Digital dentures are transforming how labs and dentists work together — and nobody explains it better than someone who has lived it for over four decades. In Episode 37 of The Technology Evangelist Podcast, sponsored by Medidenta Digital Solutions, Dr. John Flucke sits down with Jimmy Stegall, Certified Dental Lab Technician, clinical educator, published author, and 2024 NADL Educator of the Year. With 35 years of growing a major dental lab and hundreds of educational events under his belt, Jimmy brings a unique lab-bench perspective to the rapidly evolving world of digital dentures.
Key Insights:
- Origin Story: Jimmy’s path into dental technology began not by design, but through a friend’s nudge — trading bartending for a seat at a seven-person dental lab in Rockville. That lab eventually grew to 135 people across three locations, and Jimmy grew with it, becoming the lab’s primary liaison to dentists and eventually a sought-after clinical educator presenting nearly 200 programs a year.
- Labs Ahead of the Curve: Jimmy makes the case that dental labs embraced digital workflows well before most clinicians. For dentists still hesitant about digital dentures, his message is clear: you don’t need a scanner, you don’t need to change everything — just send your records to a digitally equipped lab and let them take it from there.
- The Reference Denture Workflow: Since 60–80% of denture patients already have an existing denture, Jimmy teaches a practical wash impression technique using heavy-body and light-body PVS material right in the patient’s old denture. The result is scanned chairside, the patient walks out with their denture, and the lab designs a new set in about 30 minutes. Three out of five times, it fits well enough to deliver as the final — no try-in needed.
- Copy Dentures and the Power of Photography: For patients who love their existing denture and want it duplicated, digital technology enables a true copy denture — an exact clone but made with superior materials. Adding just two or three patient photographs (forehead-to-chin, half smile, and lateral profile) allows the lab to overlay the design on the patient’s face, catching tooth display issues before fabrication and often reducing the process to just two appointments.
- Generation 2 Resins Are a Game Changer: Pre-COVID, Gen 1 printed resins earned a bad reputation — and rightfully so, with fracture resistance below the high-impact threshold of 1,000 J/m². Generation 2 polymers changed everything. Independent testing at Boston University on products like Lucitone Digital Print showed dentures holding up to 3,000 J/m² at body temperature, at minimum, twice the strength of traditional acrylic. The stigma from early resins lingers, but the science tells a very different story today.
- Finishing Without the Pumice Wheel: One of the most practical shifts in digital denture fabrication is the elimination of traditional polishing. Modern chemical glazes — such as the Step 3 glaze in the Lucitone Digital Print system or IntRF from Pac-Dent — penetrate 10–15 microns into the surface and cure in place, delivering a more durable, longer-lasting finish than any surface glaze. What once took 20–25 minutes of bench work plus an hour of cure time can now be done in 5–7 minutes of assembly and painting, with a 10-minute cure.
- The Case for Backup Dentures: Because reprinting a digital denture is as simple as pulling up a saved file, Jimmy makes a compelling argument for printing two sets — one to deliver and one as a backup. Labs can offer this service at a fraction of the cost, patients never have to go without teeth due to a break or loss, and the story he shares of a patient receiving a replacement denture overnight while traveling in Italy underscores just how powerful that digital file truly is.
- Lab-Dentist Collaboration: Jimmy is a passionate advocate for the dentist-technician relationship, emphasizing that labs are consultants and problem-solvers — not just fabricators. He credits study club lectures on everyday topics like impression technique and margin design for growing his lab’s business, and he encourages dentists — especially newer graduates — to pick up the phone and tap into the knowledge base sitting on the other side of the lab bench.
Jimmy Stegall’s takeaway: digital dentures are not a shortcut — they’re a better outcome delivered more efficiently, with stronger materials, in fewer appointments, and with a level of predictability that was simply not possible with analog workflows. The patients notice, the doctors notice, and the labs are never going back.
To find Jimmy’s upcoming speaking engagements, webinars, and training programs, visit heretoservedental.com.
