Becker Dental Lab Stays a Step Ahead with Roland Technology

"Like father, like son," or, in the case of family-owned Becker Dental Lab in Herculaneum, Missouri, like sons. Don Becker started Becker Dental Lab in 1996. Soon, he brought on Dan and his brothers Ken and Ryan, all three trained as dental technicians.

In 2009, the three sons bought the business from their parents. Today, Becker Dental Lab has a staff of twenty. Its clients are primarily St. Louis-area dentists and dental laboratories.

Dan constantly monitors advances in dental technology. A few years ago, he upgraded their milling equipment to the Roland DWX-50 5-axis CAD/CAM milling machine. "We needed to be able to keep up with the demand for milling zirconia, and wanted an open, 5-axis system," said Dan.

Becker Dental Lab uses its Roland equipment to mill BruxZir zirconia, along with PMMA, wax and pourable stone. Dan estimates that the ROI for his first DWX-50 was approximately one month. "Not only did our production speed improve, but our materials costs dropped dramatically," said Dan.

"I'd buy another Roland before I'd buy anything else."

Dan is active on social media and study groups. He began posting photos showing the results they were getting with their Roland DWX-50. "Other labs started sending me their cases," he said.

The increased demand from other labs helped drive Becker to add DWX systems at the rate of one every eight months or so. They now have four Roland DWX-50s. "CAP (Custom Automated Prosthetics) helped us incorporate our additional capacity I can run all four machines from one computer," said Dan.

Dan has refined the labs workflow to maximize output, including running some of their cases overnight. Becker typically runs 40-80 units a day, and has produced as many as 100 units a day.

Dan also appreciates the reliability of his Roland equipment. "I'd buy another Roland before I'd buy anything else," he said.