Carol Pilmer

, Carol Pilmer noted the importance of pursuing continuing education opportunities for every lab technician and owner.

With that in mind, here's a list of some of the major upcoming events and meetings that will provide labs with important information about all the trends and coming innovations they need to know. If you know of other events useful to labs, please leave them in a comment and we'll do our best to add them to the list!

29-Oct. 3: Pankey Institute Essentials 2, Key Biscayne, Fla.
	

3-5: Society for Color and Appearance in Dentistry, Denver, Colo.
	

4-5: 2013 Oregon Association of Dental Labs Workshop, Portland, Ore.
	

6-10: Pankey Institute Essentials 3, Key Biscayne, Fla.
	

9-12: American College of Prosthodontics 2013, Las Vegas, Nev.
	

11-12: Michigan Association of Commercial Dental Labs Midwest Renaissance Conference, Livonia, Mich.
	

11: Washington State Dental Lab Association Lab Owners Roundtable Retreat, Tulalip, Wash.
	

17-19: Pankey Institute Excellence in Bonded Porcelain Restorations, Key Biscayne, Fla.
	

20-24: Pankey Institute Essentials 4, Key Biscayne, Fla.
	

24-26: Pankey Institute Couples Leadership, Key Biscayne, Fla.
	

27-31: Pankey Institute Essentials 1, Key Biscayne, Fla.
	

31-Nov. 3: American Dental Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Lou.
	

1: Colorado Dental Lab Association Annual Fall Meeting, Denver, Col.
	

3-7: Pankey Institute Essentials 2, Key Biscayne, Fla.
	

7-10: Eastern Conference of Dental Labs, North and South Carolina Dental Lab Associations, Concord, N.C.
	

8-12: Pankey Institute Implant Essentials, Key Biscayne, Fla.
	

15-17: Dental Lab Owners Association of California CAD/CAM Expo & Symposium, Garden Grove, Cali.
	

21-23: Pankey Institute Utilizing Invisalign to Enhance Restorative Outcomes, Key Biscayne, Fla.
	

1-4: Greater New York Dental Meeting Collaboration, New York, N.Y.
	

5-8: Pankey Institute-Unleash the Power of Your Interdisciplinary Team, Key Biscayne, Fla.
	

14: Georgia Dental Lab Association Annual Meeting, Duluth, Georgia
	

10-11: Iowa Dental Lab Association Prairieland EXPO 2014, Riverside, Iowa
	

16-18: 2014 NADL Vision 21 Meeting, Las Vegas, Nev.
	

29-Feb. 2: Yankee Dental Congress, Boston, Mass.
	

20-22: Chicago Dental Society Midwinter Meeting, Chicago, Ill.
	

21-22: LAB Day Chicago 2014, Chicago, Ill.
	

Articles

In her September 2013 article for DLP, Carol Pilmer noted the importance of pursuing continuing education opportunities for every lab technician and owner.

Dental laboratory event calendar

 has been a part of dental business operations for three months. More and more questions and comments seem to be surfacing regarding this tax. 

Thanks to the advocacy, vigilance and efforts of many dental professional groups,

 most notably the National Association of Dental Laboratories

, the final ruling states that dental labs not registered with the FDA are not required to collect the tax. 

But, they will pay the tax to those FDA registered manufacturers of the materials used in the fabrication of restorations. Ironically, this tax was created to help fund the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, and even though there are no dental care benefits included in this health care plan, the dental profession will contribute.

Laboratories began receiving notices of the 2.3% increases from these manufacturers during the final weeks of 2012. The tax took effect on January 1, the same day most of those same manufacturers’ price increases took effect. 

Dental lab owners are now concerned regarding the decision to “pass on” these increases to their clients. The recession, combined with additional regulations and  state sales tax increases create quite a financial juggling act for dental lab owners as they consider “What is a good business practice?” Do they increase their fees to cover the tax and all additional increases or do they just pass on a portion of the increases?  If they do, do they risk losing a client to a lab that has not yet passed on these additional expenses? Others say they will wait a few months before increasing their fees while still others haven’t taken the time to think about their decision.  

Major supply houses say the price increases continue to appear and they estimate that by June all prices will be increased to cover the 2.3%.

A few optimistic owners are of the opinion that there is still a chance the Health Care Act will be repealed. Congressional offices report the chances for repeal are remote, especially because bills dealing with the repeal are not being given a floor vote.

Dental lab owners are seeing these price increases on the invoices they pay. Whether they choose to increase the fees on the invoices they create is yet another dental lab owner’s business decisionws

Carol J. Pilmer graduated as a dental assistant from Elkhart University, Elkhart Ind., and spent the first 10 years in the clinical environment. She has been co-owner of R Dental Ceramics, Solana Beach, Calif., for 35 years.

Photo: Medo Images/Photo Disc/Getty Images

The Medical Device Tax has been a part of dental business operations for three months. More and more questions and comments seem to be surfacing regarding this tax. 