
By Danny Chan
“We work with a professional outfit, not a sweatshop,” says Bradley Donald, of his company’s outsource relationship with an overseas dental laboratory. With a resigned expression, the 29-year-old dental technician relates how some industry sceptics have taken a negative view of local labs like his, that send work outside of Australia. Perhaps the most prevalent of such attitudes, Bradley confides, presumes a lack of quality assurance associated with overseas contractors. Other more outlandish complaints hint at sweatshop scenarios, conjuring images of whip-cracking supervisors and overworked dental mechanics.
Countering such under-informed biases, fellow technician Angelo Liakos clarifies:
“The biggest misconception about outsourcing is that they are sweatshops and they use sub-standard materials. Don’t get me wrong, there are labs that deliver second-rate work but such labs exists overseas as well as here in Australia. There is no disputing that fact.
“From our point of view, we experienced first-hand the professionalism and quality output of an overseas outsource lab. Both Bradley and I have enough experience to recognise a professional dental lab for what it is.”
Despite their youthful appearances, Angelo (aged 39) and Bradley are both highly experienced and qualified dental technicians. Between them, the former colleagues at a high-end dental laboratory have benched some 20,000 cases and accumulated 29 years of lab experience: 15 for Angelo; 14 for Bradley.