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Practical guidance from the bench.
The details that decide whether a case seats the first time: what to write on the Rx, how to pick a material, how to take a shade, and how to send the case. Each section is short enough to read between patients.
Rx checklist
What a complete prescription includes.
An incomplete Rx is one of the most common reasons a case waits for a phone call. If you are unsure about any line, write lab to advise and we will call before we start.
- Patient name or ID, and the date you need the case back (or the seat appointment)
- Your name, practice, signature and license number
- Tooth numbers and restoration type for every unit, including pontics
- Material, or lab to advise if you want us to recommend one
- Shade: body, plus incisal and cervical where they differ, and the stump shade for all-ceramic work over discolored preps
- Margin design, and your contact and occlusion preferences
- Pontic design for bridges, and connector notes if space is limited
- For implants: manufacturer, system, platform, screw-retained or cemented, and abutment preference
- What is in the box: impressions, models, bite, scan bodies, components, photos
- Anything unusual: a tight bite, a request to copy an existing tooth, a patient with high esthetic demands
Choosing a crown material
Match the material to the tooth, the clearance and the patient.
This is general guidance, not a substitute for your clinical judgment. Call a technician when a case sits between options.
All-ceramic
Good for
Anterior and esthetic-zone crowns, veneers and short bridges where the patient wants a metal-free result.
Keep in mind
Needs even, adequate reduction for the option chosen. A dark or discolored prep changes the result, so send the stump shade.
Porcelain-fused-to-metal
Good for
A long-proven choice for crowns and bridges when you want a metal substructure, including longer spans.
Keep in mind
Needs room for both metal and porcelain. Tell us whether you want a metal collar or a porcelain margin.
Full cast
Good for
Posterior teeth with limited occlusal clearance, heavy function or bruxism, where esthetics are not the priority.
Keep in mind
Allows the most conservative reduction of the three. Not suited to visible areas.
Shade matching
Getting the shade right the first time.
Good photos tell us more than a shade tab number on its own. Cosmetic work is finished under stereo microscopes, and the more we can see, the closer the match.
- Take the shade at the start of the appointment, before the teeth dry out and lighten
- Use daylight-balanced light, and look in short glances so your eyes do not adapt
- Photograph the shade tab in the same plane as the tooth, edge to edge, with and without flash
- Send the stump shade for all-ceramic work, especially over endo-treated or discolored teeth
- Note characterization: translucency, incisal halo, white spots, craze lines
- For a single central or a demanding patient, call us about custom shading before you send
Scanning tips
A scan we can build on.
Many digital remakes trace back to a margin the scan did not capture.
- Margins clear and dry. Retract, control bleeding and capture the full 360° before you move on
- Adjacent teeth and contacts scanned fully on both sides
- The full opposing arch, not just the opposing quadrant
- A bite scan taken in maximum intercuspation with both sides captured
- For implants, the scan body fully seated and matched to the system and platform
- Before you send, check the prep in the review screen for gaps, distortion or pulled-through tissue
- The Rx filled in fully on the scanner form, including shade and material, or lab to advise
Packing a physical case
So it arrives the way it left your office.
Ship to Wisdom Dental Labs, 1402 Jones Street, Omaha, NE 68102, or request a local pickup in the portal.
- Rinse and disinfect impressions to your infection-control protocol, and note that on the Rx
- Seal each impression, model and bite in its own labeled bag with the patient name
- Keep the Rx outside the sealed bags so it stays clean and readable
- Pack impressions so they cannot be crushed or flexed, and keep them away from heat
- Include the opposing arch and a bite for every fixed case
- List any implant components, scan bodies or models you want back
- Print a shipping label from the doctor portal, or request a local pickup
Adjustments and remakes
If something does not seat, call us first.
Problems are easier to solve together, and quickly. Call 402-500-0102 or email hello@wisdomdental.org with the patient name and what you are seeing.
- Call us before you adjust heavily, so the evidence of what went wrong is still there
- Tell us what you are seeing: an open margin, a tight or open contact, a high occlusion, a shade mismatch
- Send photos, or a scan of the restoration in place, if you can
- We review it against your scan or model and the Rx, and agree the next step with you
Forms and labels
Everything else is in the doctor portal.
Rx forms, shipping labels, local pickup requests, order tracking and payments, under one login.
Ready to send your next case?
Send a digital scan from your intraoral scanner or ship a physical impression. Either way, our team confirms the case and keeps you posted through delivery.