Annemarie Mannion

	For Robert Lash, president of Moskey Dental Laboratories in Cleveland, the business of operating a dental lab is what he was meant to do.

	Though he earned a law degree in the early 1980s, the practice of law didn’t suit him, and he decided to return to the lab business started by his grandfather, Nathan Lash in 1924, and continued by his father, Phil Lash.

	His love of the business may be credited to his early introduction to it. Like many involved in running family-owned labs, he got his first taste of the work as a young person doing smaller jobs around the lab.

	“I loved the work,” Lash said. “I poured models. I mounted cases. I filed invoices. I did deliveries with my dad at night. My grandfather, great uncle and uncle were there, so I felt that was the place where family worked.”

	Lash returned to run the lab, which is a full service lab providing a broad range of services, in the late 1980s. He said he expects to add more employees to his 27-person work force as a result of adopting new technology.

	“We’re going to need people who can work with software, and since the technology makes us more productive, more technicians will be needed to do the finish work,” he said.

	The lab is now doing everything it can digitally.

	“We scan models or impressions and digitally design partial frameworks, full contour crown and bridge, copings and bridge substructures, implant abutments, and slide in smile enhancers,” he said.

	This digital capability means the lab can meet demands from dentists for quick turnaround times.

	“More importantly, he said, “the switch to digital has meant more accurate restorations, resulting in less chair time for the dentist.”

	Providing faster turnaround is one road Lash is following to out-perform competition from overseas labs. “One way to battle the overseas approach is to do it better and faster,” Lash said.

	Working with dentists to develop treatment plans is another way the lab seeks to excel.

	“We want to be involved when our accounts are doing treatment planning,” he said. “We can offer our high level of expertise to the planning process so together we can meet the dentist’s and patient’s expectations.”

	One of lab’s goals is to help dentists be efficient.

	“Our effort is to reduce the doctors’ and the patients’ chair time,” he said. “The less time it takes to place a restoration, the more time the dentist and patient have to do what they want. A little time spent in the beginning can save a lot of time at the end, with a better result.”

	Sending digital dental impressions via intraoral scanning is another technology that improves the interaction between the dentist and the lab and brings better, quicker results for patients, Lash said.

	“It will speed up our process and reduce turnaround time,” he said.

	For Lash, being able to work with new technologies, and continuing the business started by his grandfather into the 21st century is where he wants to be.

	“It’s in my blood. This is where I am comfortable,” he said.

Articles

 For Robert Lash, president of Moskey Dental Laboratories in Cleveland, the business of operating a dental lab is what he was meant to do.  Though he earned a law degree in the early 1980s, the practice of law didn’t suit him, and he decided to return to the lab business started by his grandfather, Nathan Lash in 1924, and continued by his father, Phil Lash.

Legacy laboratories: Moskey Dental Laboratories

	Supervising a non-profit, dental clinic in Minneapolis, Minn., Jamee Rosell has witnessed the overwhelming need for dental care among poor, uninsured, unemployed, elderly, immigrant and other underserved populations.

	Though it is a relatively new concept and has been controversial, Rosell believes allowing for a mid-level dental practitioner is one way to begin to address the problem of people going without oral healthcare.
	
	“We see families in our clinic who make $1,200 to $1,500 a month,” she said. “If you’re talking about a crown that is $1,000, how is a family going to afford that?”
	
	Reaching these people with affordable, preventative care before they get to the point of needing a crown or of losing a tooth is how Rosell sees the function of a mid-level dental provider, a role that she is currently pursuing as one of the first seven students in a groundbreaking Oral Health Practitioner program offered in partnership with Normandale Community College at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minn.
	
	Rosell and the other students are slated to become the first graduates this summer of the program that will furnish them with a  a Master of Science degree and make them eligible to be licensed as dental therapists and certified as advanced dental therapists.
	 
	The mid-level of dental providers would be able to remove decay and restore teeth for children and adults, as well as extract primary teeth, while under the supervision of a licensed dentist. They would only be able to practice in areas where half of the population is privately insured and the other half is uninsured, underinsured or on public assistance.
	
