professional services are also provided to denturists and to other dental laboratories. The laboratory is not open to the public — patients attend only by appointment for shade matching arranged through a practice.
Documentation and materials
Alloy identification certificates are provided for your records, and every appliance and product is disinfected before it leaves the laboratory.
Materials are selected for the clinical situation rather than laboratory convenience, and are not substituted without telling you. Where more than one material would serve a case, the trade-offs in strength, reduction, bonding and aesthetics are set out so the choice stays with the clinician.
Pricing is available on request — call the laboratory and the current list will be sent for your practice.
Starting a case
A first case needs the same information as any other: practice and doctor identification with a reachable number, tooth numbers and 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 taken before the teeth dehydrate.
Anything unusual belongs there too — a short preparation, clearance deliberately accepted as tight, a margin uncertain on one surface. Those change what the laboratory does and they prevent a call.
If a case is complex, a conversation before preparation is worth more than any amount of written detail afterwards. Advising on demanding cases is part of the service rather than an extra.
Getting started
Most practices begin with a conversation about their case mix, the materials they favour and what has not worked well elsewhere. That takes a few minutes and it establishes considerably more than a first case does.
Cases can be submitted digitally or as conventional impressions, and shipping runs through UPS and Purolator. Prescription forms are available on the Rx forms page, or the laboratory can arrange printed pads.
If you are weighing up a change, choosing a laboratory in Greater Vancouver sets out what is worth assessing.