Crown, Bridge & Zirconia Dental Lab in Poole
Crown, bridge and zirconia work for dental practices, every material and system under one roof, milled and cast in-house in Poole, on a reliable ten working day turnaround.
- A laboratory 70+ years established
- Made in-house in Poole
- DAMAS accredited
Crown and bridge, in plain terms
A crown covers and restores a single damaged or heavily filled tooth. A bridge replaces one or more missing teeth by joining crowns to the teeth (or implants) either side of the gap, including Maryland designs with a bonded wing. Both are precision restorations where fit, contact and shade have to be right.
They are also permanent restorations, which is the practical difference from a denture. A crown or bridge is cemented in by a dentist and does not come out. That is why crown and bridge is not something we can fit here: if a crown comes loose or pops off, we cannot cement it back in at the lab, and it needs to go back to the dentist who placed it. If you also wear a denture, that part we can look after here, and we are happy to work quickly alongside your dentist so both sides of your case are sorted.
We are a laboratory for dental practices, not a walk-in for patients, and crown and bridge is core work here. We cover the full material range in-house, from multi-layered zirconia and E.max to bonded metal, composite and G-Cam, plus PMMA temporaries and diagnostic wax-ups, private and NHS.
You also get something most labs cannot offer: you talk to the technician who actually makes your work. When a case needs a conversation about material choice or a difficult shade, we pick up the phone.
Every material we work with, and when we would use it
One table for the whole crown and bridge menu, including the three zirconias we choose between. Which one goes where, and where we would prescribe something else instead.
| Material / system | Clinical indication | Relative strength | Made in-house | NHS / private |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multi-layered zirconia | The everyday go-to: single units through to full-contour bridges, anterior and posterior | Very high | Made in-house | Private & NHS |
| Monolithic zirconia | One solid milled piece with no porcelain layered on to chip. Posterior units and heavy bites | Very high | Made in-house | Private & NHS |
| Zirconia, layered with porcelain | A zirconia coping with porcelain built on top, where an anterior unit needs the most natural translucency | High | Made in-house | Private |
| E.max (lithium disilicate) | Where zirconia loses on looks: aesthetic anterior single units, inlays, onlays and veneers | High | Made in-house | Private |
| Bonded / metal (PFM) | Long spans and conventional cases, where a cast metal substructure is still the sound prescription | High | Made in-house | Private & NHS |
| Composite | Cost-effective restorations and repairs where a lighter material suits | Moderate | Made in-house | Private & NHS |
| G-Cam (graphene-reinforced composite) | Lightweight, shock-absorbing long-term provisionals and implant superstructures | High | Made in-house | Private |
| PMMA temporaries | Milled provisional crowns and bridges and trial restorations | Provisional | Made in-house | Private |
| Diagnostic wax-ups | Treatment planning and an aesthetic preview before definitive work | n/a | Made in-house | Private |
PEEK is on our menu too, but as a metal-free denture framework rather than a crown and bridge material, so it sits on the For Dentists table instead. Clinical indication and relative strength are general material guidance rather than lab test data, and are confirmed per case. NHS availability follows current NHS banding.
How to send us a case
About ten working days turnaround on crown and bridge work
Send by local courier collection or nationwide post with pre-addressed packaging
Digital scan or conventional impression, your choice
A career-long crown and bridge specialist on the team
You talk to the technician who actually makes your work
How a crown or bridge is made here
Accurate models
We build high-accuracy crown-stone models with Pindex sectioned dies from your impression or scan, so the margins are true.
Digital design
The restoration is designed digitally to your prescription, with contacts and occlusion planned before anything is made.
Milled or cast in-house
Zirconia and E.max are milled in-house and zirconia is sintered at around 1500 degrees. Cobalt-chrome and metal substructures are cast for us by Skillbond, a long-standing UK supplier we have used for years.
Hand-finished to shade
We stain and glaze to your shade, hand-finishing the result before it comes back to you, checked and on time.
From sectioned die to fired shade, here
It starts with your impression or scan, cast in high-accuracy crown stone with Pindex sectioned dies that pin each die so nothing moves and the margins stay true. The restoration is then designed digitally, with contacts and occlusion planned before anything is cut.
Zirconia and E.max are milled here, on our own machines, and zirconia is sintered at around 1500 degrees, which is what turns a chalky milled blank into the hard, dense material that goes in the mouth. Cobalt-chrome and metal substructures are cast in-house. Finally it is hand-finished and stained to shade, and back to you to cement.
Zirconia, E.max and the digital chain all happen under one roof, which is the part that matters commercially. Cobalt-chrome substructures are cast for us by Skillbond, and we will always tell you which part of a case is ours and which is theirs.
- Pindex sectioned diesPinned and sectioned so the margins are true.
- Designed digitallyContacts and occlusion planned before anything is made.
- Milled and cast in-houseOn our own machines, not factored out to a production lab.
- Sintered at around 1500 degreesThe firing that gives zirconia its density.
- Hand-finished and stained to shadeThen back to you to cement.
Shade matched under a daylight-simulating light
Anterior shade matching is where cases are won or lost. We take and check shade under a daylight-simulating light, so what we see at the bench is what the patient sees in daylight, not under a warm surgery bulb.
It is a dentist-exclusive service and it is one of the reasons difficult anterior single units come back right the first time. If a shade is genuinely tricky, we would rather have the conversation than guess.
A career-long crown and bridge specialist
Crown and bridge here is led by a technician who has only ever done crown and bridge, in highly critical laboratory settings. It is not a sideline. It is all she does, day in and day out.
For a practice, that means consistency: predictable contacts, clean margins and a finish you can hand a patient with confidence. And you can talk to the person who made it.
Where zirconia is the wrong answer
The question everyone asks and no laboratory page answers. Zirconia is very strong, and that strength is also its trade-off: it is harder than natural enamel, so on a heavy bite the opposing tooth is what gives. It needs a certain thickness to work, so the tooth has to be prepared for it. And a layered crown has porcelain on the outside that can chip, in a way a monolithic one cannot.
On looks, a monolithic posterior unit is built for strength rather than beauty, and for a demanding anterior single unit we would often rather make an E.max. Multi-layered zirconia closes most of that gap, and "most" is the honest word.
And however well we make it, the seat and the cement are the dentist's. A crown is only as good as the preparation underneath it.
- 70+ yrsEstablished laboratory
- In-houseMade on our own benches
- DAMASRegistered lab
- GoogleRated by our patients
The standard we send back
A look at the crown and bridge work that leaves the Poole lab.
Illustrative placeholder imagery. Photographs of our own finished work are added at launch.
Questions about this service
No jargon, no pressure. If your question is not here, call the lab and a technician will talk it through.
Which materials and systems do you work with?
My crown has come off. Can you cement it back in for me?
What is your turnaround?
Do you take digital scans or only impressions?
Zirconia or E.max, which do you recommend?
What is multi-layered zirconia, and how is it different from monolithic zirconia?
What is the downside of zirconia crowns?
How long will a zirconia crown last?
How much does a zirconia crown cost?
Why send crown and bridge to you rather than keep it in-house or use another lab?
What is the difference between a crown and a bridge?
Related services
Start sending us your crown, bridge and zirconia work
Speak to the technician who will make your cases. Local courier collection or nationwide post, on a reliable ten day turnaround.