	In 2009, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty signed into law the Dental Therapist Legislation, which provides two levels of providers. A dental therapist requires a bachelor's degree, and an advanced dental therapist requires a master's degree. Many advanced dental therapists may work in community settings under general supervision of a licensed dentist.
	
	“There are so many people who are underserved,” said Suzanne Beatty, a dentist and curriculum coordinator at Metropolitan State for the Master’s program. “This would free up the dentist to do more complex procedures. It’s not an independent practice. It’s part of a collaboration.”
	
	The need is expected to become even greater in Minnesota where dentists are aging out of the profession. The Minnesota Department of Health reports that about one-third of its 3,000 practicing dentists are 55 years or older, and there are seven Minnesota dentists retiring for every five entering the profession.
	
	According to a 2007 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 50 million Americans, particularly children, the elderly and the working poor, are not getting the oral health care they need.
	
	“We need to put more qualified dental therapists and advanced dental therapists into the market,” said Beatty. “These mid-level dental practitioners will make it easier and more affordable for underserved populations, including children, the elderly and working poor to obtain high-quality oral health care.”
	
	Student in the oral health practitioner program are receiving hands-on experience serving patients while collaborating with dentists and other health care professionals. They also begin to meet their licensure requirement of 2,000 hours of supervised clinical practice.
	
	Like Rosell, student Christy Fogarty said she also has seen the need for a mid-level practitioner. She has worked as a dental hygienist in a variety of settings, from poor to affluent areas.
	
	“I’ve worked in rural clinics, in the Twin Cities, suburbs and I’ve seen underserved at every level,” she said. “There are a lot of working poor whose dental needs are going unmet.”
	
	The toll of underserved patients is costly. A study presented to the American Public Health Association in 2007 found that more than 10,000 emergency room visits in the Twin Cities were related to oral health problems (mainly pain and infection) and the cost was more than $4.7 million in one year.
	
	Though she is energized by her goal of being able to work with underserved populations, Fogarty said completing the 26-month oral health practitioner program has been challenging. She is looking forward to completing it and to being able to continue doing what she likes while expanding her skills.
	
	“It has all the things I like about being a dental hygienist like the patient contact, plus I’d be able to do a whole lot more,” Fogarty said.
	
	The role of a dental therapist may seem an easier fit for a public health clinic, but Fogarty said she thinks it also will work well in a private practice. She is open to pursuing a job in either setting.
	
	“I am open to anything,” she said. “I think the model can work in private practice. We need someone (a private practitioner) to be the groundbreaker.”
	
	Rosell said she believes a minimum starting salary between $45 and $50 an hour seems fair for a dental therapist, and is the range she will seek.
	
	As dentists become more familiar with the role of the dental therapist, Fogarty and Rosell both believe they will see how it can allow them to expand their practices.
	
	“I think private practices will be able to think about taking more clients,” Rosell said.
	
	The idea that dentists can benefit from hiring mid-level practitioners is supported by a 2010 study published by the Pew Center on the States.  The study, “It Takes a Team: How New Dental Providers Can Benefit Patients and Practices” found that most private-practice dentists who hire allied dental providers can serve more patients, while maintaining or improving their financial bottom line.
	
	Reaching more people in the need is the goal for both Rosell and Fogarty. Since lack of transportation is an obstacle that prevents many people from receiving dental care, Rosell said she envisions someday going into communities to provide dental health care via equipped mobile vans, and under the oversight of a dentist.
	
	“We could use teledentistry (to communicate with the collaborating dentist),” Rosell said. “We could get out into the community and provide services. That would be huge.” 
	
	Registered dental hygienists with 1,000 clinical hours of experience beyond their bachelor's degree may apply to the master's level program at Metropolitan State University. The master's program consists of 44 credits and takes approximately two and a half years to complete.

 Supervising a non-profit, dental clinic in Minneapolis, Minn., Jamee Rosell has witnessed the overwhelming need for dental care among poor, uninsured, unemployed, elderly, immigrant and other underserved populations.

Have you considered becoming a Dental Therapist?

	Students in the dental hygiene program at the College of DuPage in west suburban Chicago recently celebrated their entry into the profession with a pinning ceremony.

