A digital dental lab takes your intraoral scans, designs the restoration in CAD software, and fabricates it by milling or printing. This guide maps the full digital dentistry workflow, from scan to seated case.
If you are sending cases to a digital dental lab for the first time, or moving your practice off impressions and stone, this is the map. We walk through what happens to a case after you scan it, what we need from you at the chairside, and how each step connects to the more detailed guides on each restoration. For the crown and bridge work most practices start with, see our crown and bridge lab.
What a Digital Dental Lab Actually Is
A digital dental lab is a laboratory that runs a CAD/CAM workflow instead of a purely analogue one. The case arrives as a digital scan file rather than a poured impression. We design the restoration on screen, then produce it by subtractive milling or additive printing. The same restorations you already prescribe, crowns, bridges, dentures, splints and appliances, are made this way, with the manual guesswork of pouring and trimming models removed.
The practical difference for you is consistency. A digital file does not distort in the post, does not tear at the margin, and can be checked for clearance and contacts before anything is manufactured. That is the core of digital dentistry: what we design on screen is what we mill or print, with fewer manual errors between your chair and the seated case.
- Input: an intraoral scan file (or a scanned conventional impression), plus your prescription, shade and bite records.
- Design: the restoration is built in CAD software against your preparation, margins, occlusion and the opposing arch.
- Output: a milled or printed restoration, finished, characterised and quality-checked before despatch.
Accepting Your Scans
The workflow starts when you scan. We accept files from the main intraoral scanners used in UK practices, including 3Shape, Medit, iTero and Dexis. You export the case and send it to us digitally, so there is no impression to disinfect, package or post, and no model to pour and trim. The file reaches us within minutes of you finishing the scan.
If you are not yet scanning, conventional impressions still work in a digital workflow. We scan the impression or the poured model in the lab and rejoin the digital pipeline from there. If you want to understand where physical impressions still fit, our impressions and trays guide covers materials, trays and when an analogue impression is still the right call.
For practices building a reliable scanning routine, the capture itself is what determines case quality. A clean, complete scan with a clear margin removes most of the back-and-forth. Our intraoral scanning guide sets out scan path, isolation and margin capture so the file you send is one we can design from straight away.
Digital Design and the Wax-Up
Once your scan is in, the technician designs the restoration in CAD against your preparation and the opposing arch. We position the margin on the scan, set the emergence profile, build the contacts and check occlusal clearance before anything is made. Because this is a digital model, we can show you the proposed result and adjust it before fabrication, not after.
For larger or aesthetic cases, the digital wax-up is where the plan is agreed. We design the intended shape and arrangement, then produce a printed model or try-in so you and the patient can see and approve it at the chair. This protects you from remakes on complex cases. Our diagnostic wax-up and try-in guide explains how we set up the design and what a try-in confirms before we commit to the definitive restoration.
CAD/CAM Milling and 3D Printing
Once the design is approved, the case is fabricated. A digital dental lab uses two production methods, and the material decides which one we use. Subtractive milling cuts the restoration from a solid blank. Additive 3D printing builds it up in layers. Both are driven directly by the CAD file, so the manufactured piece matches the approved design.
- Milling: used for zirconia, lithium disilicate and other ceramic and metal restorations cut from a blank, giving strength and a predictable fit for crowns and bridges.
- Printing: used for models, surgical guides, splints, try-ins and an increasing range of provisional and denture components built up in resin.
You do not need to specify the production route. You prescribe the restoration and the material, and we select milling or printing to suit. The detail of how each material is processed, layered and finished sits in our CAD/CAM and AI fabrication guide, which covers the production side in depth.
AI-Assisted Fabrication
Modern CAD/CAM design increasingly uses AI-assisted tools to speed up the repetitive parts of the workflow. Software can propose a margin line on the scan, suggest a restoration shape from the patient’s existing anatomy, and flag a thin wall or an open contact before the case is milled. This does not replace the technician. It removes the slow manual steps so the technician spends their time on judgement and finish.
