How Labs Lose Digital Dentists (and What to Do About It)

In 2022, roughly 67% of all crowns & bridge restorations were fabricated using digital technology, with over one third of dentists sending intraoral scans to their lab. LMT Survey

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Digital dentists are no longer “nice to have” clients—they’re an essential market segment for every lab. They expect speed, clarity, and frictionless workflows when they send you case files.

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If you run a lab, you know just how much depends on every case. But here’s what many labs are discovering: digital dentists don’t leave because of price alone. They leave because their experience is too unpredictable. Scan files go missing. RXs are incomplete. Case intake feels messy. And trust, once lost, is hard to win back.  

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Here's why this happens, how much it may be costing you (in ways you don’t always notice), and what you can do right now to retain digital dentists, reduce remakes, and scale more reliably.

What’s Dragging Labs Down

Here are the main friction points that frustrate digital dentists (and the labs trying to keep them):

1. Friction from Multiple Scanner Portals

When each IOS portal has its own quirks—different formats, different notifications, different methods of upload, and different ways that dentists or staff interact with them, your admin staff struggles with which portals to check, whether all the necessary files are attached, and whether they have the most up-to-date information. This friction creates delays, causes missing or duplicated cases, and eats away at dentists’ confidence.

2. Missing Files, Lost Cases & Broken Trust

When a dentist sends you scans or prescriptions and then hears nothing back, or worse, finds out only after production that something’s missing, that breaks trust. Every remake, every lost file, every case you have to ask the dentist to resend—they all cost you more than material or labor. They cost reputation and referrals.

3. Admin Burnout & Inefficiency

A large portion of the admin team’s workday is spent on reactive tasks: chasing files, verifying versions, renaming scan files, following up with dentists. These tasks don’t move cases forward, they just prevent complete breakdown. Over time, that reactive workflow burns staff out, slows production, and allows small errors to cascade into bigger problems.

4. Digital Dentists Expect Seamlessness

Clinics embracing digital workflows expect labs to match that standard. They want predictable turnaround, clear communication, fast feedback, and no guesswork on whether their upload was received. If every case feels like a gamble, dentists will quietly move to labs that do. It’s rarely a loud complaint—it’s a loss in volume and trust over time.

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How “Scattered Files” Become a Trust Problem

Labs that suffer from scattered data—spreadsheets, portal uploads, email threads, scanner software integrations—report high levels of errors, delays, and technician frustration, according to Smile Genius Dental.

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Industry commentary repeatedly points out that communication breakdowns (unclear RXs, missing files, inconsistent formats) are among the top causes of remakes and client dissatisfaction—not the scanners themselves, as noted in the TTT Dental Lab study.

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When a dentist sends a scan, they want assurance: “Did you get it? Is everything correct? Do I need to resend something?” If every case feels like a gamble—missing files, expired links, invisible uploads—confidence erodes. And when confidence erodes, loyalty fades. Digital dentists will quietly move to labs that make the process predictable and reliable.

What Labs That Keep Digital Dentists Do Differently

Labs that retain digital dentists long term tend to follow a pattern:

• One unified system for scan and RX intake: all case data flows into one place.

• Defined naming standards and version control down to “who uploaded what, when.”

• Early QC and verification at intake—checking file completeness, RX clarity before production begins.

• Admin workflows built around reliability—not just speed. Fewer “fixes” after the fact.

• Tracking and metrics: remake rates, lost case reports, customer feedback on intake experience. Use data to improve.

How EviSmart Downloader Helps

EviSmart Downloader was built specifically to address this scattered files issue. Here’s how it works in a way that fixes root causes—not just symptoms:

• It automatically pulls scan files from all IOS portals and centralizes them into one folder, no matter the format or scanner brand, so nothing gets lost in the shuffle.

• It applies consistent naming, keeps file formats uniform, and ensures folder structure and traceability—so someone looking at the folder will always know what’s missing or what’s ready. 

• It saves admin time by eliminating manual downloading, chasing missing uploads, hunting through multiple portals. That lets your team focus on customer communication and quality instead of firefighting. 

• It prints RX forms automatically, as soon as an order is sent in, so your team has a physical indicator of a new case being ready for production.
  

Why This Problem is More Urgent Than Ever

• The adoption of digital workflows is growing fast, and labs without scalable intake systems are already experiencing overload. 

• Inefficient intake workflows (incomplete Rx, misnamed files, delayed scans) are already a common cause of remakes and delays in many labs. 

• If you don’t address this now, the friction compounds: as volume increases, errors and inefficiencies grow exponentially.

Action Steps: What You Can Do Today

• Inventory every source your lab receives scans/RXs from (portals, email, cloud links, USB, etc.).

• Standardize your file naming, RX format, and folder structure so each case has clear identifiers from the outset.

• Choose or build a system that centralizes scan intake—so no matter where a file comes from, it ends up in one reliable place.

• Establish a verification / QC checkpoint in intake to catch missing or unclear files before they go to production.

• Measure what matters: track dentist retention (how many digital dentists stop sending work), remake rate, time from scan receipt to production start. Use those metrics in your reviews.

Conclusion

Losing digital dentists isn’t inevitable. In fact, the labs that grow fastest, scale best, and maintain high customer loyalty are those that make digital case intake seamless: no forgotten files, no versioning confusion, no wasted time.

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Download the PDF guide to learn how to simplify your process, reduce remakes, and start building stronger, more trusting relationships with your digital dentist clients.

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EviSmart: Intelligently Connecting Dental Workflows. Simple. Powerful. Scalable.