	Besides successfully completing the classes they needed to graduate, they also had another reason to celebrate. All but one of the 28 students in the class of 2011 passed the National Board Dental Hygiene examination.  The dental hygiene program is on a roll. In the previous seven years, 100 percent of the students taking the exam passed it.

	Professor Patricia Belmonte, who coordinates the dental hygiene program at the college, said there are a variety of reasons why the program is successful.

	The first has to do with choosing students who are ready to excel. The requirements made of students seeking to enter the program including performing well on pre-requisite classes and an aptitude test.

	Students must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 from a 4.0 GPA on the four pre-requisite sciences classes which include Anatomy & Physiology I and II, Microbiology and Chemistry.

	Due to the number of pre-requisite classes, students in the dental hygiene program at College of DuPage usually are enrolled in a minimum of three semesters of college courses in order to apply to the dental hygiene program.

	The program’s admissions committee looks at how the students perform on the PSB Health Occupations Aptitude Examination. The test covers students’ aptitude in such areas as verbal skills, non-verbal spatial relationship, spelling, reading comprehension, and natural sciences.

	Students are allowed to take the aptitude test twice in a lifetime. However, if the applicant chooses they can take it twice in the same application year.

	“If you keeping taking it you’re going to pass eventually,” said Belmonte. “This (limiting students to taking the test twice) gives us a better grasp of whether they have the read comprehension and natural sciences knowledge to do well in the program.”

	In addition to selecting students who are well-prepared, Belmonte said the veteran and full-time faculty be credited with assisting students to excel as they work toward their degrees.

	The program employs three, full-time faculty members and 17 part-time faculty members. Both students and faculty have their eyes on preparing for the national board dental hygiene exam and the Northeast Regional Clinical Board Examination from the first day of classes.

	“All didactic and clinical courses are geared toward preparing students for both the National Board Dental Hygiene Examination and the clinical boards,” Belmonte said. “Test questions are formatted similar to the national board format, many program quizzes and tests are offered on-line to assist students in preparing to take the computerized national board exam, along with the computerized portion of the clinical board exam.”

	Belmonte noted that the program’s curriculum is similar to all dental hygiene programs that are accredited through by the American Dental Association Commission on Dental Accreditation.

	She said most of the faculty members are veteran dental hygiene educators who have taught in several dental hygiene programs and bring a wealth of information to the program. Several faculty members are published in textbooks and dental and public health journals.

	The program has an 18-chair clinical facility where students are taught pre-clinic skills in the first semester of the program. They learn instrumentation on dental mannequins and other students to help them begin treating patients in the second semester.

	For anyone considering a career in dental hygiene –especially those who have never worked in a dental facility -- Belmonte advises potential applicants at the college’s program to shadow a dentist and dental hygienist to get an idea of what is involved in the dental profession.

	“They have to know if they can put their hands in someone else’s mouth other than their children or significant other,” she said. “Dental hygienists see oral pathologies, handle blood, saliva and other conditions that some individuals would have a hard time dealing with,” she said.

	When weighing a particular dental hygiene program, it is important to ask for statistics on the numbers of students that pass their national boards and clinical examination. Belmonte also noted that the majority of dental hygiene programs accept in-district students who meet the minimum program requirements before accepting applicants from outside the district.

	“Some dental hygiene programs do not share the results of their students’ results on the two board examinations until they evaluate the students’ didactic and clinical evaluations.

	At College of DuPage, with its high success rate, Belmonte said the program has good reason to be proud of their achievements and those statistics are readily available.  She also said the college’s administration is very supportive of the program.

	“Without the support of the college administration, the program would not be as successful as it has been shown to be,” Belmonte said.
	 

 Students in the dental hygiene program at the College of DuPage in west suburban Chicago recently celebrated their entry into the profession with a pinning ceremony.  Besides successfully completing the classes they needed to graduate, they also had another reason to celebrate. All but one of the 28 students in the class of 2011 passed the National Board Dental Hygiene examination.  The dental hygiene program is on a roll. In the previous seven years, 100 percent of the students taking the exam passed it.

Beating the National Boards

	When the ship sailed, Daniel Serrago, president of Garland Dental Services and IBEX Dental Technologies was on it, but he was already planning a new future.

