Consistent quality was the main differentiator between dental laboratories for Canadian dentists, according to results from the Dental Industry Association of Canada’s (DIAC) 14th Annual Future of Dentistry survey.
“Consistent quality” was cited by an all-time high 15.1% of responding dentists (up considerably from 7.6% last year) as their primary concern when selecting a laboratory. Despite the current economic climate, the previous leading criterion of “better pricing” fell to second place at 13.8%. “Faster case turnaround,” the third highest ranked criterion, was cited by 11.1% of respondents.
The response of “better communication” has been steadily trending downward from a high of 16.1% when this question was first asked in 2001, to its current all-time low reading of 8.9% in 2010. This seems to indicate continuing improvement in communication on the part of laboratories and may also reflect the impact of new technology on dentist–technician communications.
Over 1000 practising Canadian dentists responded to this year’s Future of Dentistry survey, and there was good proportional distribution across all regions of the country. For more information on the DIAC survey, contact Bernie Teitelbaum, executive director of DIAC at bernie@diac.ca.