1. Materials and Process Routes
Every route below is a restoration built on an implant fixture. There is no temporary implant — the fixture stays, and what is temporary is the crown, bridge, or full-arch body fabricated on top of it. We fabricate that body; we do not place implants and we do not supply the implant body.
Three routes, three different jobs. The choice follows the wear window and the geometry, not the price list.
Material | Process | Typical wear window | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
Milled PMMA | 5-axis milling from a pre-cured blank | 3–12 months | Long-wear single units, bridges, full-arch provisionals |
Lab-processed bis-acryl composite | Milled or pressed | Days to a few weeks | Short-wear, diagnostic, and prototype work |
3D-printed provisional resin | Validated LCD / DLP print, washed and post-polymerized to the manufacturer's protocol | Weeks to a few months | Prototypes, complex emergence geometry, low-cost multi-unit diagnostics |
Mill or print — when each route wins
Case | Mill | Why | |
|---|---|---|---|
Single crown, 3–6 months | ● | ○ | Margin fidelity and surface detail come from milling |
Multi-unit bridge, 3–9 months | ● | ○ | Span length and fatigue life favour milled PMMA |
Full-arch immediate-load, 4–12 months | ● | ○ | Wear window exceeds the validated fatigue envelope of printable provisional resins |
Prototype / try-in | ○ | ● | Lower cost per unit for a part that will be adjusted and discarded |
Complex emergence profile | ○ | ● | Printing resolves undercuts that a mill cannot reach |
Soft-tissue conditioning diagnostic | ○ | ● | Short-wear, low-load, geometry-sensitive |
The property differences are measured, not asserted: comparative data on provisional materials [8], on 3D-printed provisional crowns and bridges [9], and on printed resins versus CAD/CAM PMMA for provisional restorations [10] all separate the routes by mechanical behaviour — which is the basis on which we recommend one.
The polymer class these materials belong to is itself standardised: ISO 10477, Dentistry — Polymer-based crown and veneering materials, classifies laboratory-fabricated polymer crown and veneering materials and specifies their requirements and test methods [15]. Its stated scope is permanent veneers and crowns — not provisionals — so it is cited here as the material-class reference, and provisional-specific behaviour rests on the property data above.
2. Case Types We Accept
Five provisional families, each with the case it answers and the case it does not [14].
Case type | The right case for it | Where it is not the answer |
|---|---|---|
Single implant provisional crown | One fixture, screw access available, 3–6 month wear window | Esthetic-zone angulation that cannot be corrected to reach a screw channel [7] |
Multi-unit provisional bridge (2–4 units) | Adjacent fixtures splinted, 3–9 month wear window | A span whose passive fit cannot be confirmed without a verification jig — we will build the jig first |
Custom healing abutment | Stage-two surgery, soft-tissue contour conditioning | A stock healing cap from the implant system already meets the requirement |
Full-arch provisional (All-on-4 / All-on-X) | Edentulous or terminal arch converted in one visit, 4–12 month wear window | Primary stability below the immediate-loading threshold [3]; limited mouth opening [6] |
Prototype / try-in | Verifying form and emergence before a provisional or definitive is committed | No diagnostic wax-up, mock-up, or existing prosthesis available to reference |
We would rather decline a case than deliver one outside its indication — the "not the answer" column exists because it is cheaper for both of us than a remake.
3. What the Provisional Has to Do
Five functional requirements, each with the design consequence we build to.
- Seat passively. No force, no spring, no rocking. Multi-unit and full-arch cases go through a verification jig before the final part is milled.
- Clear the screw channel. Aligned to the abutment, clear of the opposing cusp, with the driver passing without binding.
- Shape the emergence profile. The clinician supplies the scan of the healing abutment, existing provisional, or gingival cuff; we design a smooth narrow-to-wide transition, send the digital design (or a printed model) back for try-in and confirmation, and cut the final part only after sign-off.
- Survive the wear window under load. Occlusion is designed, not inherited: bruxism is a documented driver of implant complications [1], and occlusal design considerations for implants and their restorations are well established [2]. Overload, not material choice alone, is what fractures provisionals.
- Stay tissue-friendly. A high-gloss cervical margin, no shelf, no overhang that traps biofilm.
4. What We Need on the Work Order
The single largest controllable cause of remake is an incomplete prescription. This is the list — and because the case arrives and leaves as data, it is a file list before it is anything else [11][12].