	The year was 1996, and Daniel, who had worked for 15 years as a radio electronics officer on commercial ships, was in search of a different career. His two children were entering adolescence and he wanted to be at home with them and his wife, rather than working at sea for months at a time.

	The idea to start his first company, Garland Dental Services, came from a visit to his dentist.

	“I was literally going on a ship in three or four days, and I mentioned it to my dentist, and he said, ‘Why don’t you repair dental equipment?’” Daniel recalled.

	After the dentist explained that it could cost him $200 to ship a handpiece out-of-state to get fixed, and that he then had to wait several weeks or longer to get it back, Daniel recognized the inkling of a business venture. He spent his next stint at sea researching the idea and, in July 1996, founded Garland Dental Services, a dental equipment repair and parts company.

	With what he calls “a God-given talent for fixing things,” Daniel was sure he would be able to adapt his skills to a different industry.

	“I’d sailed on ships with equipment that I’d never seen before,” he said. “You look at it, you study it and you realize, ‘I can do this.’”

	With many Mom and Pop dental equipment repair businesses in the area, Daniel said he had ample competition. Finding quality parts and marketing his business were two of his greatest challenges and two of the biggest factors in Garland’s growth. In the first four months of starting the company in his house and garage, Daniel visited 860 dentists to talk to them about Garland.

	“I had a good number of dentists hand me something to repair right then,” he said.

	Dental labs, however, would become the majority of the business. He visited one lab where the owner spent time showing Daniel the lab’s equipment, and explaining why they needed a company that could repair their equipment rather than sending it to the manufacturer.

	“There wasn’t a good conduit for repair in the lab industry,” Daniel said. “For manufacturers, a speedy repair is four to six weeks. I saved labs money and I was faster.”

	Today, Garland is one of the largest privately-owned repair companies in the country; about 85 percent of Garland’s work comes from dental labs and 15 percent comes from dentists. The company also does repairs for manufacturers.

	“We’re the behind-the-scenes service entity for a lot of well-known manufacturers,” said Julie Hyland, the company’s business manager. She said the company aims for quality in all it does.

	“We use the highest grade of parts,” she said. “We always want our repairs to go past warranty. The dental tech and the dentist need to be able to make a living and to be able to count on parts.”

	A few years ago, Daniel decided to start IBEX Dental Technologies, which manufactures porcelain and pressing furnaces. After repairing these machines for many years, “I had a very keen sense of what they do well and what they don’t do well,” he said.

	The goal of IBEX is to provide state-of-the art furnaces that any lab would be able to afford. It took a year and a half of design work and a partnership with Jim Emmons, president of Spectrafire Technologies to come up with the product. Emmons is a three-time winner of the Advanced Ceramics Competition of the Texas Dental Association and recipient of the Harry Hageman Inventors award.

	“He helped me along in the process to make sure our ovens are doing what they are supposed to do,” said Daniel, adding that IBEX ovens sell for $3,995-$4,995.

	Today, Garland and IBEX employ a staff of 10, including numerous family members. Daniel’s daughter, Rebekah, is director of marketing for IBEX. His wife, Sharon, does accounting and runs an art studio inside the facility; his brother, Tommy, does handpiece repairs for Garland and helps with IBEX. Tommy’s wife, Kathy, runs the parts department.

	A second family is also involved in the business. Julie’s father, Charles Fletcher, is a retired mechanical engineer who started doing oven repairs when he decided retirement wasn’t for him. Charles is in charge of furnace and large equipment repairs for Garland, and many in the lab industry know him as ‘The Oven Guy’. Julie’s daughter, Mandi, handles Garland’s repair accounts.

	Julie said the company’s team is always willing to provide technical advice free of charge, and does so in a friendly manner.

	“We always go above and beyond what’s expected of us,” she said. “We have that southern charm going for us. What more can you want?”

 When the ship sailed, Daniel Serrago, president of Garland Dental Services and IBEX Dental Technologies was on it, but he was already planning a new future.  The year was 1996, and Daniel, who had worked for 15 years as a radio electronics officer on commercial ships, was in search of a different career. His two children were entering adolescence and he wanted to be at home with them and his wife, rather than working at sea for months at a time.

