It's time again to raise money for the Race For the Future 10.0! This year it's being held in Fort Worth, Texas on September 15th. Go to dentallabfoundation.org and click the “donate today” button. Log in or create an account, then select the “Race for the Future” option and enter The Abutments or Barb Warner to donate. All the money goes towards furthering the education for dental technicians. Voices From the Bench is headed back to Florida for the FDLA Southern States Symposium &...

Want to go on the ULTIMATE exocad vacation? Endless fun, epic weather, amazing food, exotic culture, and two days all about the greatest software in dental, exocad. Join Elvis and Barb on May 9 and 10 on the beautiful Spanish island of Mallorca. It's called exocad Insights 2024 and it's full of amazing speakers, great breakout sessions, evening events, and attendees from all over the world. Don't wait, register today at exocad.com/insights2024 and use the code VFTB15 to save 15% off the fee. ...

The shirts and hoodies are BACK! Back in January we sold "Dental Technicians: Making Dentist Look Good since the 1700s" shirts for Lab Day. So many people asked us to bring them back, so we did! Get them here before April 18! https://www.bonfire.com/vftb-the-zippered-hoodie-era/ This week we talk all about the exocad event of the year, exocad Insights 2024. Christine McClymont is the Global Head of Marketing and Communication for exocad and comes on to tell us all about the speakers,...

Want to go on the ULTIMATE exocad vacation? Endless fun, epic weather, amazing food, exotic culture, and two days all about the greatest software in dental, exocad. Join Elvis and Barb on May 9 and 10 on the beautiful Spanish island of Mallorca. It's called exocad Insights 2024 and it's full of amazing speakers, great breakout sessions, evening events, and attendees from all over the world. Don't wait, register today at exocad.com/insights2024 and use the code VFTB15 to save 15% off the fee. ...

The shirts and hoodies are BACK! Back in January we sold "Dental Technicians: Making Dentist Look Good since the 1700s" shirts for Lab Day. So many people asked us to bring them back, so we did! Get them here before April 18! https://www.bonfire.com/vftb-the-zippered-hoodie-era/ Want to go on the ULTIMATE exocad vacation? Endless fun, epic weather, amazing food, exotic culture, and two days all about the greatest software in dental, exocad. Join Elvis and Barb on May 9 and 10 on the...

Want to go on the ULTIMATE exocad vacation? Endless fun, epic weather, amazing food, exotic culture, and two days all about the greatest software in dental, exocad. Join Elvis and Barb on May 9 and 10 on the beautiful Spanish island of Mallorca. It's called exocad Insights 2024 and it's full of amazing speakers, great breakout sessions, evening events, and attendees from all over the world. Don't wait, register today at exocad.com/insights2024 and use the code VFTB15 to save 15% off the fee. ...

QUEENS -Women In The Industry event is happening April 5th & 6th 2024 at Bellisimo Castle! Check out queenswomenintheindustry.com to register for this wonderful event Elvis and Barb cannot believe Voices from the Bench is still going after 6 years! We owe it all to the listeners, the sponsors, and of course the guests that make this podcast what it is. 6 years ago, one educator agreed to be our very first guest, not knowing that she would be coming back every year. Renata Budny is a...

Want to go on the ULTIMATE exocad vacation? Endless fun, epic weather, amazing food, exotic culture, and two days all about the greatest software in dental, exocad. Join Elvis and Barb on May 9 and 10 on the beautiful Spanish island of Mallorca. It's called exocad Insights 2024 and it's full of amazing speakers, great breakout sessions, evening events, and attendees from all over the world. Don't wait, register today at exocad.com/insights2024 and use the code VFTB15 to save 15% off the fee. ...

Aleksandra Polczynski is an artist. Without even knowing what a dental technician was, she met and married a Master Dental Technician. The lab he worked at offered her a job after looking at some of her drawings. From there a passion and a career was born. She nailed her first few wax ups and was soon a ceramist. After partnering up with companies like GC America and Straumann, Aleksandra was soon teaching others the art of full arch composite and staining. Wanting to do more, she partnered...

We are all back from Lab Day and very tired.... but yet we are still all going to the bench because the work never stops. THANK YOU Ivoclar, for hosting us over the weekend! This week we get to meet John Rano. John's dad was a dental technician, so it only made sense that John would end up in the family business. At the age of 14, John started learning what he could. By 18, he was doing conversions. But John wanted more. So after working at another lab and learning even more, John opened...

Be sure to come see us in the Ivoclar Ballroom during LMT Lab Day Chicago 2024. Register today! We will also be recording Thursday night during the Cal-Lab Association Meeting that same weekend! Check out this amazing event and register today! How do you market your lab? By talking about the materials that you use? Do you mention how many years of experience your technicians have. Sure, that is one way to go, but how would you like your lab to be known for offering a distinctive value to...

Be sure to come see us in the Ivoclar Ballroom during LMT Lab Day Chicago 2024. Register today! We will also be recording Thursday night during the Cal-Lab Association Meeting that same weekend! Check out this amazing event and register today! What were you doing at the age of 20? Probably not what Tyler McCabe is doing. Tyler at the age of 20 is already a traveling dental technician going between the offices to do chairside conversions. Tyler's dad and aunt were dental technicians, he...

