Voices from The Bench

Every day. Every day we improve people's lives. From single tooth to full mouth, we get to make a difference in the oral health and wellbeing of patients. But imagine if you could do more with very little extra work. Now you can! Hollie Stevenson from the Dental Lifeline Network (Donated Dental Services) comes on the podcast to talk about how labs, along with dentist and specialist, can take less...

Located near the 2nd most visited house in the world, Daxton Grubb took over his father's fixed lab and has grown it into a full service, digital, large lab in the Memphis area. Daxton talks about learning management from a rental car company, hiring dental assistants to be the communication between the lab and offices, and why not every product and process is a win for every lab. Daxton freely sh...

We are sad that this week ends the conversations we got while at the Ladies of the Mill Summit . While a great show, we now must wait almost a whole year before it happens again! But we are going to end the whole collection with two great conversations. First up is super step-mom Kelly Fincher who married into a lab, gave up nursing, and helped raise Hannah Fincher to grow up in the industry and m...

We are excited to bring more conversations that we got at the Preat booth while at the Ladies of the Mill summit. This week has us talking with Mary Valentine who has an amazing background with Nobel Procera and her daughter, Emily Valentine, who is making sure the lab carries on to the next generation. Then we are pleased to chat with two ladies of Whip Mix. Sherri Weatherby and Cassandra Dombrow...

Remember when we kept talking about the Ladies of the Mill Summit ? Well it's time to start releasing some of the amazing converstions we got while at the Preat booth. First, we want to thank Jill Swafford and Christina Heaslip for making sure that the podcast got to be a part of such a fantastic event. This week we talk to two sisters who were also on stage talking about communication. Anne Kerse...

Many of us spend hours a week or even a day on social media. Checking up on friends and family, news, watching videos, looking at dental lab memes on the Voices From the Bench pages, or trying to grow our labs. Have you tried to grow your lab on social media? Have you tried Instagram? This week Elvis and Barb talk to a lab owner that has successfully turned his Instagram page into an epic 60,000 f...

Joining the podcast are Dimitri Tsichlis and Lidia Croteau from Styledent Dental Laboratory . This married couple have pulled their skills together to successfully run not one lab, but two. They talk about how they met in college, taking over Dimitri's father's lab in Canada, growing with the help of Lidia's marketing expertise, taking on technology to stay current, opening their lab in Florida, a...

We've had conversations with lots of technicians on this podcast about the "All-on-Implant" type of restorations. Talking about the time it takes to convert or techniques used, but this week we get to talk to the expert on hybrid full arch prosthetics. Dora Rodrigues from ID Dental Lab started in Portugal at the Malo Clinic in Lisbon, where Paulo Maló had developed the All-on-4® treatment concept....

Back out in the world! We are so happy to see dental lab shows start up again because we miss recording face-to-face so much. Elvis was down at the Preat booth at the Florida Dental Laboratory Association symposium last June. While working the booth, Elvis was able to chat with a few attendees. First up is Don Hebert CDT from Phoenix Dental Design talking about opening his own lab after being laid...

Donate to the Race For the Future 7.0! Aug 28-29 in Chicago, Ill. If you have ever been to a dental show like LMT Lab Day Chicago or Vision 21, you probably have seen a guy with white hair and a white beard with a thick southern accent making a group of people laugh. That is Harold Burdette from "Lab of the Year" Burdette Dental Laboratory . Harold comes on the podcast to talk about working in his...

Donate to the Race For the Future 7.0! Aug 28-29 in Chicago, Ill. We LOVE talking to technicians from other countries. It's always fun to hear from our friends from "across the pond". While on Instagram we saw pictures from nina_f_dt , and thought WOW! Turns out that is Nina Frketin from Dencraft Dental Lab in the UK. Nina comes on the podcast to talk about learning about dental technology and goi...

Be sure to head to the Ladies of the Mill Summit: Refresh, Reflect & Recharge July 23-24 in Chattanooga, TN Elvis & Barb will be recording all weekend long at the Preat Booth For VFTB Listeners ONLY! Enter VOICES as the "discount code" when checking out and receive $50 off the registration fee! Offer good until Midnight on July 4th! We are delighted to welcome Carson Law to the podcast! Ca...

