Terms of service

1. Who these terms are between

These terms form the agreement between Benchside Dental (“Benchside”, “we”, “us”) and the dental practice holding the account (“the practice”, “you”). They apply to every case submitted through the portal and to use of the portal itself. Accepting these terms, or submitting a case, binds the practice.

Our relationship is business to business. We do not contract with patients, do not advise patients, and take no instruction from them. A restoration is made to the written prescription of a licensed dentist and to nobody else’s direction.

Where we have signed a separate written agreement with you — a business associate agreement, or a rate agreement — that document governs its own subject matter and these terms cover everything else.

2. Scope of service

We supply custom-made dental devices — fixed, implant, removable, appliance and digital work as listed in the catalogue — made to your written prescription for one named patient of yours, together with the case record described in clause 11.

What we do not provide: diagnosis, treatment planning as a clinical decision, patient care, or any service requiring a dental licence in your state. Guidance we give on materials, spans, clearance or design is technical advice about fabrication. It is not a clinical opinion, and it does not move clinical responsibility from you to us.

Not every item in the catalogue is orderable today. What your account can order, and at what price, is shown on your pricing page in the portal. Items still being priced are marked as such rather than quoted.

3. Where your work is made

Benchside does not operate its own bench. Manufacturing is performed by Lumina Dental Laboratory, our exclusive manufacturing partner, at its laboratory in Egypt. We state this in our terms, on our quality page, on the pouch label in the box, and on the case record in your portal, because a practice is entitled to know where its work is made before it sends us a patient rather than afterwards.

Lumina is the only laboratory we use. We are not a broker placing your case with whichever bench quotes lowest that week.

What that means for you, in practice:

• Your contract is with us. You order from Benchside, are invoiced by Benchside, and claim under the warranty against Benchside. You are not asked to pursue a laboratory overseas.
• We set the specification. Every case passes a named scan-review stage before it enters production, and the review decision, the QC photographs and the dispatch are all written to your case timeline.
• One bench. Your cases are made at the same laboratory, case after case, which is what makes a turnaround figure and a shade match repeatable rather than lucky.
• The laboratory is named on your case record, permanently, and on the pouch label that ships with the work — in every state, whether or not your state requires the disclosure.
• Protected health information leaves the United States. Clause 6 and the privacy notice set out what is sent, what is not, and on what terms.
• Freight and any import duty are ours. See clause 10.

Exclusivity is an arrangement between Benchside and Lumina, not a promise that it can never change. If we ever add a second manufacturing partner, the case record will name whichever laboratory made your case, and this clause will be updated before the first case is placed there — not afterwards.

4. Accounts and access

• Accounts are opened for a verified dental practice. We may require evidence of professional licensure or state registration before provisioning access, and we may decline an application without giving a reason.
• Each team member must hold their own credentials. Shared logins defeat the case audit trail and are not permitted.
• You are responsible for keeping credentials secure, for everything done under them, and for telling us promptly if you believe an account has been compromised.
• You are responsible for removing access for team members who leave. Tell us and we will act on it the same business day.
• The portal is provided for placing and tracking cases with us. It is not offered as a general record system and must not be relied on as your patient record of origin.

5. Prescriptions and clinical responsibility

The prescription you submit is the specification of the device and part of its regulatory record. It must be complete, accurate, and given by a person entitled to prescribe in your state.

What you are responsible for

• Diagnosis, treatment planning, the suitability of the restoration for the patient, and informed consent.
• Preparation design, margin placement, occlusal clearance, and the adequacy of the scan.
• Try-in, adjustment, cementation, occlusal equilibration and post-delivery care.
• Confirming, before it is seated, that the case as delivered matches what you prescribed.

What we are responsible for

• Manufacture to the prescription, in the material specified, to the design you approved where approval is part of the workflow.
• Reviewing the scans and telling you — naming the tooth, the surface and the reason — where they cannot produce a restoration that will seat.
• Traceability of every patient-contact material by manufacturer, product and lot, recorded against the case in your portal.

If we flag a problem and you instruct us to proceed anyway, we will proceed and record your instruction on the case. Work produced under that instruction sits outside the remake warranty.

6. Protected health information

Your practice is a covered entity under HIPAA. In handling prescriptions, scans and patient references on your behalf, Benchside is your business associate within the meaning of 45 CFR §160.103.

• Before we accept protected health information we sign a business associate agreement with your practice. That agreement is drafted and is with counsel; ask us for its current status before you send a case. Where the BAA and these terms differ on the handling of PHI, the BAA governs.
• Our manufacturing partner is a subcontractor under 45 CFR §164.308(b)(2), and a subcontractor agreement binding it to the same obligations we owe you is drafted and with counsel. It carries the restrictions on use and disclosure and the duty to report a breach to us — the same rule we apply to ourselves in the paragraph above. Ask us for its current status before you send a case.
• PHI is transferred outside the United States to that subcontractor, in Egypt, for the purpose of manufacturing your case. HIPAA does not prohibit offshore disclosure by a business associate, but it does require it to be governed — which is why it is disclosed here and contracted for in writing rather than left to be discovered. Some states restrict offshore handling of patient data, some Medicaid managed-care contracts prohibit it, and Medicare Advantage plans generally require attestations about offshore subcontractors. Checking those is your call to make, not ours, and we will give you the disclosure and the subcontractor terms you need to make it. If any of them prohibits offshore processing, tell us before opening an account: we cannot supply you without it, and either of us may end the arrangement without penalty if it comes to apply later.
• We ask for the minimum. A chart reference of your own choosing is enough to place a case. We do not ask for dates of birth, addresses, contact details, insurance or payer identifiers, or medical history beyond what the restoration requires, and we ask you not to send them.
• Breach notification is handled as the BAA requires. We will notify you without unreasonable delay on discovering a breach of unsecured PHI, with what we know and what we are doing about it.

