Laboratory Operations
What this domain tests
The management systems that keep a laboratory legally documented, reproducible and traceable from case receipt to delivery.
Core rules
- Written prescription. A valid prescription identifies the patient, the date, the tooth or teeth, the material, shade, design, the dentist's name and signature, and the licence or registration number where required. No prescription, no work - the laboratory cannot invent clinical details.
- Case tracking. Log in and log out every case: date received, dentist, tooth, work type, due date, technician assigned, material lot. Traceability matters most when a material recall arrives.
- Equipment calibration. Vacuum mixers, articulators, furnaces, milling units and scanners need scheduled checks; record the results. Compressors need daily moisture drainage; suction and lathe filters need replacement on a schedule.
- Inventory. Set par levels for gypsum, alloys, acrylic, investment and disposable pumice. Store materials according to the manufacturer's temperature and humidity limits; expired material is discarded, not used on a rush case.
- Quality control. Use a pre-delivery checklist: margins, contacts, occlusion on the articulated cast, shade, surface finish, and a fit check on the die. Track remakes by cause rather than only by count.
Worked example
A crown returns with a high occlusal contact. Do not simply grind the crown. Retrieve the case log, remount the cast on the articulator used during fabrication, and check whether the contact existed before delivery. If it did, the error is fabrication or articulation; if it did not, suspect a die or model shift in transit. Record the finding against the case number so the pattern is visible across remakes.
Traps that cost marks
- Starting work on a verbal request with no written prescription.
- Recording remakes without recording the cause.
- Storing gypsum in a damp area, which changes setting behaviour.