The patient took the morning off, the operatory is blocked, and the crown is still in a delivery truck. Or the seat was booked three weeks out to be safe, and the patient wore a provisional for an extra week. Both come from planning around lab time instead of the whole trip.
Lab time is only part of the calendar; shipping, missing information, try-ins, remakes and holidays decide the rest. Below: each type of case, what adds days, how a scan changes the clock, and a worked example of scheduling back from the seat date.
Key Takeaways
- Our standard lab time is 5 business days for most restorative cases, implant crowns and bridges included; full arch takes as little as 4 days, usually a little longer than 5 business days.
- Transit counts twice: UPS Ground takes 2 to 5 business days each way, while in New York City and 13 northern New Jersey counties our drivers pick up and deliver every business day.
- In our worked example, a shipped impression needs 16 business days from prep to seat at the slow end of UPS Ground; a digital scan needs 11.
- In a US study of 3,750 single crowns, 3.8% were remade, and every remake starts the clock again.
- In one university student clinic, 50% of conventional complete dentures took 6 or more visits from preliminary impressions to placement, against 5% of digital dentures.
- We close on only 6 of the 11 federal holidays and work Columbus Day, Veterans Day and Black Friday.
Quick Answer
At Elegant Dental Laboratory, most restorative cases, including implant crowns and bridges, take 5 business days in the lab. Full-arch cases can be ready in as little as 4 days, usually a little longer than 5 business days. Add transit: 2 to 5 business days each way by UPS Ground, or free driver pickup and delivery in New York City and 13 northern New Jersey counties. Dentures, night guards and aligners move in steps around each try-in or approval.
Business days: our standard lab time for most restorative cases, implant crowns included, not counting transit.
How Long Does Each Type of Case Take?
We found no national turnaround benchmark from the ADA, the National Association of Dental Laboratories or US peer-reviewed research, so the table gives our own times where we have a standard, and the steps elsewhere.
| Case type | Main lab steps | Patient visits it usually involves | Our lab time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single crown, zirconia | Design, milling from our Elegance Zirconia discs, sintering, stain and glaze or porcelain | Prep, seat | Our 5-business-day standard |
| Single crown, IPS e.max | Pattern, pressing with IPS e.max Press, stain and glaze or layering | Prep, seat | Our 5-business-day standard |
| PFM crown | Metal substructure in a base or precious alloy, porcelain built up and fired | Prep, seat | Our 5-business-day standard |
| Bridge | As for the material, plus pontics and connectors | Prep, seat | Our 5-business-day standard |
| Implant crown or bridge | Design in the implant library, custom abutment or titanium base, crown | Scan body scan or implant-level impression, seat | 5 business days |
| Full arch: zirconia, PMMA, PFM, e.max or hybrid | Design, any try-in or verification step you plan, final prosthesis | Records, try-ins as planned, delivery | As little as 4 days; usually a little longer than 5 business days |
| Complete dentures | Bite rims, teeth set for a try-in, processing on printed or stone models | Impressions, bite record, try-in, delivery, adjustments | Varies by step; ask us |
| Night guard: hard, soft or dual-laminate | Model or scan work, appliance fabrication | Records, delivery and adjustment | Ask us |
| Clear aligners | Digital setup, your approval, aligner fabrication | Records, delivery, regular checks | Fabrication starts after your approval; ask us |
A routine crown or bridge needs two visits, prep and seat. Our standard covers most restorative cases; if a case is unusual, call before you book the seat.
Implant crowns and full arch
Implant crowns and bridges follow our standard 5 business days, and we work with all implant systems. Design can start only when the Rx names the system and connection and the scan body is captured cleanly (see How to Scan Implants). Full-arch cases usually take a little longer than 5 business days. If your protocol includes a verification step or a try-in, each round trip adds lab time and, outside our pickup area, two more transits (materials compared in Full-Arch Zirconia vs. PMMA vs. Hybrid).
Dentures with try-ins
Conventional complete dentures need several appointments to record the jaw relationship and check esthetics, and each try-in is a round trip to the lab. Immediate dentures cannot be tried in while the teeth to be extracted are still in place, and they need relining or even remaking as the tissues heal.
Share of conventional complete dentures in a university student clinic that took 6 or more visits from preliminary impressions to placement; for digital dentures it was 5% (Clark et al., 2021).
