What if I told you that the people who cut your hair, manicure your nails, rub your back and fill your optical prescriptions require licensure to work at their respective crafts in New York State and most other states? What if I told you that all of the products on the shelves of their professional establishments have to meet FDA standards, approval and that the dispenser has to maintain inventory and fact sheets on all of those items? What if I told you that in order to gain licensure in each of the professions listed above applicants have to achieve a verifiable level of competency after attending accredited education programs by passing a written examination? What if I told you that each individual in the professions listed above is required to maintain their certification status regularly, often requiring continuing education for renewed licensure similar to dentistry?
What if I told you that unless you live in Texas, South Carolina, or Kentucky your state dental technicians are unlicensed, unregistered, unmonitored and not required to meet minimum verifiable standards to open and maintain a dental laboratory? What if I told you that although dentists have the final responsibility for the safety and welfare of the patients in their care they are not required to document the content or origin of the materials present in the indirectly fabricated restorations that they place daily into patient’s mouths? What if I told you that prescriptions with working casts for indirectly fabricated dental restorations are sent to local laboratories, repackaged and sent offshore to laboratories in Costa Rica, China, Korea, Thailand and other countries and returned to the dentist without the documented assurance that the materials used to fabricate the restorations are exactly what the dentist may have prescribed and returned to the dentist without a disclosure of country of origin. What if I told you that more is known about the source of E. Coli in the scallions at your local sandwich shop than what is or on the restoration fabricated in a dental laboratory. What would you think and what would you do?
At the office of Drs. Burney M. Croll and Robert W. Berg, we pride ourselves on our team approach. The incoporation of licensed/certified laboratory dental technicians is essential to our everyday practice. Our laboratory on premises is fully staffed with highly skilled technicians that are all certified graduates of dental laboratory technical schools. Mie Komatsu, Elton Blades (Harry), Quay Cho, and Mike Polatian work together as a team that is dedicated to excellence in dentistry. Mie, an expert ceramist in the practice for over 18 years, and Harry, a metal and denture specialist, each have over 20 years of experience. Their expertise, artistry and commitment to the highest standards provides our patients with the highest quality restorations. We are proud of the fact that over 95% of all of the restorations we deliver to our patients are fabricated on the premises. This provides us the ability to tailor treatment plans to every patients' specific needs.
It's this kind of dedication to quality, service and technical support that has earned us our reputation as a practice capable of handling the most challenging patient situations. Whether simple or complex, we commit ourselves to providing the best, personalized result.