Case data
- Implant system, platform, diameter, and connection — label photo, or scan-body / abutment photo
- Scan body brand and CAD library name
- Intraoral scan: arch with scan body, opposing arch, and bite
- Diagnostic reference: existing provisional, wax-up, mock-up, or the set-up prosthesis being copied
- Shade tab, intraoral photo, and smile-line photo
- Soft-tissue reference: existing healing abutment or provisional, gingival cuff, emergence-profile notes
- Work-order notes: retention preference, material preference, wear-window expectation, constraints
Scan formats and when colour is required
We accept the open formats any scanner can export: STL, PLY, OBJ, 3Shape native .DCM, and the full case package .3oxz. 3Shape TRIOS, Medit, iTero, CEREC/Sirona, Shining3D, and Planmeca are all supported, provided the file is exported open — private encrypted formats are not accepted.
Colour-bearing PLY is required, not optional, where colour and texture are part of the design: anterior esthetic cases, implant frameworks and full-arch work where gingival colour matters, and any case requiring digital shade matching.
File rules
- One case, one folder, packaged as ZIP — not RAR.
- Suggested ceilings: STL under 150 MB per arch; colour PLY under 300 MB.
- Every file prefixed with the same CaseID, so prescriptions and photographs match the scan.
- No non-Latin filenames — they corrupt on transfer and fail identification.
Bite records
Use a polyvinyl siloxane / vinyl polysiloxane bite registration; polyether is acceptable and should be kept moist. We do not recommend bite wax: it is heat-sensitive and creeps, rebounds and distorts in transit, compresses at the cusp contacts, and is the least reliable record under international shipping temperatures.
Design confirmation
You can ask to see the design before milling or casting; the design can be changed by talking to your case coordinator. A case that requires design confirmation adds 1–2 days to the turnaround.
When we will ask you to rescan
We will request new data when: the preparation margin is blurred, missing, or covered by soft tissue; the model has large holes or mesh damage that cannot be repaired; stitching is misaligned or a step is present; the scan is out of range (missing adjacent teeth, opposing arch, or bite record); soft tissue is heavily distorted or the scan is full of reflective noise; or, in an esthetic case, PLY colour is too degraded to evaluate form and shade.
Send your Rx → [case intake portal] · [case intake email] · or your assigned contact. If you are unsure whether a record is adequate, send it — a case-data check takes one working day, and we will tell you before the case enters the design queue.
5. Turnaround
All figures are working days from approved design. Weekends and Chinese public holidays are not production days and do not count toward the committed turnaround; scheduling moves to the next working day.
Two clocks, not one. The clinical timeline — osseointegration and tissue maturation — is measured in months and set by biology [4][5][13]. Our laboratory turnaround is measured in working days from approved design, not from case submission or patient seating. Every lead time below is a laboratory figure. Keeping the two clocks apart is how a case is scheduled without a surprise.
Case | Working days |
|---|---|
Single implant provisional crown | 3–5 |
Multi-unit provisional bridge (2–4 units) | 4–6 |
Full-arch provisional (no prototype) | 5–7 |
Full-arch with prototype / try-in | 7–10, including try-in verification |
Custom healing abutment | 3–5 |
Diagnostic wax-up / mock-up | 2–4 |
Case-data verification only | 1 |
Where a case is staged, the stages are quoted separately: diagnostic wax-up or guide 2–3 days; PMMA provisional try-in stage 2–4 days; custom abutment 3–4 days; definitive restoration 3–5 days, or 5–7 for full-arch and complex implant cases.
Approvals, additional records, and time waiting on a reply do not count toward turnaround. A remake is prioritised and typically runs 3–5 days, set by the actual condition of the work. Rush or expedited work is discussed case by case — tell us the constraint and we will tell you honestly what is achievable, rather than accept an order we cannot hold.
6. Quality Checkpoints and Remake Policy
This is the section that most laboratory pages do not publish. We do, because a provisional that fails costs the clinician a chair, and the only way to make that rare is to define in advance what counts as a failure.
The checkpoint chain
Design review → inspection of the milled or printed part → seat check on the model or verification jig → screw-channel check → final inspection → technical-lead sign-off on complex implant and full-arch cases. Rejected parts are tagged and isolated with the reason recorded, not blended back into the flow.
Adjustable in the chair, or a remake?
Verdict | Measured by |
|---|---|
Adjustable clinically | The deviation can be corrected in the mouth without changing the body of the restoration, its base, its margin, or its seating — no return to the laboratory needed |
Must be remade | The deviation affects seating, marginal integrity, occlusion, retention, or biological safety, and cannot be corrected in the mouth |
If a case fails final inspection, we remake it automatically — we do not ship a known defect and wait to be told.
Rework, and what it costs
Most rework is free. Factory-side quality faults fall inside the free scope: for fixed work, open margins, open contacts, high occlusion, a crown that will not seat, inaccurate shade, and defects that visibly affect esthetics or form. Rework is not free where the clinician changes the shade or the material, or where work was produced at the clinician's explicit request on a compromised impression after we had flagged the risk. Free rework does not include transport costs or implant-component costs, and a new impression, scan, design, or material selection is treated as a new case.