Night guards and aligners
A night guard needs records of both arches and the bite, fabrication, then delivery. In a single-center randomized trial of 70 patients with hard Michigan splints for TMD, a fully digital workflow needed a median of 3 visits, against 4 for vacuum-formed splints. Aligners add a step in your hands: records, a digital setup, your approval, then fabrication, so review time counts toward the turnaround (see Clear Aligners in General Practice).
Why Does a Crown Take Days When the Hands-On Work Takes Hours?
In a randomized study of lithium disilicate crowns, a technician's active working time was 74 to 92 minutes in four digital workflows and 148 minutes in the conventional pressed workflow. The calendar days come from everything around it: furnace cycles, checks, the queue and transit.
What Adds Days to a Lab Case?
Shipping, both ways
Outside our pickup area, UPS Ground takes 2 to 5 business days in transit, depending on distance, and the case travels twice. A shipped impression also has to be disinfected and packed first (see How to Disinfect and Ship Impressions).
Missing or unclear information
A case cannot move while a question is open: the implant system, the shade, the material, a margin under tissue, a hole in the scan. Each one costs a call, sometimes a new scan. See How to Fill Out a Dental Lab Rx.
Try-ins and approvals
Denture try-ins, full-arch verification steps and aligner setups each add a round trip or a decision. Book the next appointment when you send the case.
Remakes
In the National Dental Practice-Based Research Network, 205 dentists evaluated 3,750 single crowns and remade 3.8%; 58% of the dentists rejected none, while individual rates reached 42%. A remake repeats the lab time and both transits (see Crown Remakes: What Really Causes Them).
Shade questions
A difficult anterior shade can wait on new photos or a stump shade; send them with the case (see Shade Matching for the Lab).
Holidays
The federal government observes 11 holidays in 2026. We close on 6: New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day; when one falls on a Saturday, we close the Friday before, and on a Sunday, the Monday after. We work the rest, including Columbus Day, Veterans Day and Black Friday. Carriers keep their own holiday schedules, so check yours.
How Do Digital Scans Change the Clock?
A scan removes the inbound trip: no impression to disinfect, pack and ship. We accept STL and PLY files from all major intraoral scanners, with direct connections for iTero, 3Shape TRIOS, Dentsply Sirona, Medit, Carestream, Planmeca, Shining 3D, ORI and Panda (setup steps). Digital scans are reviewed before production.
Acceptance at the seat matters too: in the same network, 99.5% of crowns from digital scans were judged clinically acceptable, against 94.0% to 95.8% with impression trays, though most scanned crowns were milled in the dentist's office, and the authors say in-office control and a bias toward accepting one's own crown may explain part of the gap. A 2025 systematic review of fixed implant-supported prostheses found significantly shorter lab working time with digital workflows in 8 included studies (more in Digital vs. Conventional Impressions).
How Do You Schedule Back From the Seat Date?
Start at the seat and subtract, in business days: a safety margin, the return transit, the lab time and the inbound transit. Skip weekends, the 6 days we close and your carrier's holidays. Here we count the day the case reaches us as day 0 and assume it ships at the end of day 5, a convention for this example, not a promise.
Example: a single zirconia crown for a practice outside our pickup area, impression shipped by UPS Ground at the slow end of 5 business days each way, seat on Thursday, December 10, 2026.
| Step, counted back from the seat | Business days | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Seat appointment | Thursday, December 10, 2026 | |
| Safety margin: case in your office one business day early | 1 | Delivered by Wednesday, December 9 (the last transit day) |
| Return transit, UPS Ground (assumed 5 days) | 5 | December 3 to 9; the case ships Wednesday, December 2 |
| Lab time, our 5-business-day standard | 5 | November 25, November 27, November 30, December 1 and 2 (closed Thanksgiving, November 26; open Black Friday) |
| Case arrives at the lab (day 0, not counted) | 0 | Tuesday, November 24 |
| Inbound transit, UPS Ground (assumed 5 days) | 5 | November 18 to 24 |
| Prep appointment; impression ships the same day | Tuesday, November 17 |
That is 16 business days from prep to seat. With a digital scan the inbound row disappears: the prep can move to Tuesday, November 24, 11 business days before the same seat. At the 2-day end of UPS Ground, the scanned case could seat Monday, December 7. Inside our pickup area, both transit rows become runs by our drivers, who pick up and deliver every business day.
