Lab Technology
Dr. Chal firmly believes that world-class dental esthetics and reconstruction is only possible when dentist and technician are a meaningful team. The dentist prepares your teeth for veneers or crowns and then will later bond or cement your restorations into place on your prepared teeth. However, it is the technician who literally makes your ceramic veneers or crowns in the laboratory. This is why it is so critical that the dentist and technician work together as a true team. As an architect, engineer, and master builder work together to fabricate a beautiful building, the dentist and technician collaborate to produce outstanding dentistry.
Dr.
Chal and Certified Dental Technician Rick Durkee have studied together and
worked together for 25 years, which makes them one of the world’s
leading doctor-technician teams. They have studied with the foremost
dental ceramists in Europe and the U.S.A.
The photograph shows Rick Durkee, CDT, is seated at his workbench and operating a microscope. Very few dental laboratory technicians take the trouble to created their ceramic work with the use of a microscope.
Rick Durkee is regarded as a truly accomplished artist, an award-winning amateur photographer and a master ceramist. He is regarded as a “maestro” by his peers throughout the world. Mr. Durkee is a certified dental technician (CDT). Only 5% of technicians in the U.S.A. have passed the certification test.
Click here to see Dr. Chal’s laboratory facility.
Dr. Chal and Mr. Durkee studied with a German master technician, Klaus Muterthies in Gutersloh, Germany.
Click here to view scenes of their trip.
A very, very difficult technique utilized by Dr. Chal and Mr. Durkee to fabricate extremely natural and beautiful ceramic veneers and crowns is called “refractory ceramics”. Less than 1% of the restorations done worldwide utilize this demanding technique. The totally ageless natural beauty of the final restoration, veneer or crown, is achieved by building color from within. A porcelain powder and liquid are mixed together and then hand built, as by a sculptor, to create the ceramic restoration. Typically, fifteen different porcelain color pigments will be incorporated by Mr. Durkee to produce the finished ceramic. Dr. Chal will make final color adjustments when he bonds these restorations into your mouth.
Dr. Chal refers to this very, very high level of dentist-technician collaboration as his “full-custom” level of esthetic dentistry. A detailed presentation on refractory ceramics is included in one of Dr. Chal’s lectures.
