Resources for a Novel Laboratory Quality Assurance Program: Operating Procedures

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this resource is to provide dental school faculty with accessible documentation for implementation of a laboratory quality assurance program. The primary goal of a laboratory quality assurance program would be to review and evaluate all laboratory cases departing from and arriving to the dental school. The laboratory quality assurance program can be implemented to evaluate and enforce all preclinic techniques being used on clinical cases, to critique incoming laboratory clinical cases, and to ensure appropriate treatment planning progression for patients of record. These resources were designed to prepare and familiarize dental students to the expectations of quality and precision of indirect laboratory techniques performed on patients of record. The resources were developed and deployed to reduce unnecessary costs associated with indirect laboratory remakes. They were created from daily forms used in preclinical techniques courses and brainstorming ideas from several advanced restorative and prosthodontic faculty. It is recommended that two full-time staff members be available to monitor paperwork and log cases to and from the dental school; a team of eight to 10 calibrated reviewers who are extremely familiar with preclinical technique courses for fixed and removable indirect prostheses should also be available. Reviewer calibration is a key component to pre-implementation preparedness and recommended to be done routinely (quarterly) thereafter. Once reviewer calibration is achieved, clinical faculty should be calibrated as a pre-implementation exercise in a 1− or 2-day sessional continuing-education forum. Resources were utilized for the first time in December of 2010 and have been successfully used to date. The program has significantly reduced costs associated with expensive laboratory remakes.

Keywords

• Dental Education
• Prosthodontics
• Laboratory Quality Assurance
• Laboratory Fabrication
• Dental Prosthesis
• Laboratory Remakes