Working with Abbotsford dental practices.
As the Fraser Valley's largest centre, Abbotsford practices retain a considerable amount of work that would be referred out elsewhere. That changes what they need from a laboratory.
Retaining complexity rather than referring it
A practice that restores its own implant cases, manages its own full-mouth reconstructions and handles its own demanding anterior work is taking on decisions that a referring practice delegates.
Those decisions — material selection under constraint, occlusal scheme, implant component choice, whether a tooth should be restored at all — benefit from a technical conversation, and the laboratory is frequently the most accessible source of one.
The cases that go wrong are disproportionately the ones where the first contact with the laboratory was the arrival of the impression.
Plan complex cases before the first appointment
Full-mouth and full-arch work is the least suitable category for a prescription written at the point of dispatch. The vertical dimension decision, the occlusal scheme, the material strategy and the sequencing all need agreeing before anything is made.
A conversation at the planning stage, with the wax-up and records to hand, is worth considerably more than any volume of written instruction later.
For implant work specifically, restorative space determines which prosthesis type is possible at all, and it is far easier to address before surgery. Full-arch planning covers the sequence.
Staged treatment needs staged scheduling
Complex cases move between practice and laboratory more than once — a framework try-in, a bite verification, a provisional recorded once it is working, a biscuit-stage try-in on anterior units.
The failure mode is scheduling those stages as though they were independent: booking a try-in without allowing for the case travelling both ways, or booking the definitive appointment before the try-in result is known.
Sequence the whole case with the laboratory at the outset, so the patient is given a realistic picture of how many visits are involved and over what period.
The provisional carries a long case
On a staged reconstruction the provisional is not a temporary covering. It establishes and tests the vertical dimension, the occlusal scheme, tooth position and phonetics, and lets the patient live with the result before it is committed to.
Adjustments made during that period are the real design. Record the working provisional — scan, impression or photographs with a note on what changed — and instruct the laboratory to reproduce it rather than the original plan.
Skipping or rushing this phase is where reconstruction cases most often go wrong in ways that are expensive to correct.
Protect the investment
Where parafunction contributed to the original destruction, restoring the teeth has not treated it. A protective splint is usually the most cost-effective element of a reconstruction plan and should be presented as part of the treatment rather than as an additional charge at the end.
Build it into the fee discussion, the consent conversation and the review schedule from the beginning.
Documentation on complex cases
Reconstruction and implant cases generate records that matter years later: the diagnostic wax-up, the vertical dimension decision, the material strategy, the components used and the provisional form that was reproduced.
Alloy identification certificates are provided for your records, and materials used on a case can be identified afterwards. That matters most on the cases where a component may need replacing or matching in five or ten years.
Keeping your own record of why each decision was made is worth the minute it takes. Six months on, nobody remembers why a particular material was chosen, and if it fails that reasoning is exactly what would be useful.
Working with the laboratory at distance
Cases move by UPS and Purolator, and Fairmont works with practices throughout British Columbia and across Canada.
For complex work, front-load the information so nothing stops for a query, and make sure the laboratory has a number that reaches someone who can make or relay a clinical decision.