Legacy Laboratories: Garland Dental Services/IBEX Dental Technologies

It was not an easy time in her life when Andrea Tintrup took the reins at Tintrup Dental Laboratory in Mount Vernon, N.Y. in 2000. Andrea never imagined that she would end up finding a business and industry that she loves and would still be running the lab 11 years later.

Andrea's husband, Frank, had operated the laboratory for 27 years. The business was started by his father, also named Frank, in 1939. When her husband died of pancreatic cancer in December 2000, Andrea, a mother of three young children, knew she had to do whatever she could to keep the family business afloat.

Though she had not previously worked in the dental industry, she was not without business experience. She has a business degree and had owned and operated a children's art center. She also felt very strongly about continuing the laboratory.

"I came in and assured the employees that I was going to do the best I could to keep the business going," she said. Despite such assurance, she said that "my learning curve was as steep as the Alps."

Today, the laboratory employees a staff of 15 and is still in its original location. Mount Vernon borders The Bronx and is not far from Manhattan. The lab is just steps from a train station that allows easy access for visiting patients. 

The laboratory services more than 140 local dentists, community centers and has long-standing relationships with well-regarded teaching hospitals such as Jacobi and Montefiore medical centers.

"Whether you're a dental resident or a seasoned practitioner, everyone gets the same high quality because my name is on every case that goes out of here,” Andrea said.

The lab places emphasis on quality, customer service and refusing to send any work overseas for manufacturing. The lab also is responding to the challenges of new technology by working with materials other than precious metals for restorations.

"I think the trend is toward all porcelain such as E-Max, an incredibly strong and highly esthetic porcelain restoration,” Andrea said.

Andrea has created a family atmosphere for employees and an open door policy for dentists. 

"Our dentists come in and drop off cases," she said. "They'll sit and chat and sometimes even drop off a pizza for the technicians.  On  warm summer days we even have barbeques in the driveway."

Andrea is pleased to see that the business is thriving and that her son has joined it.

"For me to have continued the laboratory was a personal accomplishment," she said. "It's very nice to know that here I am 11 years later and that my son, Frank, 24, joined the company last year.”

She said the lab’s goals have not changed greatly since it was founded. Knowing that she has continued her father-in-law's dream of quality workmanship and making customers happy “gives me this incredible sense of pride," she said.

When Andrea finally decides to exit the company’s day-to-day operations, she has some ideas for how she might continue to contribute to the industry.  She is thinking of creating a dental apprenticeship program for young people in the community who may want to learn the skills to be a dental technician. 

She also enjoys giving back to the community through charitable donations of her lab's services and joy in knowing Tintrup Dental Laboratory has given many people their smiles back.

Legacy Labs: Tintrup Dental Laboratory

Dentists and dental hygienists-particularly women- who wear traditional, unisex scrubs often have similar complaints about them.

	These oft-heard grumbles include observations that the tops are so big you feel like you’re wearing a tent and the armholes are so large that they gape and droop to nearly a wearer’s waist.

	Then there are the complaints about V-necks that dip so low they have to be closed with a safety pin to provide coverage and pants that are so long that that are trip hazards unless they are hemmed.

	And don’t get started on the traditional surgical hats worn by dentists and dental assistants in the operating room. The issue of how to cover her head, and not look like she was wearing a shower or bathing cap, is what inspired Shelby Marquardt, an anesthesiologist from Austin, Texas to come up Blue Sky Scrubs, a company that specializes in making fashion-forward scrubs for women and men.

	Her first design was the Pony Scrub Hat, which she came up with when she was a resident at Hermann Hospital in Houston and got tired of squeezing her hair into a traditional cap. She also didn’t like how it looked.

	“I think it just overall was unflattering. It didn’t fit right,” she said.

	Marquardt, who was always interested in fashion and learned how to sew from her mother and grandmother, decided to solve the problem by creating the Pony Scrub Hat, which she said is more form-fitting, but also can accommodate women’s long hair in a ribbon-tied pouch in the back.

	She started wearing her homemade hat at work and soon was getting requests from co-workers who wanted her to make hats for them.

	The demand was so great that Marquardt formed her company in 2008. She also started creating other designs.

	“We’re an iconic style,” she said. “But we also take cues from what’s going on in the fashion industry.”

