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Corporate Profile: LSK121

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As a dental lab technician and owner, Luke Kahng, CDT, has heard repeatedly from clinicians around the world that the main struggle they face with fixed restorations is unnatural appearance. Contour and marginal integrity are basic concepts that should be expected from your dental lab (and even so, it’s pretty easy to have an adjustment made), but what about color and natural concepts like balance, harmony and blending?

For years, Kahng, whose ambition is to create the most natural restorations, wasn’t able to find a good solution to those queries with the products that were available in the marketplace. His quest took him many places, with hours of classes, self-education, experimentation and research going into his exploration for answers.

There is one thing we all know for sure: if a clinician prescribes an A-1 crown, he will get an A-1 crown in return. Is that natural? How can you improve on this formula?
Luke Kahng, CDT, Owner, LSK121 Oral Prosthetics
When we use a traditional shade tab, we are working with 4 to 5mm of composite color. And yet, as technicians, we work everyday with porcelain ceramic dentin color. The value with that material is high. This means that we are comparing apples to oranges, so to speak, because the two materials produce two different results in appearance. The key answer is in the enamel overlay process. How that is applied changes everything about the color but it must be chosen properly.

Rather than keeping these findings to himself, Kahng has published more than 50 articles in many dental journals, has written three books that deal with the natural appearance of teeth, and recently created the Chair Side Shade Selection Guide and Simple Enamel and Prep Color Guide. He speaks nationally for GC America and is one of the company’s top key opinion leaders. His porcelain of choice is GC Initial Porcelain system because he has “never been able to achieve such aesthetic results with any other product.” Kahng operates via the philosophy of “you get back whatever you give, so why not give as much of your knowledge and experience to those who are interested in learning as possible?” Any practicing clinician is aware of the challenges he or she has faced in establishing a reputation as a caring and trustworthy doctor. Patients talk, and it’s widely recognized that they are your best referral base. So how do you keep them loyal to you? Aside from the obvious answers – friendly office staff and hygienic surroundings – what else can you do?

In Kahng’s opinion, and from a lab standpoint, the answer is easy: offer them the best in their restorations. This is why they invented their own shade guide. Dentaltown Magazine recently spoke with Kahng to learn more about his lab, LSK121 Oral Prosthetics, his drive toward creating the most aesthetic and natural-looking restorations for his clients, and what it takes to create these kinds of patient-pleasing results.

First of all, Luke, why did you choose to pursue a career as a certified dental technician?
Kahng: When I was a young man, I had a relative in South Korea who worked in the dental field as a technician. His discussions about the work motivated me to learn more and consequently pursue it as a career. I began the process in South Korea but moved to the United States one year later to obtain a better education. That was 21 years ago and I have been here ever since.

Please tell us about the history of LSK121 Oral Prosthetics. When did you form the company? Why did you decide to start your own lab?
Kahng: I’ve studied with many excellent, world renowned technicians in the course of my education. I even had a series of private lessons in order to develop my skills to the highest they could be. Every one of the technicians I studied with gave me something valuable in my education. I wanted to take each of the good things they had to offer individually, incorporate them into my business plan, and thus utilize the values they taught me. I did that by starting my own dental lab.

LSK121 was originally formed in 1996 under the name Capital Dental Technology Laboratory, Inc. We have always been located in Naperville, Illinois, but have moved several times as the company grew in size. We came to our current location in July 2006. In 2008, I renamed the company LSK121 Oral Prosthetics. LSK stands for my initials and 121 is a number with personal meaning to me. It reminds me to always stand behind my word and my business.

You’ve written several articles and even three books on the importance of shade matching. Why is shade matching so important to you?
Kahng: Everybody wants natural looking restorations but I have noticed time and again that most don’t have that appearance. This is because traditional shade tabs, our standard tool, do not match with the innate color in teeth. It has bothered me for a long time. In fact, I think it’s a concern for many in the field. Dentists want to be proud of the work they do for their patients, but they feel less than satisfied when the crowns they cement don’t match the adjacent teeth. By the same token, my colleagues are dealing with a similar problem when they are prescribed an A1, A2, B1, single shade, crown. They know it doesn’t look natural, but they are just following the prescription. So what is the answer?

I put my passion for color into this question and began to heavily research the solution. The articles and books I’ve written, and my Chair Side Shade Selection Guide shading tool, are all a result of this investigation. Whatever I discover is passed on to my readers and I hope it motivates them to seek clarification. In the process, if they try my solutions and the results give them pride, happiness and confidence in their work, I have accomplished my goal.

As a Ceramist, my eyes are my livelihood. My pride in my work has always come first. I’ve tested my theories, failed and retested them until I got the answer I was seeking. My reputation wasn’t established over night. It came from years of ardent research and development. I sleep well at night knowing that I am working hard to offer some of the best products made in the USA. I value this country and everything it stands for.

