FAQ
How do dental labs pickup and deliver cases?
A straight answer first, then the context behind it, from the technicians who do the work.
THE SHORT ANSWER
Most dental labs use a combination of daily courier routes, USPS, UPS, or FedEx overnight shipping to move cases between the practice and the lab. Couriers typically run fixed daily loops covering a geographic radius; practices outside that zone ship via carrier. Turnaround windows are set at the point of pickup, and the delivery method directly affects how many lab days a case actually has.
THE CONTEXT
What sits behind it
For general dentists and prosthodontists, the pickup and delivery model is not just logistics. It is the first place turnaround time gets lost. A lab advertising a 10-business-day crown turnaround may only have 8 working days on the bench if courier pickup runs once daily at 3 p.m. and delivery drops at 9 a.m. two days later. Knowing exactly when the clock starts and stops is the first question worth asking any lab partner.
Dani Dental operates courier routes covering the Phoenix metro area on a daily schedule, with cases scanned into the production queue the same afternoon they arrive. Practices outside the Phoenix metro ship via overnight carrier, with prepaid labels provided at no added charge. The case receives a technician assignment within 4 business hours of arrival, and the assigned technician's direct line ships on the return package. No anonymous handoffs.
Digital workflow changes the equation for crowns and implant prosthetics. An intraoral scan transmitted before noon enters the CAD queue the same day, eliminating physical pickup entirely for the design phase. Physical delivery still applies for the finished restoration, but the effective turnaround compresses by 1 to 2 days compared to impression-based cases. For high-volume restorative practices running 15 or more units per month, that compression adds up to real chair-time recovered.
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How do dental labs pickup and deliver cases?
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This question is one piece of a larger workflow. The pillar page covers materials, turnaround, and how we build the case to your specification.
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