What dental lab outsourcing means today
Dental lab outsourcing used to mean shipping models and finished restorations to another laboratory. With intraoral scanners and CAD software, a lab can now outsource just one step of the workflow — most commonly the digital design — while keeping milling, printing, finishing and the client relationship in-house.
That split matters: you keep control of materials, quality and delivery to your dentists, and only move the part of the job that is limited by technician time.
Steps labs typically outsource
The steps that are easiest to move out of the lab are the ones that are purely digital:
- CAD design of crowns, bridges, inlays and veneers
- Implant work: custom abutments, screw-retained crowns and implant bars
- Removable work: RPD frameworks and digital full dentures
- Surgical guides, custom trays, bite splints and night guards
- Model creation from intraoral scans for printing
What most labs keep in-house
Physical production — milling, printing, sintering, staining and glazing — usually stays in the lab, because it depends on your equipment, your material choices and your finishing standard. Final quality control and communication with the dentist also stay with you.
Why design is the easiest place to start
Design files travel instantly. You upload the scan, receive an STL (or a native exocad or 3Shape project) and mill or print as usual. There is no shipping, no remake of physical parts during review, and changes are made on screen before anything is produced.
It also scales in both directions: send a few cases during busy weeks and none when your team has capacity.
How to start without risk
Treat the first cases as a test rather than a commitment:
- Send two or three routine cases you know well, so you can judge the result quickly.
- Give clear instructions: material, minimum thickness, cement gap, contact and occlusion preferences.
- Check that the files open cleanly in your CAM software and fit your production settings.
- Measure turnaround and how revisions are handled before sending more complex work.
Working with DM Dental Design
We are a fully remote CAD design service: we design, you produce. See our services and pricing pages for the full list of indications and turnaround times, or read how we work for the step-by-step process.