Dental Lab Work Tracking: How Clinics Stop Losing Cases Between Chair and Lab
How Indian dental clinics can track crowns, bridges and dentures sent to the lab: statuses, due dates, remakes and payments, and what to look for in lab work tracking software.
In This Article
The problem: cases that live in a diary and on WhatsApp
Most clinics send lab work with a slip, a WhatsApp message and a note in the diary. When a crown is late, nobody can say whether it was sent, received, or waiting for a try-in. The patient waits, the chair slot is wasted and the lab is chased by phone.
What a lab work record should hold
Patient, tooth numbers, type of work, shade, the lab it went to, the date sent, the date promised and the date received. A single status that moves from sent to in progress to received to fitted is enough to answer almost every question the front desk gets.
Due dates drive the appointment book
When the promised date is on the record, the receptionist can book the fitting visit against it. Late cases show up on a list instead of being discovered on the day. The clinic stops booking a patient for a crown that has not arrived.
Remakes and quality
Every clinic has remakes. Recording the reason against the lab and the case shows which lab is reliable and which is not. It also protects you in the payment conversation, because the history is written down.
Paying the lab correctly
Lab bills usually pile up at month end. Linking each case to its cost makes the monthly reconciliation a short list rather than a search through slips. It also lets you see the real margin on each type of work.
Giving labs their own login
The cleanest setup is a lab portal: the lab sees only its own cases, updates the status, and the clinic sees it instantly. No more calls to ask where a case is. Choose software where the lab access is part of the system, not a separate paid add-on.
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