Send, track and seat a laboratory case without losing a day to a missing impression, a wrong shade or a case that never shipped.
Add it to Practice Flow and it becomes yours to edit, assign and schedule. It will start generating on its cadence, so the work comes back on its own.
Add this checklist Browse moreShade, material, tooth numbers, due date and doctor signature.
An incomplete prescription is the single most common reason a lab calls back, and every callback costs a day. The lab cannot guess a shade or a material, so an incomplete slip stops the case before it starts.
1. Check tooth numbers against the treatment plan. 2. Confirm shade including stump shade for anterior. 3. Confirm material and any special instructions. 4. Confirm the requested return date allows a seat appointment. 5. Confirm the doctor signed it.
Check margins, contacts and the opposing model.
A distorted margin is invisible once the case ships, and it comes back as a remake three weeks later with the patient already in the chair. Catching it now costs two minutes; catching it at seat costs an appointment.
1. Inspect all margins under good light for drags, voids and tears. 2. Confirm the opposing and the bite registration are present. 3. For a scan, review the digital margin line before you upload.
A case that leaves the operatory contaminated is an infection control failure that reaches another business. Labs can and do refuse cases, and the exposure is yours either way.
1. Rinse the impression under running water. 2. Disinfect with an EPA registered product and respect the full contact time on the label. 3. Rinse again and pack damp per the material instructions.
Record patient, lab, case type, ship date and expected return.
A case nobody logged is a case nobody chases. The next time anyone thinks about it is the day the patient arrives, which is the one day you cannot fix it.
1. Open Lab Cases. 2. Create the case with patient, lab and case type. 3. Set the expected return date at least two business days before the seat appointment. 4. Attach a photo of the prescription.
Booking the seat after the case returns means the patient waits for an opening that may be weeks out, and the case sits in a drawer aging while the temporary fails.
1. Check the patient has a seat appointment. 2. Confirm it falls after the expected return date with a buffer. 3. If it is not booked, book it before the case ships.
Without a tracking number a lost case is unprovable, and the argument about who pays for the remake has no evidence on your side.
1. Package per the lab instructions. 2. Ship through the agreed carrier. 3. Record the tracking number on the case in Lab Cases.
Work the open case list, not your memory.
Labs run late and rarely call to say so. Catching a late case two days out leaves room to expedite; catching it the morning of the seat leaves room for nothing.
1. Open the case list filtered to open cases. 2. Flag anything due within two days that has not arrived. 3. Call the lab on anything already past due and record what they said.
Check it against the prescription while there is still time to act.
Finding a wrong shade with the patient in the chair costs the appointment and the goodwill. Finding it the day before costs a phone call.
1. Open the case on arrival, not at the appointment. 2. Check shade, contacts, margins and occlusion against the prescription. 3. Confirm it is the right patient and the right tooth. 4. Escalate to the doctor immediately if anything is off.