in-house dental lab
in-house dental lab
In-House Dental Lab in New Albany, OH: Custom Restorations Made On-Site
Our in-house dental lab means your custom dental restorations are shaped, shaded, and fitted by a ceramist who can see your smile in person, with your dentist a few steps down the hall. When the fit, shape, or color needs attention, we handle it the same day.
What Is an In-House Dental Lab?
An in-house dental lab is a fabrication studio built inside the dental office, where restorations are produced by our own ceramist rather than sent to an outside laboratory. In most practices, your scan or impression leaves the building, someone you will never meet builds your crown from written notes and a shade code, and the case comes back days or weeks later.
Dr. Maryana Horokhivska and our ceramist discuss your case in person, look at your teeth under the same light, and create perfection while you are still in the office.
What Can Our In-House Lab Make?
Our on-site dental lab produces the restorations our patients need most, including:
- Crowns in porcelain, ceramic, and gold
- Porcelain veneers
- Onlays and ¾ crowns
- Implant crowns
- Custom implant abutments
- Custom occlusal guards for grinding and clenching
- Custom whitening trays
- Athletic sports guards
A crown carries the full bite force of a weakened tooth every time you chew, which is why the accuracy of that one piece justifies this much attention.
We’re here for you when you need us most. Trust New Albany Smiles for your family’s dental care needs.
Frequently Asked Questions about Our In-House Dental Lab
Will I Have to Wear a Temporary for Weeks?
Because production happens down the hall, the wait for your final restoration shrinks to a fraction of what it would be otherwise. Most patients wear a temporary for days rather than weeks, often not long enough for it to become a nuisance.
Do You Offer Same-Day Crowns and Veneers?
No, and we would rather tell you why than pretend otherwise. Crowns and veneers built to our esthetic standard require layering, firing, and hand finishing that a single appointment cannot accommodate without cutting corners on how the final piece looks. What we do instead is compress the timeline dramatically. Cases are measured in days rather than weeks, and we routinely move a case up to work around travel or a demanding schedule.
How Quickly Can an Occlusal Guard or Onlay Be Finished?
Both can be finished in as little as one day. Because they are made entirely in our own lab, production starts the moment your case is ready instead of waiting for a pickup. Typical timelines look like this:
- Occlusal guard: as fast as one day
- Onlay: as fast as one day
- Crowns and veneers: days rather than weeks, with rush accommodation if needed
For a guard, that speed carries a real benefit. Patients who grind or clench usually arrive already in jaw discomfort, and the standard multi-week fabrication may leave patients uncomfortable. Ours can be delivered the next day.
How Is Custom Shading Handled for Crowns and Veneers?
Shading is done right in the chair, with your restoration held against your actual teeth rather than matched to a code written on a laboratory slip. Natural enamel is never one flat color. It shifts from the gum line to the biting edge, carries faint translucency, and holds small character marks that no shade tab records. Custom shade matching in person lets our ceramist read all of that directly from your smile. You also see the result while you are here, rather than at delivery.
Can the Fit, Shape, or Color Be Adjusted While I Am in the Chair?
Yes. Fit, shape, and color are adjusted in real time on the same day, and that is the single biggest practical advantage of keeping fabrication in the building. In a conventional workflow, a restoration that sits a half-shade too bright or contacts a little heavy must be packaged up, mailed back, and waited on all over again. Here, the person who made it is a few steps away. We refine the piece, bring it back, and check it against your smile until it is genuinely right, all within one visit.
Who Actually Makes My Restoration?
Carmen, our in-house ceramist, builds your restoration personally, with Dr. Maryana Horokhivska overseeing the case from start to finish. Carmen brings more than 20 years of experience with dental ceramics, gold restorations, and implant restorations, developed alongside a long list of accomplished practitioners and lab technicians. That is a level of specialization that most practices rent by the case and never meet in person. You get her direct attention on shade match, esthetics, and fit, with your smile in front of her.
What Technology Does the On-Site Lab Use?
The lab is equipped with both modern digital fabrication and traditional handwork, which is uncommon inside a private practice. The equipment runs from SprintRay 3D printers at one end to full gold casting capability at the other, with ceramic firing and hand finishing filling in everything between. Holding both ends of that range in-house means we never steer you toward a material simply because it is what an outside lab prefers to work with. Whether your case calls for a layered ceramic veneer or a cast gold crown, it gets built in this office.
Why Choose New Albany Smiles for Your Custom Dental Restorations
Because owning the lab means owning the standard. This is a fee-for-service, concierge practice built for patients who expect their dental work to look and feel exceptional rather than merely adequate. Patients tend to point to the same handful of things: clear explanations, no pressure, and visits comfortable enough to change how they think about dentistry.
Experience Concierge-Level Restorations at New Albany Smiles
If you are weighing a crown, veneer, onlay, implant restoration, or custom guard, you are welcome to come look at the lab yourself!
We welcome patients throughout New Albany, OH and the surrounding Central Ohio communities. Call (614) 775-0840 or request an appointment, and our team here will walk you through the options in person.