Waiting weeks for a permanent crown or a final implant restoration used to be the norm, and it still is at practices that send every case out to an outside lab. Between the temporary that never quite fits right and the follow-up visits just to get the color and shape correct, the whole process can drag on far longer than it needs to.
At Floss & Co., having our own dental lab on site changes that timeline. Restorations are designed, adjusted, and often finished within the same building where the diagnosis happened, which removes a lot of the back-and-forth that typically stretches out implant treatment.
What Slows Down a Typical Implant Case?
A conventional implant restoration usually involves sending impressions or digital scans to an outside laboratory, then waiting for that lab to design and manufacture the crown or bridge before shipping it back. Each step in that chain adds time, and each handoff is a chance for something to need adjustment once it finally arrives.
Guided implant surgery already helps on the front end by mapping out implant placement digitally before any drilling starts, which improves accuracy and can reduce the number of surgical visits needed. But the restoration phase, the part where the visible crown gets designed and placed, is where an outside lab often adds the most delay.
How An In-House Lab Changes The Timeline
Because our lab operates inside the same practice, our team can design a restoration, review it chairside, and send it back for adjustment without waiting on a courier or a shipping schedule. A recent review of digital workflows in implant dentistry found that in-office design and fabrication systems streamline the process, leading to reduced chair time, fewer appointments, and optimized resource utilization, as design and manufacturing happen without an external mailing step in between.
Fewer Appointments Overall
Same-day crowns and digital scans already mean patients avoid the goopy impressions that used to be standard. When that same digital file can move directly into our own lab for milling or design work, the number of separate appointments needed to finish a single tooth implant or a guided implant case may drop significantly compared to a practice that relies on outside manufacturing.
Adjustments Happen The Same Day
If a restoration needs a shade change or a slight shape adjustment, that conversation happens in the chair, not over a phone call to a lab technician three states away. Our providers can check the fit in person and send it back to our lab for a same-day correction, rather than scheduling patients to return a week or two later.
Where This Matters Most For Implants
Single tooth implants and guided implant surgery cases benefit the most from having design and fabrication under one roof, since these procedures already involve multiple stages from placement to final restoration. Reducing the number of separate visits between those stages can make a major difference for patients balancing work schedules or travel to our Chicago practice.
This matters just as much for restorative work that has nothing to do with pain. Restorative dentistry can happen even when a tooth is not hurting, and patients considering a single-tooth implant or a full-mouth reconstruction often want to know upfront how many separate visits the process will take before committing to treatment.
An in-house lab also supports the following:
- Same-day crowns and bridges instead of temporary restorations worn for weeks
- Direct communication between our providers and lab technicians on shade and fit
- Faster turnaround on adjustments without shipping delays
- Fewer separate appointments for guided implant and single tooth implant cases
Each of these pieces works together to shorten the distance between diagnosis and a finished restoration.
Get High-Quality Restorative And Implant Care at Floss & Co.
Our team built an in-house lab specifically to cut down on the delays that come with outside manufacturing. Combined with guided implant surgery for precise placement and same-day crown capability for the final restoration, patients considering a single tooth implant or any restorative work may spend less time waiting and more time back to normal use of their smile.
If you have been putting off an implant or restoration because of how long the process sounds, we may be able to walk you through what a shorter timeline could look like for your specific case. You can reach out to our team today to get started.