Jillian Swafford’s journey to becoming her own boss, and lab owner of Oaks Dental Designs in Pikeville, Tennessee, began 15 years ago with a part-time after-school job in her local dental office. The job led to a full-time position, a qualification as a dental assistant, and finally to management. 

Over time she found frustrations with dealing with the dental lab her office was using, which sowed the seed that grew into Oaks Dental Designs. “A year ago we had been having challenges with the fit, shade, time of delivery, and so on, but the lab would not return our calls. We just wanted their advice, but I think the lab assumed we were calling to gripe them out, so they didn’t call back,” she said. “This communication issue was a missed opportunity on their part and an eye-opening experience for me. And while we were researching what we could do differently, the light bulb went off: Crowns are made with computers now. And the idea to open my own great customer service lab was born.” In February 2018 Jill shared her idea with her husband, Aaron, they prayed about the decision and, a few short months later, Oaks, named for the beautiful old tree firmly rooted in their yard, was founded.

Although she wasn’t a trained technician, Jill’s background of 14 years in dental was a big help. “I already knew what teeth were supposed to look like, I knew where they should fit together, now I just needed to learn how to use the software,” she said. She spent her days off at two local labs with some “super talented guys” who were key to her success. She had to use her time well though. “I was only off on Fridays and many of those I didn’t have a babysitter, so I was unable to go over. I made the most of my time while I was there though and sent a lot of messages back and forth learning during this time.” 

Going digital was the only option for her. “There is way too much to know to just up and quit your job and open a dental lab if you aren’t going digital,” she said. “I don’t know how to press a crown, how to build a crown from the ground up. What I do have is MAD respect for the highly skilled techs who do know that. I do plan to learn that one day because I think it pays respect to the people who built this industry. I had to learn through a lot of trial and error how to pour, separate and trim models; how to trim a die (YouTube has some great videos on that!). It makes me appreciate good impressions and has made me a better tech and designer, I am certain of it. But had I not had the option of taking those tangible impressions and transferring them to a digital workflow, my dreams of opening this lab would have been very short lived.”

Choosing the DS Lab system was a no-brainer. “While shadowing at the two labs I got to see DS Lab in action and I understood the language very quickly. I found the step by step design software very user friendly and easy to follow. I knew that Cerec technology was everywhere and there’s a strong brand recognition with Cerec which I felt wasn’t going to change any time soon. For me there was really never another choice and I couldn’t be more happy and excited about being on this journey!”

It also enabled Jill to get started easily. “The great thing about the DS Lab system is that I didn’t have to have the whole system to get started. I initially decided on just purchasing the inEOS X5 scanner, because I knew that if I got that I could scan in traditional impressions, design them and send them to a local lab that has the inLab System. He could then mill them for me and I could finish them out with stain and glaze at my place”. But while stalking the inLab study group page on Facebook, she ran across a post of a lab owner from Miami who was selling his equipment. A week later they were driving to the Florida line to meet him halfway and came back with an inEOS X5 scanner, a computer with the software, the inLab MCXL mill and tons of blocks to get started. 

“We came home and set it up in our living room, hoping our three and one-year-old didn’t decide they were jungle gyms!” Jill started watching a lot of YouTube videos, Tech in Two videos and just started playing around with old cases that were already in the used software. She was almost ready to go.

Her initial plan was to work her 9-5 job for a year before going after the lab project full time. “We still have a mortgage, car payments, two kiddos to support … but I turned my notice in after about two months. I knew I had to be all in,” she said. The payoff has been an immediate benefit to family life. “There have been financial pressures but having mommy home to be there in the mornings and evenings was a huge change for our family. My husband and I have more time together and my time with my children has doubled at least!” 

One of the best parts of Jill’s story is the support she has had from the DS Lab community. “I have found true encouragement, support, honesty, coaching, passion and a want to see everyone do well,” she said. “If I have a question I usually go first to the Inlab study group page, search for my question, and if I don’t find it there I make a post and,within an hour – most times sooner – I have my answer. Between that site and the two labs that I converse with on a regular basis I haven’t needed much support from Dentsply Sirona, but when I have called they are quick to answer and help me out of whatever bind it might be.”

Jill currently works alone in the lab, with just a driver for pickups and deliveries. A metal-free lab, her focus is on crown and bridge, implants and nightguards; she hasn’t -yet- got into the removables arena. At the Chicago Midwinter Meeting in February this year she took her first porcelain class and can now offer stacked porcelain. Asked whether she uses DS Lab for all her work now, her reply was simple: “DS Lab is my workflow. I have never made a single crown without it – I don’t know anything else.”

She’s been able to improve the communication which was her original frustration between dental office and lab. “I send screenshots out to the doctors all the time. They are able to see, have their input and then we finalise what they were looking to achieve. Another thing I think is crucial are the cases where they want to achieve X, but Y would be a better result. I am able to send them both, without doing a full arch wax up (which I have never done by hand). They can look at both outcomes and see sometimes that their solution may not be the best,” she says. “This has definitely help reduce remakes as well as requests to change a contour or bulk out an area. They can see it all beforehand. It’s something I use every day!”

Speed and accuracy have improved too. “Typically with the impressions that we receive they are in the lab for about four days start to finish. Sanitise, pour, section, trim, scan, design, send to mill, sinter, stain, glaze, polish, out the door!”

As for technology deskilling the technician, Jillian doesn’t give that much weight. “With every advancement we simply gain one thing: time. I have talked to so many technicians who talk of the hours per day that they have gained back in their life since going digital,” she said.  “I think that a very skilled technician is going to be a very skilled designer, if they choose to be. They are different skills. But being able to utilise the hand skills with the mouse skills, that is amazing.”

Jillian is now looking to the next stage. “Over the next year the plan is to maximise the digital impressions side of the business and to move into our new space, an old farmhouse on our property. The house has been in our family for 40 years and I would love to build the business there!” She wants to make time to work on the business, not just in the business, so her husband may start learning a bit about the process to allow her time to look at marketing, business plans and maybe hiring a few employees. “I also want to get great at stacking porcelain, purchase our own sintering oven and begin doing some of our own zirconia in house,” she said. 

And her advice to anyone else setting up a new lab? “Believe that you can do it. If this girl with no lab working experience, no college, with used equipment, using shop vacs and desks from Home Depot and Lowes, working from my husband’s former unstarted Man Cave, can pick up impressions – I don’t own any Omnicams or Primecams – yet – in a field across from a tomato farm can do it, then what’s your excuse?”