Before any remake we establish the reason and confirm it with you. A return must be reported within 24 hours of receipt, with the case number, the product, the reason, and photographs. After rework, all key checks are re-run — a repaired part is not assumed to be a passed part.
Where repeated remakes cannot resolve the problem, we settle the case by refund or credit rather than let it run.
Measured performance, with the definitions attached
We quote two figures about our own work — each with its denominator, because quoted as bare numbers they read as the same thing, and they are not:
- First-pass final-inspection pass rate — 95%: cases released at the first final inspection, divided by all cases inspected in the period. Cases that pass only after rework are not counted in the numerator.
- Overall remake rate — 2–3%: reported by the laboratory manager across customer complaints, rework, and internal non-conformances.
One counts inspection attempts, the other counts cases over the year: the two are not additive and not interchangeable, which is why we publish the definitions alongside the numbers.
7. Traceability and the Paper That Travels With the Case
A provisional is a short-lived part, but it is not an anonymous one. For any case we can state and support:
- Material brand, lot number, and country of origin, and the certificate of conformity for the material used — per case, on request.
- The case file: which technician, which design, which equipment, which material lot, and every quality check, recorded against the CaseID.
- Documents issued in English, covering material and conformity, so your records file is complete without translation.
- Registration and listing numbers quoted in full, so they can be checked against the source register.
We do not ask you to take our word for the material. We ask you to check it against the certificate.
Ask for the material documentation on your next case → your account contact can add it to the standard file.
8. Accreditation and Regulatory Posture
Stated precisely, because the distinctions matter to your regulatory contact.
- Quality system — the laboratory operates under an ISO 13485 quality management system.
- Materials — our material suppliers provide CE-marked materials; CE marking attaches to the material. Their biocompatibility evaluation follows the ISO 10993 series.
- United States — we hold FDA establishment registration with device listing covering custom dental prosthetics, including interim/transitional restorations; the listing does not cover the implant body itself. Every custom restoration exported to the United States is covered by establishment registration plus the corresponding device listing.
- European Union — custom-made dental restorations are Class IIa by risk class but are not placed under ordinary CE notified-body conformity assessment; they follow the MDR Annex XIII custom-made device route, with a custom-made statement issued and a custom-made device notification filed with the competent authority.
What this means, stated plainly. Registration and listing are administrative market-entry steps. They are not a regulatory decision on the product itself. Our custom-made restorations do not carry CE marking, and no FDA product authorisation attaches to them; both are made under the custom-made routes above. Registration numbers can be verified directly in the FDA public database without an account, and we can provide registration documents electronically within the scope we are authorised to share.
If your requirement is none of the above but a specific document — a quality agreement, a supplier questionnaire, a declaration for a tender — ask, and we will tell you what we can issue and what we cannot.
9. How a Quotation Is Built
We publish how a quotation is put together, not what it totals. That keeps the pricing current and the comparison honest.
- Unit count is the base, material sets the base price, and implant components and design complexity are the add-ons.
- A quotation includes design, model work, components, packaging, and shipping.
- Original implant-system components and compatible alternatives price differently — original parts are priced at the system's purchase cost plus fabrication, and compatible parts cost less. Where a component choice affects the clinical outcome, we will say so rather than let price alone decide it.
- The full cost is confirmed before production; any component or operation added mid-production is communicated for approval first.
- Current price lists and the B2B catalogue are issued by your sales manager.
- For laboratory-to-laboratory (outsourcing) accounts, we work on a recurring-volume basis; the specifics are set with your account contact rather than published here.
- New accounts can apply for terms; our standard arrangement is one month.
Request a quotation for your case mix → your account contact.
10. Who We Are
Istar Dental Lab is a dental laboratory and direct manufacturing facility, founded in 2012 — a full-service laboratory, not a trading company or a middleman.
- Facilities — Shenzhen and Huizhou, China.
- Team — approximately 460 employees: CAD design ~100 · milling ~70 · implant ~80 · ceramic and metal ~70 · removable ~55 · quality control ~25 · administration ~10 · sales ~10 · customer service and case coordination ~40, plus approximately 50 trained backup workers for peak periods.
- Production — the entire workflow is completed in house, with no cases outsourced to third-party laboratories. Full-arch All-on-X capacity runs at approximately 20 arches per month in normal season and 40 per month at peak.
- Experience — more than 50 dental laboratories, 100 dental clinics, and 400 dentists served; principal markets in the United States and eight European countries.
- Accountability — every case is recorded against the technician who designed and finished it, traceable by CaseID, so a question about a specific restoration can be followed back to the person who made it.