Be sure to head to the Ladies of the Mill Summit: Refresh, Reflect & Recharge July 23-24 in Chattanooga, TN Elvis & Barb will be recording all weekend long at the Preat Booth For VFTB Listeners ONLY! Enter VOICES as the "discount code" when checking out and receive $50 off the registration fee! Offer good until Midnight on July 4th! Dustin Osburn is from a small town in Arkansas. After fin...

After traveling the world, Norbert Ulmer found his way to Sirona . After bringing it to the US, Norbert was essential in making CAD/CAM where it is now in dentistry. Now Nobert has started a company called Gro3X . This company brings together dental labs into its family to offer savings and support for success. Nobert talks about his early days selling to labs in England, Germany, and Asia, joinin...

When Christina Heaslip from Digital Dental Laboratory and Jill Swafford from Oaks Dental Design went to dental conventions they noticed a lack of female speakers. Both running successful digital labs, they started a group called Ladies of the Mil l. The group "was established to give a space to women in the Dental Lab industry". Over the years the group has grown in popularity and is now getting r...

The biggest magazine in our industry, LMT , did a feature called "40 Under 40" that featured different people in our industry that are making a difference. After seeing a few being congratulated on social media, we reached out to two of them to find out more about their great accomplishments. First up we talk to Julia Izumi from Shanto Dental Ceramics . Julie has a degree in science and dental tec...

Larry Wiess from Weiss Advisors started a company to help other labs after his time with Keller Dental Lab and NDX. Larry has taken his years of experience to assist labs that needed the extra, "outside" help to either prepare for sale or to increase productivity. Jim Gorgol from Distinctive Dental Studio is looking at eventually retiring. Jim wants to make sure that he can do that comfortably but...

Do you know a technician that just started? Working in the model room or opaquing crowns? That person could be the next CEO of a global network of labs. We welcome Laura Kelly who had a similar story. She started at Microdental Laboratories not knowing what a dental lab was and has worked hard to become it's CEO. Along they way she became the first female and the first technician to be the preside...

Successfully having the first dental laboratory convention of 2021 took the work of many passionate people involved with the Dental Laboratory Association of Texas (DLAT). While we were not there physically, we were there live, not live from the Argen booth. This week we got to talk to: Tim Frezel - Lab owner from Waco Texas Jan Rainey - Retired lab owner now cleaning the air with Pure Air Living...

What do you call a group of technicians in Texas? The first successful lab meeting of the year! That's right, back in late March the Dental Laboratory Association of Texas (DLAT) held their annual conference. It was also the first in-person dental lab meeting of 2021. While we couldn't be there, our good friends at Argen set up a laptop, microphone, and some speakers so we could record remotely fr...

We take for granted the dental design softwares that are here. Sure is nice that someone took the time to make and teach us all how to use them. On this week's episode we talk to one of the technicians responsible for bringing Exocad to North America. John Orfanidis has only known the dental laboratory industry. His past lab was the first lab to get the German made software, Exocad. John learned e...

From working with zirconia that gets sintered by the trainload to working with it in a dental lab, Chris Bradley is not a stranger to the dental laboratory industry. In 2008 she partnered with a dental laboratory instrument manufacturer out of Switzerland and started Smile Line USA . Chris talks about the different porcelain mixing trays , what make a good porcelain brush good, the 80's colors of...

Every lab relies heavily on design software these days. The two biggest in our industry are 3Shape and ExoCad . But what are the differences? Is one better than the other? This conversation starts the conversation of 3Shape vs ExoCad. Three technicians that use their software every day come on to discuss the differences and the similarities. Not sales people. Not the company. Real technicians that...

Remakes. Adjustments. More Adjustments. Maybe other labs can do flexible partials with ease, but the ones we talk to can't. Doesn't matter which system you use, flexibles in general have a higher remake or adjustment number. With the growing popularity of digital dentistry with removables, it is about time someone stepped up to make a printable flexible partial. Justin Marks from Arfona Printing h...

We all know how hard it is to be a dental technician. How about being the only dental technician where you are? Sure it has it's pros and cons and Tom Panei CDT joins us on the podcast to talk about his journey to become a solo lab owner. Tom is a musician, and got a gig at a dental office opening and is now their denture technician. He's also a professional artist and repairs statues. He's a busy...