Be sure to come see us in the Ivoclar Ballroom during LMT Lab Day Chicago 2024. Register today! Come enjoy and sun with us on May 9 -10, 2024 in Mallorca, Spain at exocad Insights! An amazing line up of speakers all talking about an amazing design program! Register here! This week we prepare for what is sure to be the best LMT Lab Day Chicago ever! Once again Elvis and Barb will be in the Ivoclar Ballroom all weekend recording all the amazing people in our industry willing to sit down...

Be sure to come see us in the Ivoclar Ballroom during LMT Lab Day Chicago 2024. Register today! It's always good, as technicians, to get a clinical perspective of all the work we do. Let's be honest, without the clinical side.... We wouldn't have work. But getting to talk to a clinician that LOVES and APPRECIATES lab work is even better. Dr. Wendy Clark is an Associate Professor of Prosthodontics at UNC Adams School of Dentistry. You would think since she is a professor, she would only...

Be sure to come see us in the Ivoclar Ballroom during LMT Lab Day Chicago 2024. Register today! When you see a tooth, what do you think? Some notice its shape. Some notice its Vita shade equivalent. This week’s guest notices the amount of moss, raspberry, and midnight is in it. Amanda Carson was always an artist. She even got two degrees in it. But after finding out about dental labs and visiting one for only one day. She was hooked. It wasn’t long before she realized that her skills are...

Be sure to come see us in the Ivoclar Ballroom during LMT Lab Day Chicago 2024. Register today! When two technicians that work well together can, only great things can come out of it. Bobby Kenney started in a model room soon after the Army. Eventually he found his way to Barksdale Dental Laboratory to help them open their removable department. Seeking warmer weather and more experience, Bobby went to Florida to work in-office doing implants and conversions. After a small tour of other...

Be sure to come see us in the Ivoclar Ballroom during LMT Lab Day Chicago 2024. Register today! Resin 3D printing is going strong in our industry. Almost to the point of not remembering how we functioned without one. Well it's time for the next "phase" of 3D printing. Metal. This week we talk to Josh Williams from GPS Digital RPD in Orlando, Florida. Josh runs a 100% digital metal printing facility specializing (as of now) in partial frameworks. He talks about his early days of learning the...

Be sure to get a SUPER LIMITED edition ZIPPERED HOODIE (or shirt) before JANURARY 6th. Get your "Dental Technicians: Making Dentist Look Good Since the 1700s" HERE! HAPPY 2024! We are super excited to start another year of the podcast with a wonderful guest that is a ceramist in London. Alina Ceclan's mother recommended a dental technology school while she was in Romania. Not loving it at first, she struggled. But by the third year she was as obsessed with teeth as the rest of us. Love took...

Happy Holidays and HAPPY 300th episode of Voices From the Bench. Elvis and Barb can't thank everyone enough for listening every week that has brough us to 300 weeks since we recorded the first episode. Also, a big thanks to our sponsors (show them some love) and to all the guests we have had on. (You should also go show them some love too by telling them how much you loved their episode) Be sure to get a SUPER LIMITED edition ZIPPERED HOODIE (or shirt) before JANURARY 6th. Get your "Dental...

We love talking to dentist on the podcast. We also love talking to people from different countries. This week we double down on both as we chat with Dr. Ahmad Al-Hassiny who comes to us all the way from New Zealand. Dr. Ahmad grew up with dentist parents that both owned their own practices. After graduating, he ended up at his father’s practice where he was introduced to digital dentistry. He attended a study club where a seller of a IOS system talked about how good it was when he knew it...

We talk to many vendors and milling centers on the podcast. But never have we talked to a company in Australia that does both. Sam Talassinos grew up in his father’s lab and never wanted to be in the industry. After a brief time in retail, Sam found himself in the lab (of course) and introducing digital to their workflow. It took a bad experience while getting some new equipment that drove him to open XYZ Dental, offering milling services and equipment to other labs in the area. Sam talks...

This week we finally get another implant company on the podcast. At the DTG Symposium we met Joel Gonzales from MegaGen America. Joel likes to keep it real when talking about dental surgeries because he’s been there. Starting as an assistant in the Air Force and then working with a strict Prosthodontist, He started his implant career with Lifecore and it wasn’t long before MegaGen wanted him to be the VP of America. From surgical protocols, to why he thinks we are doing too much bone...

When someone in the industry seems to spend more time teaching others than working on their own work, we want to learn more. Elvis had the opportunity to take a 2 day hands-on course about pink layering on full arch zirconia and PMMA. The teacher was the wonderful Marina Caponigro. Of course, we had to have her on the podcast to learn about the technician behind the "fire in the belly". Marina talks about coming to America from the Ukraine to marry and work with a Prosthodontist, learning to...

Getting dental offices to send you work is not the easiest thing to do. If it was, we would all be a lot happier. You could offer your "first crown free" or "$10 off your first order", but what are you doing? Are you creating a lasting partnership or are you getting a doctor that will move to the next lab that offers the same deal. Enter David Lesh. David grew up in his father's lab. After sitting in every seat, David saw the need to create a lab EXCULISVE to doing work for other labs. After...