Labline Whitening Trays: Who Makes Them? We Do ! …and We Still Finish Every One by Hand

Introduction

More than 30 years ago, when teeth whitening and custom tray whitening was only just finding its way into UK practices, we along with Optident Dental Solutions set up Labline, the first dental laboratory in Britain dedicated solely to making Bleaching trays or Whitening trays as they became known.

A lot has changed since then. Impressions have largely given way to scans. Models come off a printer rather than out of a plaster room. Plenty of other labs now make these..

We don't. Every tray that leaves our lab in Ripon is still trimmed and finished by hand, then checked by a GDC-registered technician before it goes out. That isn't because we're stuck in our ways. It's because I've seen what a badly finished edge does.

A bleaching tray is never “just a tray”. A sharp or rough border rubs the gum. Then the patient is back in your chair for an adjustment, or they quietly stop wearing it. A poor seal lets gel leak onto the gingiva and get swallowed. Either way, the whitening doesn't do what it should, and nobody's happy.

It's a question dentists ask fairly often, and the answer is us. Ambridge Ceramics is the sole manufacturer of Optident's Labline bleaching trays, and we make thousands of them for practices right across the UK.

Labline has always been built on the things we care about: a good, tight fit, clean borders and reservoirs exactly where they're meant to be.

I get asked this a lot. The thinner, more fluid gels (often the cheaper ones) need a straight-trimmed margin that sits on the gum, otherwise the gel simply runs out. Thicker gels stay where you put them, so a scalloped margin following the gingival line works well.

Reservoirs do two jobs. They hold the gel, and they show the patient exactly where to put it, which helps more than you'd think.

If you're not sure what suits the system you use, give us a ring and we'll talk it through.

We accept intraoral scans from all the main systems, including 3Shape, iTero, Carestream and Medit, as well as traditional alginate or silicone impressions. This is what happens to your case:

So it's digital where it saves time, and hands where it makes the difference.

As with every custom-made device we produce, each tray goes out with a Patient Statement. We're registered with the MHRA (Reg. 5775) and DAMAS (Reg. 040111).

You can keep ordering through Optident Labline as normal, or come to us direct. Send your STL through your scanner's portal, or ring the lab on 01765 607347 to arrange a collection or just talk through how you like your trays done.