	To keep step with the times, she incorporates more contemporary looks into her scrubs including tapered, shorter tops, slightly flared legs, and low rise waists on pants, along with numerous color choices in solids and prints.

	The styles appeal to Christina Jones, a dental assistant at Hill Country Pediatric Dentistry in Austin, who said the 40-member staff at the practice has been wearing Blue Sky scrubs for the past year and a half.

	“We love that they’re form-fitting. They’re not so boxy,” she said.

	Jones, who stands five-feet-two-inches tall, said she also likes that she no longer has to hem her pants.

	“I have short legs so the traditional pants are always way too long and the tops are way too long,” she said.

	Not looking like they’re drowning in their clothing is a good move for the dental staff which has scrubs in nearly every color offered including Royal Blue, Navy Blue, black and various shades of green. The office manager sets a daily schedule so everyone wears the same color on the same day.

	“We seem to pick the brighter colors at the start of the week,” Jones said. “And then we go darker as the week goes on.”

	Having everyone wearing the same color builds a sense of unity, Jones said.

	“It helps coordinate the (look of) the office and helps them feel like a professional unit,” Marquardt added.

	The demand among health professionals for more attractive scrubs is evident in her company’s growth. Marquardt said the company grew 300 percent in the first year and 500 percent in its second year.

	Putting on clothing that fits and looks attractive when a person goes to work promotes self-confidence, she said. Not worrying that you’re going to trip over your pant legs or have to pin a V-neck together to provide coverage and look professional, allows people to perform their jobs better.

	“When someone says, ‘Hey, you look good today,” all of a sudden you feel like you have pride in what they do,” she said.

	Marquardt said the scrubs also are designed for durability. They are made in the USA and are fade and wrinkle resistant. The company has been selling their designs over the Internet only to date, but is expanding and will start selling them at Scrubs and Beyond stores in the next few weeks. Prices for scrubs are $20 for a man’s hat, $24 for a women’s hat and $33 for scrub tops or bottoms.

	Marquardt said it’s rewarding to provide health professionals with clothing that they feel good about wearing Surprisingly, Marquardt said creating clothing that pleases customers and being an anesthesiologist tap some of the same skills.

	“They both require attention to detail and tenacity,” she said.

 Dentists and dental hygienists-particularly women- who wear traditional, unisex scrubs often have similar complaints about them.  These oft-heard grumbles include observations that the tops are so big you feel like you’re wearing a tent and the armholes are so large that they gape and droop to nearly a wearer’s waist.  Then there are the complaints about V-necks that dip so low they have to be closed with a safety pin to provide coverage and pants that are so long that that are trip hazards unless they are hemmed.

Fashion Forward Scrubs

Dentists and dental hygienists-particularly women-who wear traditional, unisex scrubs often have similar complaints about them.

 Dentists and dental hygienists-particularly women-who wear traditional, unisex scrubs often have similar complaints about them.  These oft-heard grumbles include observations that the tops are so big you feel like you’re wearing a tent and the armholes are so large that they gape and droop to nearly a wearer’s waist.

Fashion forward scrubs

	It’s rare to see a dental office depicted in a film and-if the movie “Horrible Bosses” is any indication- rarer still to see one that accurately depicts an office.

	A dentist who sexually harasses her dental assistant, as well as two other bosses-one who revels in sadistic cruelty against his employees and another who is drug-addicted and dumb-are portrayed with over-the-top glee in this film that opened July 8.

	The basic plotline involves three employees –who grow more inept by the minute- who fight back by deciding to murder the higher-ups.

	The film provides a few laughs, a lot of raunchy, squirm-worthy jokes and unlikely situations, along with work places where the bosses run rough shod over their employees, but also are where the film’s most interesting scenes take place.

	The film’s strength is the universal concept that nearly anyone who’s ever worked 9 to 5 can relate to: that of having a really bad boss. The bosses depicted here take horrible to a whole new level, however, that strains credulity. The unbelievable behavior is needed to justify why murder seems even in the neighborhood of being a reasonable solution.

	One of the workplaces is a dental office where Dr. Julia Harris, played by Jennifer Aniston, mercilessly sexually harasses and taunts her dental assistant, Dale, played by Charlie Day. As if to indicate his weakness, he wears lavender-hued scrubs and all he wants to do is get married.