We are glad to be audited. Factory visits, production-line tours, and video inspections can be arranged in Shenzhen and Huizhou, and most partners find the production floor answers more than the brochure does.
Arrange a visit or a video audit → your account contact.
11. Frequently Asked Questions
What are the provisionals made of, and can we specify the material? Milled PMMA, lab-processed bis-acryl composite, or 3D-printed provisional resin (see Materials). The material can be specified, and the brand, lot number, and country of origin can be recorded and documented per case.
Will the design be tried in and approved before you finalize the part? Yes, on request. We send the digital design — or a printed model — for try-in and confirmation, and cut the final part only after sign-off. A design-confirmation step adds 1–2 days.
If the provisional does not seat, or the bite is wrong, who redoes it? We assess it against a defined line: deviations that can be corrected in the mouth without changing the body, base, margin, or seating are adjustable clinically; deviations that affect seating, margins, occlusion, retention, or biological safety are remade. Factory-side quality faults are remade free within the published scope; changes to shade or material requested by the clinician, or work produced on a compromised record after we flagged it, are not.
How long does a remake take? Remakes are prioritised, and typically run 3–5 days, set by the condition of the work. Report the issue within 24 hours of receipt so the clock starts from the right point.
What do you need from us to start a case? The work order list under What We Need on the Work Order — implant system and platform, scan data, bite record, and your retention, material, and wear-window preferences. A case-data check takes one working day.
What is your FDA status? We hold FDA establishment registration with device listing covering custom dental prosthetics including interim restorations; the listing does not cover the implant body. Registration and listing are administrative market-entry steps, not a regulatory decision on the product itself, and no FDA product authorisation attaches to our custom-made restorations. Both can be verified in the FDA public database without an account.
How is the interim crown coded on the insurance claim? Coding is the treating clinician's, not the laboratory's — but the code that applies to this restoration is D6085 (interim implant crown): a temporary crown worn on an implant while the site matures, or while the definitive crown is pending [16]. It is not the same as D6795, the interim retainer crown, which applies to a bridge retainer rather than to an implant provisional [16]. Coverage varies between plans, so the clinical reason for the provisional — tissue contour, esthetics, or a defined wear window — is worth recording when the claim goes in.
12. Send a Case
- Digital cases — upload through the case portal, or send a shared link from a supported intraoral scanner.
- Physical cases — we can issue a shipping label for the impression, model, or existing prosthesis.
- Your first case — opens with a short onboarding conversation so your implant libraries, materials, and defaults are on file.
- Working together — a named account manager and a case-coordination team you can reach in English; case-technical calls where the design needs discussing.
- Onboarding documents — we can work under an NDA, a quality agreement, or a supplier agreement, and can complete a supplier-admission questionnaire and annual review.
Submit your case → [case intake portal] · [case intake email] · or reply to your assigned contact.
Regulatory references in this document are technical coordination references. They are not regulatory or quality claims about the product. Material and process references cite the published standard or the manufacturer's published specification at the time of writing.
References
[1] Bruxism and dental implants: A systematic review and meta-analysis — PubMed 37589382. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37589382/
[2] Occlusal considerations in maintaining health of implants and their restorations — PMC11126375. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11126375/
[3] Role of primary stability for successful osseointegration of dental implants — PMC3873594. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3873594/
[4] Group 2 ITI Consensus Report: Prosthodontics and implant dentistry. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/clr.13298
[5] Group 5 ITI Consensus Report: Implant placement and loading protocols — PubMed 37750529. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37750529/
[6] Conversion Techniques for Immediate-Loading Interim Implant-Supported Prostheses — PMC13298223. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13298223/
[7] Immediate Implant Placement and Provisionalization in the Aesthetic Zone — PMC12289460. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12289460
[8] Mechanical properties of provisional dental materials: A systematic review — PMC5830998. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5830998/
[9] Physical and Mechanical Properties of 3D-Printed Provisional Crowns and Bridges — PMC9269394. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9269394/
[10] Mechanical Performance of 3D-Printed Resins versus CAD/CAM PMMA for Provisional Restorations — PMC12620967. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12620967/
[11] A full digital workflow to prefabricate an implant-supported interim restoration — PMC9630484. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9630484/
[12] Digital Workflow for Immediate Implant Placement and Chairside Provisionalization — PMC9076344. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9076344/
[13] Implant placement and loading protocols in partially edentulous patients. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/clr.13276
[14] Provisional restoration options in implant dentistry — PubMed 17969293. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17969293/
[15] ISO 10477:2026 — Dentistry — Polymer-based crown and veneering materials (ISO, Edition 5). https://www.iso.org/standard/82472.html
[16] The Code on Dental Procedures and Nomenclature (CDT Code) — American Dental Association. https://www.ada.org/publications/cdt