Technical 101

What is essential learning for any owner or executive from outside the profession?

Jason Mazda and Daniel Alter, MSc, MDT, CDT

Bob Savage recalls his first few days at Drake Precision Dental Laboratory. Savage is now a Past President of the National Association of Dental Laboratories (NADL) and one of the most respected figures in the industry, but 23 years ago, he was the new guy at his father-in-law's business in Charlotte, North Carolina, and he did not know what a PFM was. "It was super overwhelming at first," Savage says of coming to work at a dental laboratory when his background had previously been in engineering and construction. "It was so different from anything I had ever seen. The language and the terminology were foreign. I would have to ask people, ‘What is a PFM?' ‘What is occlusion?' ‘What is mesial-distal?' I had this vision that the profession was more artistic than science-based, and then I discovered how technical it was also. I had a lot to learn."…