Turnaround at Elegant Dental Laboratory
- 5 business day standard turnaround on most restorative cases, implant crowns and bridges included, with rush options; full-arch cases in as little as 4 days, usually a little longer.
- Every case made in house in Brooklyn by more than 35 technicians, no outsourcing; zirconia milled from our own Elegance Zirconia discs.
- Free pickup and delivery by our own drivers every business day during lab hours in all five New York City boroughs and 13 northern New Jersey counties; free UPS labels everywhere else.
- Closed weekends and on only six holidays a year, with no December or year-end cut-off for new cases.
- Send a case or call 877-335-5221 to confirm a date.
FAQ
How long does a dental lab take to make a crown?
Our standard is 5 business days in the lab for most restorative cases, plus transit both ways. Labs set their own standards, so ask for it in writing.
Do implant crowns take longer than tooth-supported crowns?
Not at our lab: implant crowns and bridges follow the standard 5 business days, provided the Rx names the implant system and connection.
How long does a full-arch case take?
As little as 4 days, usually a little longer than 5 business days. Any try-in or verification step adds a round trip.
How many visits does a complete denture take?
It depends on the workflow: in one university student clinic, half of conventional dentures took 6 or more visits to placement; only 5% of digital dentures did.
Does a digital scan speed up the case?
Mostly by removing the inbound trip: in our worked example, 5 business days.
Is the lab open on holidays?
We close on 6 holidays and work the rest, including Columbus Day, Veterans Day and Black Friday.
Sources (11)
- McCracken MS, et al. Remake Rates for Single-Unit Crowns in Clinical Practice: Findings from The National Dental Practice-Based Research Network. J Prosthodont. 2019;28(2):122-130. doi:10.1111/jopr.12995
- McCracken MS, et al. Impression evaluation and laboratory use for single-unit crowns: Findings from The National Dental Practice-Based Research Network. J Am Dent Assoc. 2017;148(11):788-796.e4. doi:10.1016/j.adaj.2017.06.015
- Lawson NC, et al. Clinical acceptance of single-unit crowns and its association with impression and tissue displacement techniques: Findings from the National Dental Practice-Based Research Network. J Prosthet Dent. 2020;123(5):701-709. doi:10.1016/j.prosdent.2019.05.016
- Sailer I, et al. Randomized controlled within-subject evaluation of digital and conventional workflows for the fabrication of lithium disilicate single crowns. Part II: CAD-CAM versus conventional laboratory procedures. J Prosthet Dent. 2017;118(1):43-48. doi:10.1016/j.prosdent.2016.09.031
- Bessadet M, et al. Comparative analyses of time efficiency and cost in fabricating fixed implant-supported prostheses in digital, hybrid, and conventional workflows: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Prosthet Dent. 2025;133(3):689-712. doi:10.1016/j.prosdent.2024.06.024
- Clark WA, et al. A Comparison of Conventionally Versus Digitally Fabricated Denture Outcomes in a University Dental Clinic. J Prosthodont. 2021;30(1):47-50. doi:10.1111/jopr.13273
- Saponaro PC, et al. Clinical performance of CAD-CAM-fabricated complete dentures: A cross-sectional study. J Prosthet Dent. 2016;116(3):431-435. doi:10.1016/j.prosdent.2016.03.017
- Infante L, et al. Fabricating complete dentures with CAD/CAM technology. J Prosthet Dent. 2014;111(5):351-355. doi:10.1016/j.prosdent.2013.10.014
- Foundation for Oral Rehabilitation (FOR). Treatment guidelines: Immediate dentures. for.org
- Shabaan AA, et al. Fully digital workflow versus conventional methods for fabricating the Michigan appliance in patients with temporomandibular joint disorder. A randomized controlled clinical trial. BMC Oral Health. 2026;26(1):881. doi:10.1186/s12903-026-08534-w
- U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Federal Holidays: 2026 Holiday Schedule. opm.gov
Reviewed by Gary Fingerman, founder and CEO of Elegant Dental Laboratory, Brooklyn, New York (founded 2007). Last reviewed: October 3, 2026. Lab times are Elegant Dental Laboratory's own standards; transit days in the example are planning assumptions within UPS Ground's 2 to 5 business days; study values are from published research.