	Three-dimensional characters are not this movie’s strong suit and that flaw is fully evident in the role of Aniston’s sexually charged, mean-spirited dentist.

	Dale desperately fears Aniston’s antics will ruin his chance at matrimony.  Once the office door is closed and patients are conked out on gas, she tries every ruse to take advantage of Dale, even going so far as to blackmail him by faking some compromising photos.

	The movie’s other bosses are Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey), a boss/sadist who makes life miserable for Nick Hendricks (Jason Bateman) and coke-addicted Bobby Pellitt (Colin Farrell) who takes over his father’s company and demands that employee Kurt Buckman (Jason Sudekis) fire employees for being fat or disabled -all the while living a life of addiction and excess that threatens to bankrupt the business.

	The employees often meet after work for drinks and come up with the plot to murder their bosses, and that’s where they begin to descend into a level of bumbling and ineptitude that makes it hard to believe they really will achieve their goal, unless it’s by mistake.

	They first try to hire a hit man (Jamie Foxx) and when that doesn’t work they break into their bosses’ houses to gather intel. Slapstick ensues and, though there are a few laughable moments in “Horrible Bosses,” they are far from enough to save this movie.

	The film is entirely in keeping with gross-out, buddy flick trend that’s been well established as a film genre in other movies such as  “The Hangover” and “Knocked Up.”  Only go to see “Horrible Bosses” if you can stomach vulgarity.  Otherwise, skip it. And don’t count on a realistic depiction of a dental office to keep your interest. In fact, it might be more fun to count the ways in which it is untrue.

	I’ve never been in a dentist chair where the office door was closed during treatment and that’s not the only way in which this movie slams the door on believability. For the most part, “Horrible Bosses” is pretty, well, horrible.

   It’s rare to see a dental office depicted in a film and-if the movie “Horrible Bosses” is any indication- rarer still to see one that accurately depicts an office.

"Horrible Bosses" lives up to its name

	Schroeder Dental Laboratory hasn’t been around long enough to have created the wooden dentures that George Washington is said to have worn, but the business in Northbrook, Ill. is one of the oldest family-owned and operated dental labs in the country, its owners say.

	The company, which is now run by the third generation of the Schroeder family, was founded in 1919 in Chicago.

	“It was a little after the use of wood, but before porcelain (for dentures),” joked William Schroeder whose father, Arthur, started the company.

	William credits the lab’s longevity to maintaining an emphasis on customer service, developing good communication with clients, and keeping up with changes in technology. William, who is now retired, got his start in the business in the 1950s.  

	“I was just out of high school,” William said. “All my training was on the job. I was a bench technician. I just enjoyed the technical end of it.”

	William cannot help but marvel at the many changes that have taken place in the business over the last 50 years.

	“When I started, it (dental technology) was still in its infancy,” he said. “By the late 1950s, we were getting into porcelains fused to metals, which are still the standard.”

	That was long before the computers were commonplace and the use of computer-aided design had begun to change the industry. The lab started in the early 2000s to adapt to the computer age. Initially it outsourced its computer work. At the same time, the Schroeders focused on getting training in CADCAM design. Today, the 15-person lab has invested in up-to-date technology and is a certified milling center.  

	“We built the business up before we invested in the (computer) equipment,” says William’s son, Jim Schroeder, who joined the company in 1984 and currently is the lab manager. He estimates that about 80 percent of dentists still use analog impressions, but said digital impressions are becoming more common.

	Jim’s wife, Janet, is the office manager and his grandmother, Huldah, worked at the company until she retired in the 1980s when she was in her eighties. Jim’s mother, Diane, also worked for a time as the office manager.

	Today the company produces thousands of units a month including implants, crowns, and veneers. It has about 75 clients nationwide, many of whom have come from referrals.

	The lab takes pride in its ability to use CADCAM technology to design and mill on-site, and to provide products that meet its clients’ needs.

	A recent trend that the Schroeders have not embraced is the outsourcing of production overseas.

	“A lot of restorations are being sent to China,” Jim Schroeder says. “We never send anything overseas.”

	Another trend the lab is witnessing is increasing interest in use of porcelains over metals.

