India, Oct. 23 -- For decades, the relationship between a dentist and a dental laboratory was largely transactional. A case was sent to the lab, a restoration was manufactured, and the finished prosthesis was sent back to the clinic. Somewhere between those steps, however, something important was often missing: conversation.

There was limited opportunity to discuss the patient's expectations, understand the dentist's clinical approach, plan the case together or translate an idea into a precise restorative outcome. The laboratory was often expected to make the restoration, rather than become part of the thinking behind it.

But dentistry is changing.

As digital workflows, CAD/CAM, intraoral scanning, digital treatment planning and advanc...