For your practice, the benefit is fewer avoidable errors and a more consistent baseline across cases. The design is checked against the data, not only by eye, before it reaches production. We explain which steps are AI-assisted and which stay fully manual in our fabrication guide.
Clinical Inputs We Need From You
A digital workflow does not change what makes a case succeed. The two records that most often decide whether a restoration seats and matches are the shade and the bite. A perfect scan with a guessed shade or a sloppy bite still produces a remake, so these are worth getting right at the chair.
- Shade: a digital scan does not capture colour reliably, so we still need a recorded shade, ideally with a photograph against a shade tab in good light.
- Bite registration: the scan gives us the arches, but the occlusal relationship has to be captured cleanly so the restoration meets the opposing teeth correctly.
For getting the colour right, our shade taking guide covers tab selection, lighting and the photographs that let us match the restoration to the adjacent teeth.
For the occlusion, our bite registration guide sets out how to record and send a reliable bite so the case seats without chairside adjustment.
Turnaround and Collaboration
Because the case moves as a file, the slow steps of an analogue workflow, posting impressions and pouring models, are removed at the front of the process. For crown and bridge work we plan on a turnaround of around ten working days, and a digital file means the case reaches us the day you scan it rather than after a postal round trip.
The other gain is collaboration. We work from the same data you captured, so when a margin needs discussing or a design needs a second opinion, we are both looking at the same scan, not two different models. Queries are resolved on the file, which is faster and clearer than describing a problem over the phone.
We also make appliances and trays in the same digital workflow. For lab-made whitening trays from your scans, see the whitening trays guide. whitening trays guide
Sending a Case to Flora
Sending us a digital case is straightforward. You scan with your existing system, export the file, and send it with your prescription, shade and bite records. We design, confirm anything that needs your sign-off, and fabricate. You do not need new equipment beyond the scanner you already use.
Flora is a UK dental lab working with UK practices, accredited to DAMAS, DLA and GDC standards. So you can judge the fit, finish and communication on your own case rather than on a brochure, your first case is free, up to a value of £100, with no invoice and no contract.
If most of your work is crown and bridge, that is the simplest place to start a digital relationship. See our crown and bridge lab
What is a digital dental lab?
A digital dental lab is a laboratory that designs and fabricates restorations from digital scan files using CAD software, rather than from poured impressions. It takes your intraoral scan, designs the restoration on screen, and produces it by CAD/CAM milling or 3D printing, which removes much of the manual guesswork between your chair and the seated case.
What services does a digital dental lab offer?
The same range you already prescribe, made through a digital workflow: crowns, bridges, dentures, splints, surgical guides, try-ins and appliances. We also produce lab-made whitening trays from your scans.
How does a digital lab differ from an analogue lab?
A digital lab works from a scan file instead of a physical impression and model. The restoration is designed in CAD and produced by milling or printing, so the case can be checked for fit and contacts on screen before anything is made. The result is more consistency and fewer manual errors than an analogue model-and-wax workflow.
Do I need an intraoral scanner to use a digital dental lab?
It helps, but it is not essential. We accept files from the main scanners used in UK practices, including 3Shape, Medit, iTero and Dexis. If you still take conventional impressions, we scan the impression or model in the lab and rejoin the digital workflow from there, which our impressions and trays guide explains in more detail.
Do I still need to send a shade and bite if I scan the case?
Yes. A scan captures the arches but not colour, and the occlusal relationship still has to be recorded cleanly. The shade and bite are the two records that most often decide whether a case seats and matches, so we need both. See our bite registration guide for recording the occlusion reliably.
What is the turnaround for a digital case?
For crown and bridge work we plan on around ten working days. Because the case arrives as a file the day you scan it, rather than after posting an impression, the front of the workflow is faster than an analogue equivalent. You can see how scan-to-production fits together in our CAD/CAM and AI fabrication guide.
