Tony Lopes: Dental CAD/CAM Milling Magic

Then one day a friend who worked at a large lab in southern California invited him to apply for a job there. This began his journey into the world of the 21st-century dental lab industry. He worked in some of the beginning phases of the emerging technologies, but his customer service skills were recognized, and he was moved into the customer service and sales departments for a few years.

But always, Tony's inner geek kept him curious about all of the technology that was being implemented. He self-directed himself into a position helping to develop some of the early zirconia mills and the associated technology workflows. He realized he was home, very excited to be involved in the evolution of CNC milling programs and part of the team that installed and trained hundreds of US labs how to implement technology into their labs.

Parallel to his emerging dental career, Tony developed another passion, that of performing magic. From the age of 8, Tony has studied magic. He enjoys mastering the “tricks,” but what he enjoys is engaging his audience. While working at a magic club in the Los Angeles area, Tony was invited by Lance Burton to audition for membership at the Magic Castle. Once a member, Tony was able to work on his magic and meet many famous magicians and celebrities, like Johnny Carson and Don Rickles (two of his favorites). Today Tony is still a member and can occasionally be found in a corner at the Castle performing close-up magic for visitors to the venue.

Tony joined the Burbank Team in 2012,  as manager of the CAD/CAM division, a department that had not existed too many years before he came on board. Tony put to work both his management skills and his geeky engineer side to further organize and develop a world-class technology department. Working with the Director of Technology, Andrew Sedler, they have developed a technology and training program to propel Burbank Dental Labs milling and printing initiatives to become one of the dentistry leaders in CAD/CAM dental restorations. This team produces implant abutments, milled zirconia restoration, guided surgery appliances, just to name a few. Competing with large labs of 1000s of employees, Tony has helped give a human touch to the high-tech side of dental technology. Tony helps Burbank Dental Lab perform CNC magic every day, to provide you with the world’s best dental restorations and appliances.