D&S Dental Laboratory’s Waunakee headquarters remains the only laboratory in Wisconsin to receive DAMAS accreditation. D&S has held the designation since 2015. The Dental Appliance Manufacturers Audit System (DAMAS) is an annually inspected quality management system designed specifically for dental laboratories. It is offered by the National Association of Dental Laboratories as an alternative to ISO Certification and closely mirrors the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Quality System/Good Manufacturing Practices.

The DAMAS specifications provide a clear cut process for improving documentation in every facet of laboratory operations including: dental prescriptions/work authorizations; patient contact materials; subcontractor/supplier agreements; material and equipment purchases; employee training; maintenance and calibration of equipment; labeling; customer complaints; and material traceability.

A laboratory can incorporate DAMAS by following the published guidelines to improve quality assurance. A laboratory can utilize the services of a DAMAS approved trainer/consultant to train the laboratory and its personnel on how to fully integrate the system into day-to-day operations. Once your laboratory has integrated the processes, the laboratory must go through a third party audit to ensure compliance with the DAMAS specification standards. This gives your laboratory outside verification that the business is doing what it intends to do relative to quality assurance.

The DAMAS Standard was originally introduced in the mid nineties as an alternative to ISO Certification. The National Association of Dental Laboratories (NADL) owns the rights to the DAMAS system in North American and offers the system to the industry for the purpose of providing a pre-packaged quality assurance system to help raise standards within the industry.