Short answer. Choose a dental laboratory that is accountable to the patient after the restoration leaves the building. In 2026, that means a named technician you can speak to, a manufacturer registered in the UK with a statement of manufacture you can read, the freedom to use whichever scanner you own, and a record of getting complex work right first time. Price and turnaround still matter. They are the last two questions, and for the past decade the market has been trained to ask them first.
I have worked in the dental space for over 30 years, and for most of that time a dentist chose a lab by reputation, proximity and the quality of the last case. The offer used to be the work, but that has changed. The offer now arrives as a package: a free intraoral scanner, software, a per-unit price that undercuts the local lab, a warranty and a turnaround promise. The work is somewhere inside the package, and it is not the thing being sold.
I am not a luddite, and some of this is good. Digital impressions are better than alginate for almost every indication. A fast posterior crown for a straightforward case is a fair product at a fair price, and I won't pretend otherwise. What I want to do is put the questions back in the order they belong, because the ‘package’ is designed to make you ask them in the wrong order.
A scanner supplied by a laboratory is usually a hardware placement. The lab keeps legal title to it. In return, the practice commits to a minimum monthly lab spend, and if the practice sends less work than the minimum in any month, it is billed the difference. The agreement typically asks the practice to make that lab its primary laboratory. If the practice leaves, the scanner goes back.
A leased car is the right comparison, and it flatters the scanner. With a lease, you pay every month, you never own the vehicle, and it goes back at the end. With a lab-supplied scanner, you pay every month through the minimum spend; you never own the equipment, it goes back when you leave, and you can spend the monthly payment only in one place. That can be a perfectly sensible arrangement for a practice that would send that volume to that lab anyway. It is a poor one for a practice that wants to choose a lab case by case, which is how most good dentists I know actually work.
The question is simple. Who owns the scanner when I move labs, and what happens to my scans and case history if I do? A lab that can answer both questions honestly in one sentence is worth talking to. Labs like ours accept files from any scanner because a practice's digital workflow should belong to the practice and nobody should be locked into one-sided agreements.
A stain and glaze are applied to the crown's surface. That is where it stays. A layered crown looks like a tooth because light passes into it and comes back out through ceramic of varying thickness and opacity, the same way it does through enamel over dentine. A surface stain imitates that effect under one light; it does not produce it.
Robotic staining has improved, and I expect it to keep improving. A machine can apply a stain with far greater repeatability than a technician on a busy Friday, and for a posterior crown, that repeatability is worth having. Precision is the wrong measure for an anterior, because the question in the chair is whether the crown matches the tooth next to it. That tooth is not in the machine - it is in your patient, under your light, and the only person who has looked at both is the dentist who took the shade.
So when a process is described as porcelain aesthetics at a fraction of the price of hand-painted porcelain, read the sentence again. It has told you what the benchmark is.
Every crown, bridge, denture and appliance we make is a custom-made medical device. Under the UK Medical Devices Regulations, the manufacturer of a custom-made device must be registered with the MHRA, and each device must include a statement of manufacture identifying the manufacturer and confirming that the device meets the relevant requirements. A manufacturer based outside the UK must appoint a UK Responsible Person. Under the Consumer Protection Act 1987, a business that imports a product into the UK is treated as the producer for liability purposes.
That last point is one dentists rarely hear. If your laboratory has the work made overseas and brings it into the country, the importer assumes the manufacturer's role. If a device is supplied to you through a UK office of an overseas group, ask who the registered manufacturer is, where the device was made, and who signed the statement of manufacture. The General Dental Council is clear that the registrant who fits the device is professionally responsible for it. You should be able to trace what you fit back to a name and a lot number without leaving your desk.
Labs like ours are the registered manufacturer of what we supply; in the building, you can visit, with component lot traceability on all implant work, and the paperwork is what protects the patient and the dentist when something goes wrong.
Real-time chat with a laboratory is a real improvement over email and phone calls, and it is now standard at any lab worth using. The real distinction is who is on the other end. A support desk can tell you where your case is. A technician can explain why the distal margin will cause trouble at fit, because they are the one designing it.
On a single posterior unit, the difference is small. On an implant case, it is the whole job. The lab's involvement in implant work has moved upstream, into planning, guide design and component verification, and that is a conversation between a surgeon and a technician who knows the case. A queue cannot have that conversation. A checklist can't either.
Free remakes are a cost model, and a laboratory that offers them has factored that into its pricing. For a stock posterior crown, that arithmetic can work for everyone, as the warranty covers the crown. It does not cover the lost chair time, the anaesthetic, the patient's time, the conversation you have to have with them, or the damage to your reputation.
On an implant case, a remake can mean a second surgical appointment. Ask any laboratory what proportion of its implant and full-arch work is fitted without adjustment, and whether it measures that. A lab that measures it will tell you. A lab that does not will talk about the warranty.
Every laboratory can answer these questions. The pattern of answers tells you what kind of laboratory you are dealing with and whether the people who made your patient's crown will still be accountable for it after it leaves their building.
Is a monthly minimum lab spend normal? It is normal for a laboratory that supplies hardware. It is unusual for a laboratory that competes on the work.
Do I need to own my own intraoral scanner? No, but you should be able to take your scans and case history to any laboratory. Ownership of the scanner matters less than ownership of the workflow.
Are zirconia crowns worse than porcelain? No. Monolithic zirconia is the right material for most posterior work. Layered ceramic remains the standard for anterior cases where depth and translucency have to match a natural neighbour.
Who is responsible if a crown made overseas fails? The registrant who fitted it is professionally responsible to the GDC. Under UK consumer protection law, the importer is treated as the producer. The patient will ask you.