	“With gold prices so high people are looking for alternatives,” Jim Schroeder noted.

	He said more general dentists are getting the training to do implants, work which previously was done mostly by oral surgeons.

	“They (dentists) are getting the training,” said Jim. “It’s a new revenue source for them.”

	The lab also uses ShadeVision to enable dentists and the lab to share pictures of the tooth via camera and computer. Jim said it allows them to achieve a better shade and to have a stronger relationship and good communication with dentists.

	“It brings the dentist and the lab closer, which benefits us both,” Jim said

	If your lab is a family operation that has been passed down several generations and you'd like to see it profiled in a future Legacy Laboratory article, contact Senior Editor Noah Levine at 

 Schroeder Dental Laboratory hasn’t been around long enough to have created the wooden dentures that George Washington is said to have worn, but the business in Northbrook, Ill. is one of the oldest family-owned and operated dental labs in the country, its owners say.

Legacy laboratories

Requests for portraits of pop-stars or ex-presidents are not unusual. Neither are logos of favorite sports teams or pictures of puppies, cats or even ducks.
	
	The desire of one customer for a portrait of Jesus Christ on a porcelain front tooth framed by praying hands and a cross on adjacent teeth stands out as one of the more unusual for Steven Heward, owner of Heward Dental Lab in Sandy, Utah.
	
	“You never know what somebody is going to ask for,” said Heward who, in addition to owning a dental lab, is a fine artist.
	
	He applies the “tooth tattoos,” which are miniature paintings made of dental stain and painted on the crowns or bridges.
	
	There are other labs that do tooth tattoos, but Heward’s stand out because of their complexity, quality and attention to detail. Dentists and other labs send photos of the subjects their clients want replicated on their crowns or bridges and Heward goes to work.
	
	“It’s totally hand drawn,” Heward said. “It’s a meticulous process. They’re drawn with a needle and stain. It’s really difficult to push the stain to where you want it.”
	
	Heward, who has owned his lab for 30 years, is a classically trained artist in figure and portraiture painting. He studied in the 1970s at the University of Utah and has racked up numerous awards through the years for the artworks he paints in the traditional format of paint applied to a canvas.
	 
	He has dubbed the tooth artwork he creates “white collar tattoos” because often people want the pictures on the side or back teeth so they can only be seen if the person chooses to open his or her mouth wide enough to show it.
	
	Heward created one of Elton John on the back of a man’s front tooth replacement.
	
	“He has to really tip his head back to show it,” Heward said. “The idea that it’s only viewable if a person desires to reveal it is part of the appeal. People act like they have a treasure. It’s like they have this piece of artwork and every once in a while they show it off.”
	
	Needless to say, the tooth art is a conversation piece. If someone needs a crown or bridge Heward said they often take the view that they might as well have fun with it.
	
	“It’s kind of like you need a crown anyway and since I can do this they say, ‘I want one of those,’” Heward said.
	
	Heward started doing teeth art in the early 1990s when he did about two to four a year. Today, because of publicity via the Internet, he completes about 50 a year. The requests come in from other labs and dentists from around the world who email him images they want painted.  
	
	Creating the artwork usually takes about an hour and the tattoos cost between $75 and $200, depending on the complexity. Heward said other labs do tooth tattoos but his are unique.
	
	“Other dental labs will do a heart or a flower.” “Some will do an okay job. But mine are detailed,” he said.
	
	He said the tooth tattoos are easily removable if a customer wishes to do so. It takes a dentist about five minutes to apply and abrasive and to then polish them away.
	
	The tooth tattoos have helped enable Heward’s dental lab to survive a tough economy.
	
	“With the economy being lousy it makes me feel good that my company is going strong,” he said.
	
	Heward said he likes to think about how the artwork he creates will last and may prove intriguing to people far in the future.
	
	“Sometime in the future, maybe in 10,000 or 20,000 years some people will dig up somebody’s bones and find the artificial tooth and say, ‘Oh, look. This guy has a portrait on his tooth.’” That’s how long it will last.”
	
	Information on Heward’s tooth art can be found at 

Requests for portraits of pop-stars or ex-presidents are not unusual. Neither are logos of favorite sports teams or pictures of puppies, cats or even ducks.