Off-Brand Zirconia – Worth the Risk?
July 30, 2009
Late yesterday, I received a call from a small lab in Georgia. The woman on the phone asked if we outsourced our zirconia copings/frameworks, or did we mill them in-house? When I replied that we outsourced the millings, she asked what type of scanner we were using. I told her we did primarily Lava, but that we also used 3Shape for WhipMix’s Vericore, as well as NobelProcera.
She then offered a price on the Lava millings which was competitive with what we are now paying our current Authorized Lava Milling Center. After I expressed my disinterest, she then offered an off-brand Zirconia – Crystal – for $15 less per unit than the price we are currently paying for Lava. Having never heard of Crystal before, I told her that I was more than a little suspicious of off-brand zirconias. She went on to assure me that my clients would never be able to tell the difference. She brought up an example of one lab that had switched and was saving themselves in excess of $5,000 per month!
The whole conversation made me a little queasy.
First, do you think for a second that the lab experiencing the savings has told its clients that its now using a potentially inferior zirconia?
Secondly, suppose the clients knew and were happy to use Crystal because of a slightly reduced lab fee? Assume that the lab passed the entire savings on to the dentist – is $15 per unit really worth risking your reputation?
We at SDL take great pride in our workmanship, and that includes tightly controlling the quality of the materials we use. That’s why participate in the Identalloy program, and offer only branded restorative options like Lava, Empress Esthetic, eMax, etc… And, we invite our clients to visit our facility at any time to verify our protocols.
Peace of mind. Just another reason to work with us…
For more information -
Contact Mike Malone
or 800.678.7354
© 2009, Jeff Saylors. All rights reserved.
You express this very well. I have done a lot of research on Zirconia. Even though most zirconia comes from the same source we must look at how the material is processed. Certain “Knock off” materials are jeopardizing good products.