Tell me about the process in developing your Chair Side Shade Selection Guide. How much research did it take to put the guide together? Other than for aesthetic purposes, why did you develop this guide?
Kahng: Years ago, as I became even more serious about my quest for answers, I began to take very detailed notes and photographs about what I saw in patients’ mouths. With variations by age, I noticed that most of the characteristics I saw in their natural teeth were repeated over and over again. I thought this information was worth sharing.

By the time I finished my research, I had hundreds of documented patient cases, photographs and notes. Because we have a full working operatory in our custom shade room, I am even able to see many patients in my lab. I took the collected information, created more than 100 zirconia restorations to fit these characteristics, photographed and categorized them, and turned them into my Chair Side Shade Selection Guide. The reason I know I can guarantee results with this system is because I did this ceramic work. There were no computer programs involved.

My hope was that the information in those pages would be useful to most everyone in the field who had ever tried to take a patient’s shade. The goal is to have all dental patients look like they have been given a high-end, custom crown that matches with their adjacent teeth.

A few doctors have said it’s too much information and, yes, if you compare this shade guide to a traditional shade tab, it is more than what we’re all used to doing. However, we’ve had positive feedback from doctors both nationally and internationally. The important thing to note is that the Chair Side Shade Selection Guide duplicates natural teeth color exactly. Once you become used to using it, you will have a clear understanding about that concept and this system.

In order for the guide to work, the person using it must understand enamel modification. It changes the tooth value and hue and is the real difference in creating natural looking restorations – zirconia or metal, either one. When you grow used to that concept, it‘s a wonderful feeling! You understand natural teeth color! Enamel overlay, along with translucency modification, makes a fake crown look natural because it changes the translucency and cervical integrity.

Your shade guide helps with communication between practices and labs, but with so much shade variation in the restorations, does it take longer to produce them?
Kahng: No. A technician should just use his regular base color traditional shade tab and then prescribe the enamel modification or occlusion stain and translucency modification. It’s a new way of thinking, that’s all, because it’s simply an addition to what we’ve already been doing. Our LSK121 lab technicians are qualified to create these restorations because they follow the codes the doctor prescribes. We have mixed and produced our own porcelain recipes, using the GC Initial Porcelain System, in order to accommodate these modifications for perfect final results.

What can you guarantee dentists who choose to work with your lab?
Kahng: Dentists will be assigned three technicians per case based on their prescription Rx code numbers. This way, when a technician goes on vacation or is out for a sick day, we are assured that there are other technicians who are familiar with the case. In addition, one of these technicians is assigned to the quality control responsibility for the case to ensure that the results are what the doctor ordered. By handling cases this way, we assure ourselves and the clinicians that we are providing the best possible quality control and a customized restoration regarding occlusion, tooth morphology interproximal contact, marginal integrity and color.

Our technicians complete the work they are assigned using the LSK format, outlined in our Twenty Technician Training Manuals. These manuals are the result of a high-end concept taught only to LSK employees. They are divided into two categories: 10 Production and 10 Technical manuals.

Once a technician has mastered the Production or Guidebook techniques outlined in those ten manuals, he is ready to advance and master the Technical system. This area of expertise covers the following 10 subjects:
  • Impression, prep and margin design
  • Material selection
  • Wax-up and frame design
  • Implants parts ordering
  • Teeth contour
  • Porcelain build-up
  • Polish and glaze
  • Stain technique
  • Occlusion
  • Departmental quality control
All instruction manuals have been written based on my personal philosophy and hands-on teaching techniques.

What about tooth morphology? Have you addressed this subject at all?
Kahng: Yes, as a matter of fact, I have. Early in 2009 I published a book entitled Anatomy from Nature. One of our doctors, Dr. David Schubert of Plainsfield, Illinois, frequently travels to Haiti doing donated dental work and he gives me extracted natural teeth to study. Because of my interest – some would say obsession – with this subject, I examine them, dissect them and attempt to duplicate them by age, the worn aspect of the cusps, direction of occlusion groove, and application of detailed color modification.

In this process, I found myself interested in creating and articulating my own 28 porcelain teeth, fabricated from the full anatomy contoured wax-up I created first based entirely on these findings. After creating the wax-up, I duplicated the wax-up by creating study stone models. These models have since become our employee training tools regarding tooth morphology, which ensures predictability in their work.

I then fabricated my 28 porcelain restorations from root to incisal edge, using GC Initial IQ Porcelain. They were photographed as a full rehabilitation case, then by quadrant and then individually.

The resulting images were made into a book, and are modeled as a guide for technicians who wish to fabricate exact duplicates of natural teeth (following height of cusp, buccal lingual contours and occlusion morphology exactly). As a teaching tool, it is unique.

For more information about LSK121 Oral Prosthetics, visit www.lsk121.com, www.lsk121resources.com, or call 888-405-1238.
Dentaltown Magazine
October 2025
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