Frequently asked questions.
Answers to the questions practices ask the laboratory most often. Longer technical questions are covered in the Knowledge Centre.
Can I send patients to the laboratory for colour matching?
Yes. We see patients for shade matching by appointment, arranged through the practice, at the laboratory in Burnaby.
For a demanding anterior case — a single central beside an intact natural neighbour — it removes every transmission problem at once. The ceramist sees how the value reads at conversational distance, how translucency behaves as the head moves, and the internal character that no shade code carries.
Call to arrange a time that works for the practice and the patient.
Do you have an infection control program?
Yes. Every appliance and product is disinfected before it leaves the laboratory.
Impressions and prostheses arriving from the practice should be disinfected according to the manufacturer's guidance for the material, rinsed and dried before packing.
Do you provide alloy certification?
Yes. Alloy identification certificates are provided for your records, so what was used on a given case can be established afterwards.
That matters most on restorations that may need matching or replacing years later, and on any patient with a documented metal sensitivity. Record known sensitivities on the prescription.
What are your prices?
Competitive across the range. Call or write and we will send the current price list for your practice.
You can also request it through the fee guide request.
Which scanners do you accept?
All of them. Fairmont is a preferred iTero laboratory and accepts cases from 3Shape TRIOS, Medit, Primescan and CEREC, Carestream, and any system exporting open STL.
Conventional impressions are as welcome as they have been since 1988. Send whichever you have taken well.
Do you deliver outside the Lower Mainland?
Yes. Fairmont works with dental offices throughout British Columbia and across Canada, with cases shipped by UPS and Purolator in both directions.
Knowing your own collection and delivery pattern and booking seat appointments against it removes most of the uncertainty distance otherwise introduces.
I have a case that needs special instructions. What are my options?
Tell us what the case requires and we will work through it with you. Dentistry keeps changing and some cases need extra support — that is an ordinary part of how the laboratory works rather than an imposition.
For anything genuinely demanding, call before preparing rather than after impressing. Three minutes at the planning stage routinely prevents a remake.
My patient has questions about a specific product. Can you help?
Yes. We are committed to helping patients understand the benefits and care of what they receive, so the restoration stays comfortable and lasts.
For removable and occlusal appliances, appliance care covers the guidance worth giving patients in writing.
Can you match a new restoration to an existing crown?
It is harder than matching a natural tooth, because the optical behaviour of an unknown ceramic has to be reproduced as well as its colour — and the material of an existing restoration cannot be identified reliably from a die.
A photograph helps; the original prescription or laboratory helps more. Where the existing restoration has discoloured, worn or was a poor match itself, the better conversation is often about replacing a group rather than matching into it.
A new restoration that is perfect in isolation can make its older neighbours look worse than they did before.
What happens if I disagree with something you have made?
Tell us directly and specifically, and describe what you observed rather than only the conclusion — where it bound, what you adjusted, what the patient said, whether anything changed clinically between the record and the seat appointment.
That converts a remake into a diagnosis, and it is the difference between a replacement that solves the problem and one that repeats it.
A pattern is more useful still. Six cases with tight contacts is a specific, solvable problem in a way that a general sense of dissatisfaction is not.
Are you open to the public?
No. Fairmont provides professional services to dentists and denturists. Patients attend only by appointment for shade matching arranged through their practice.
We also provide professional services to other dental laboratories.
More in Dentist Resources
Send a case
Digital scans and conventional impressions are both accepted. Cases move by UPS and Purolator, and Fairmont works with practices throughout British Columbia and across Canada.