A good dental lab can deliver the cases you send today.
But for a growing dental organization, the more interesting question is:

Can that relationship help you do something better tomorrow?

That is where Dr. Cedric Lewis sees his relationship with Dentlink heading.

Dr. Lewis is the founder and CEO of Kokua Smiles, a four-location dental practice in Oahu that works with Dentlink. He is also a founding partner and clinical director of Rising Tide Dental Partners, a dental partnership organization spanning 33 locations across 11 states.

After working with Dentlink, communicating directly with its technicians, and seeing the lab behind the cases firsthand, his focus is now on what comes next.

One idea already under discussion is bringing a 3D printer directly into his practice.

Dentlink technicians could receive scans digitally, design cases remotely, and allow his team to print them in-office.

For Dr. Lewis,
that possibility changes the conversation from:
“Can this lab make our cases?”
to:
“What could we build together?”

That is a very different kind of DSO dental lab partnership.

1. A Strong Partnership Should Create New Possibilities

Dr. Lewis describes one workflow he is particularly excited about:

“His lab techs in real time will be able to basically pick up our scans from the office in real time, design those cases, and then my team will be printing it in my office.”

The important part is not simply the 3D printer.

It is how the responsibilities could connect:

Practice scan → Dentlink technician design → in-office production → patient delivery

Instead of the lab operating as a separate production endpoint, the technician and practice could become part of a more connected digital workflow.

For a multi-location organization, that is worth paying attention to.

Innovation does not necessarily mean buying more equipment.

It can mean asking:

How can the expertise of the lab extend further into the practice workflow?

A strong DSO dental lab partnership should be able to have that conversation.

Not every new workflow will be appropriate for every location or clinical situation. But a partner that understands your organization can help identify where new capabilities may create real clinical or operational value.

From Today’s Workflow to What Comes Next

Zirconia monolithic milling for dental restoration
Precision in motion. Zirconia monolithic milling at Dentlink.

This future-looking conversation did not start from scratch.

In the first Kokua Smiles interview, Dr. Lewis explained how his doctors communicate directly with Dentlink technicians and described the workflow as “very efficient and very seamless.”

Read: What Does Good Dental Lab Communication for DSOs Look Like? A 4-Location Practice Leader Shares His Experience

In the second interview, he described what happened when he visited Dentlink and saw the technicians, technology, and Digital Denture workflow for himself.

His conclusion was that the visit:

“Provided authenticity to what their promise is.”

Read: Does Your Dental Lab Live Up to the Promise? A DSO Leader’s Perspective

That progression matters.

First, the workflow worked.
Then, seeing the lab validated the experience.
Now, the relationship is creating conversations about what could come next.

That is how a vendor relationship starts to become a partnership.

2. Would You Recommend the Lab to Another DSO Leader?

There is another part of Dr. Lewis’s interview that may be even more telling than the technology.

He has already introduced Dentlink to other DSO owners.

“I’ve introduced him to some amazing friends who own some very large DSOs around the country.”

And he says he intends to continue:

“I will continue to introduce him to more of my partners at Rising Tide.”

For a B2B relationship, referral is a meaningful form of proof.

It is one thing to be satisfied with a vendor.

It is another to put your own professional reputation behind an introduction to a peer.

Especially when that peer operates a large dental organization.

That is why one useful question for any DSO dental lab partnership is surprisingly simple:

Would you introduce this lab to another DSO leader you know?

If the answer is yes, that says something different from a standard testimonial.

It means the experience has been strong enough to recommend beyond your own organization.

3. Does the Partnership Still Have Room to Grow?

Dr. Lewis’s final assessment of Dentlink is not simply about what has already happened.

He talks about the future.

“It surpassed my expectations.”

And:

“I think there’s a great future for both of us together.”

That is an important distinction.

A scalable partnership should not become less valuable as your organization changes.

Ideally, it should become more useful because both sides understand each other better over time.

Your lab learns:

  • how your doctors work
  • where communication slows down
  • which workflows matter most
  • what new capabilities your practices are interested in

And your organization learns:

  • what the lab can reliably support
  • where its technicians add value
  • what can be standardized
  • where new workflows may be worth testing

That accumulated understanding can create opportunities that would be difficult to build with a transactional lab relationship.

Dentlink 1:1 dental technician communicating directly with a dentist

What This Means for DSO Decision-Makers

The takeaway from Dr. Lewis’s story is not that every DSO needs an in-office 3D printer.

It is something more useful:

Your laboratory relationship should have somewhere to go.

Once quality, communication, and reliability are established, ask what the next stage of the relationship could look like.

Could the lab help your organization:

  • test a new digital workflow?
  • standardize cases across additional locations?
  • support new clinical capabilities?
  • reduce steps between scan, design, and delivery?
  • pilot a workflow before rolling it out more broadly?

Those are partnership questions, not purchasing questions.

And that is the difference between choosing a laboratory that can handle today’s volume and building a DSO dental lab partnership that can continue evolving with the organization.

A Practical Way to Test the Partnership: Start Small

A DSO does not need to move an entire network to a new lab to find out whether the relationship works.

That is one reason Dentlink’s current DSO program is structured around a four-location pilot: participating locations can connect their existing scanners, send an initial case, and evaluate the workflow before deciding whether to expand. Dentlink’s DSO offering also provides each practice with its own master technician while giving the group a shared standard and network-level visibility.

If your organization is evaluating what working with Dentlink could look like across multiple locations, explore Dentlink’s DSO program and four-location pilot. Explore Dentlink for DSOs

This CTA is especially useful here because it follows directly from Dr. Lewis’s story:

You do not have to commit the entire organization first.

Test the relationship.

See how your doctors communicate with the technicians.

See how the cases perform.

Then decide whether the partnership deserves to grow.

So, What Does a Strong DSO Dental Lab Partnership Look Like?

For Kokua Smiles, the relationship with Dentlink did not stop after the first successful cases.

It progressed.

From direct technician communication.

To seeing the lab and its workflows firsthand.

To discussing new ways Dentlink’s technicians could support the practice.

And ultimately, to Dr. Lewis introducing Dentlink to other DSO leaders.

That progression may be the strongest point in this final interview.

A strong lab should deliver what you need today.

A strong partner should make you interested in what you could do together next.

Dr. Lewis puts it simply:

“It surpassed my expectations.”

And after everything he has experienced so far:

“I think there’s a great future for both of us together.”

If you are looking for a laboratory relationship that can start with a few locations and grow from there, see how Dentlink supports DSOs and multi-location practices.

See how Dentlink works with DSOs

Dentlink. Made by Masters.