Dentist and laboratory: a "love-hate" relationship.

The author's intent has been to promote a close working relationship between the dentist and the technician. Certainly, McCracken was doing that when he said that he hoped they could "work together in proper sequence to develop restorations that are biologically and mechanically sound and to produce removable partial dentures that reflect continuous progress in prosthetic dentistry". That's the secret. The dentist and the technician should work together and in proper sequence. Too often dental education and the dental profession have seemed to espouse the idea that the technician must function as an automaton in the fabrication of removable partial dentures. The practitioner of general dentistry can certainly ask for ideas and suggestions from the technician and still control the ultimate outcome. The dentist can share thoughts with the technician to ameliorate the "love-hate" relationship and still be responsible for the removable partial denture treatment.