Where Prosthodontic Money Disappears: 5 Things No One Accounts For

Loss #1: Remakes

Laboratories have 15–20% of cases requiring remakes. Each remake costs the lab 500–700 PLN, and it costs you an additional appointment, extra assistant time, and additional patient waiting time.

For 80 cases/year:

• 12–16 cases needing remakes × 600 PLN loss = 7,200–9,600 PLN/year

For 150 cases/year:

• 22–30 cases needing remakes × 600 PLN loss = 13,200–18,000 PLN/year

Read more: More on ROI from a Better Lab

Loss #2: Delays and Canceled Appointments

The lab promised 10 days, but delivered in 14 days. The patient couldn't schedule, the appointment shifted by a week. The chair sits empty on Wednesday because the case isn't ready.

Effect:

• Lost turnaround time: 4 days (instead of 2 days of patient revenue)
• Lost chair productivity: 30 minutes waiting × 100 PLN/h = 50 PLN loss
• Plus: patient gets bored, waits, sometimes cancels the appointment "because they waited too long"

With 60 cases/month, if 25% of patients wait longer than planned:

• 15 patients wait +3–4 extra days
• 3–5 of them cancel (10–15 patients annually)
• 10 patients × 1500 PLN revenue = 15,000 PLN lost revenue
• 45% margin = 6,750 PLN lost profit + cost of new patient acquisition
• Total loss: 23,000–28,000 PLN/year

Where to look: How 2 Days Faster Affects Revenue

Loss #3: Communication Chaos

The assistant calls the lab, asking "what's up with that crown?". The lab doesn't know because no one documented it. The call lasts 10 minutes, the assistant is busy, the doctor waits for information, the patient waits for info on whether they can schedule.

Effect:

• 3–4 calls per week × 15 minutes = 1 hour/week of wasted time
• 4 hours/month × 50 PLN/h = 200 PLN/month
• 12 hours/year × 50 PLN = 600 PLN/year on pure phone logistics

But even worse — undocumented communication leads to errors:

• 20% of conversations result in misunderstanding (lab heard differently than assistant said)
• Misunderstanding = additional remake = 600 PLN loss per incident
• 20% of 60 patients/month = 12 patients × (20% chance of error) = 2–3 communication errors/month
• 2.5 errors × 600 PLN = 1,500 PLN/month loss from communication errors
• Total loss: 3,400–5,800 PLN/year

Where to look: 3 Communication Errors with the Lab

Loss #4: Lack of Planning

Without a wax-up or mock-up, the lab works "intuitively". The case arrives at the chair, the patient says "but I wanted it whiter," or "that shape is strange." The doctor has to fix it chairside or send the case back for a remake.

Effect:

• Lack of planning → 15–20% of cases require changes (vs 3–5% with mock-ups)
• 12 cases/year require changes = 12 × 3 hours of correction/remake = 36 hours of wasted time
• 36 hours × 100 PLN revenue/h = 3,600 PLN lost revenue
• Plus: additional correction appointments (2 appointments per case) = 24 appointments × 45 minutes = 18 chair hours
• 18 hours × 100 PLN/h = 1,800 PLN additional lost revenue
• Plus: lab costs for remakes: 12 × 600 PLN = 7,200 PLN
• Total loss: 12,600 PLN/year (only on remakes due to lack of planning, without delay costs)

And this is a conservative scenario. In reality, lack of planning combines with patient dissatisfaction (unhappiness), sometimes even case return or dispute.

Where to look: How Much Lack of Planning Can Cost

Loss #5: Lab Chosen by Price, Not Efficiency

You work with a lab because it's 10% cheaper than the competition. But this lab has 20% remakes, delays of ±5 days, no digital workflow, no guidelines.

Effect (according to previous figures): 15,600–17,600 PLN/year loss on remakes alone (without delays).

If the lab is 10% cheaper, you save:

• 60 cases/year × 50 PLN (price difference) = 3,000 PLN savings

But you lose: 15,600 PLN/year on remakes.

Net: −12,600 PLN/year loss from working with a cheaper lab.

Where to look: Cheaper Lab, Total Cost

Summary: Annual Loss

Category	Small Practice (80 cases/year)	Medium Practice (150 cases/year)
Remakes	7,200–9,600 PLN	13,200–18,000 PLN
Delays and Canceled Appointments	18,000–23,000 PLN	28,000–35,000 PLN
Communication Chaos	3,400–5,800 PLN	5,600–8,200 PLN
Lack of Planning	10,000–15,000 PLN	15,000–20,000 PLN
Lab by Price	8,000–12,000 PLN	12,000–18,000 PLN
TOTAL	46,696 PLN	73,800–99,200 PLN

Average: 46,696–64,940 PLN/year.

This amount is comparable to an employee's annual salary — yet often no one monitors it. This is not a norm — it's a systemic problem.

How to Recover This Money

Four areas of action (can be done in parallel):

1. Change your lab — prioritize efficiency over price. Test a digital lab with a PID (deltalabs. or similar). The investment in a test is 3,000–5,000 PLN, but the ROI pays for itself in 3 months.

2. Implement digital mock-ups. Aesthetic decisions before production reduce remakes from 20% to 3–5%. One tool changes everything. Read how to implement it.

3. Written guidelines for the lab. Half a page of text describing your preferences. Eliminates "mind-reading," reduces communication errors. Read what should be in the guidelines.

4. Digital workflow (scans instead of impressions). Accelerates turnaround, reduces logistical errors. The investment in an intraoral scanner (15,000–30,000 PLN) pays for itself in 12–18 months. Check how much time you save.

Implementing all four changes: 46,696 PLN → 5,000–8,000 PLN annual losses. Potential savings are ~40,000 PLN annually without raising prices for the patient.

This is an 85% profit increase within 6 months. Read how this works in practice.

FAQ

Does this mean all my losses are always due to the lab?

70% of losses stem from the laboratory, 30% from your clinic's processes (lack of planning, lack of guidelines on your side). Both areas require improvement.

What if the lab raises its price?

Even with a 15% increase, you save 30,000–40,000 PLN on remakes. Net: you earn more.

How long does it take to recover this money?

6 months for the full effect (changing labs, education, implementing wax-ups, stabilizing processes). Initial effects are visible within a month.