Full detail of what is collected, where it is stored, how long it is kept and who it is shared with is in the privacy notice.

7. Scan files and design data

You retain ownership of the scan files and clinical records you upload. You grant us a non-exclusive licence to use them to design, manufacture, verify, document and — where required — remake the device, and to retain them as part of the device record. That licence includes passing them to our manufacturing partner under clause 3.

We retain the design files we produce and may reuse them to remake the same restoration for the same patient. We do not use your case data to train models, do not sell it, and do not disclose it to other accounts on the platform.

8. Turnaround, bench time and transit

Published turnaround figures are business days at the bench and exclude transit. The laboratory clock starts when a case is approved into production at the review step, not when it is submitted.

Transit is quoted separately, as a band per region, on the shipping page. Bands are estimates given by reference to carrier performance. Customs holds, carrier failure, severe weather and other events outside our reasonable control are not turnaround commitments we can make. Rush service compresses laboratory time only.

Where a promised completion date has to move, we will say so on the case, with the reason, rather than letting the date pass in silence.

9. Warranty and remakes

Every restoration carries the warranty term published for that product, running from delivery, on the terms set out in full on the warranty page. That page, including its exclusions, is incorporated into these terms.

In summary: where a failure is ours, the remake and the freight in both directions are ours, and the remake enters production ahead of new work. Where it is not, the remake is chargeable at your account’s rate for that restoration, quoted before any work starts. The original restoration must be returned to us for a warranty claim, because a failure that cannot be examined cannot be diagnosed or prevented.

The warranty covers the restoration. It does not cover chair time, patient compensation, the underlying tooth or implant, or treatment performed by others. Nothing in this clause limits a right you have under law that cannot be limited by contract.

10. Prices, invoicing and payment

• Prices are those set out in the rate card in force for your account, which we provide in writing when the account opens and again whenever it changes. They are wholesale figures in US dollars, per the unit shown for that item, and are delivered: freight and any import duty are ours and are never added to your invoice. The figure we quote you is the figure you pay. How a price is arrived at, and the volume ladder that governs it, are published on the pricing page.
• Prices are exclusive of any sales or use tax. Prescription dental prostheses are exempt in most US states, and we do not currently charge tax on any line. Where we are required to collect it, it will appear as its own line and will never be folded into a unit price.
• A case is priced on the day it is dispatched, at the rate in force that day, and that figure is fixed onto the invoice. A later change to any rate card never rewrites work already sent or an invoice already issued.
• Invoices are issued monthly in arrears, dated the first of the following month, covering the work dispatched in the month just closed, and are payable by the end of the 7th of that month.
• Undisputed amounts unpaid after the due date may attract interest at 1.5% per month (18% per annum), or the maximum rate permitted by applicable law if that is lower, accruing from the due date until paid.
• Raise a disputed line within 30 days of the invoice date. We will hold the disputed amount while we look at it, and the rest of the invoice remains payable. The case record — scans received, review decision, materials, QC photographs, dispatch — is the evidence we will both work from.
• Persistent non-payment may lead to suspension of new case intake under clause 13. Cases already in production will be completed and delivered.

11. Regulatory documentation

Each case carries, on its record in your portal, a statement of materials naming every patient-contact material by manufacturer, product and lot number, and the point of origin — the laboratory that made it. Both remain retrievable there, and the laboratory is named on the pouch label in the box. A case is not dispatched with the materials record empty. We do not enclose a printed statement of materials with the shipment; if your state or your own policy requires one on paper, tell us and we will agree how to supply it.

A custom-made restoration made for one named patient to a licensed dentist’s written prescription is a custom device. It does not carry FDA clearance, and no laboratory can lawfully claim that it does. That exemption is from premarket clearance only — not from quality systems, labelling, traceability or complaint handling. Our approach to each is described on the quality and compliance page.

Retaining this documentation as part of your own patient record is your responsibility. We keep our copy for the periods stated in the privacy notice.

12. Liability and indemnity

We are liable for the manufacture of the device: that it is made to the prescription, from the material specified, free of manufacturing defect, and documented as required. That liability is discharged principally through the warranty and remake policy in clause 9.

Except for matters that cannot lawfully be limited — including death or personal injury caused by our negligence, and fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation — and to the fullest extent permitted by law:

• We are not liable for clinical outcomes, for the suitability of a treatment plan, or for the condition or survival of the underlying tooth, implant or supporting tissue.
• We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, loss of profit or goodwill, or the cost of chair time, patient refunds or compensation, or treatment performed by others.
• Our aggregate liability arising out of any single case is limited to the amount invoiced to you for that case, and our aggregate liability across all claims in any twelve-month period is limited to the total amount invoiced to you in the twelve months before the first such claim.
• Neither party is liable for failure or delay caused by events outside its reasonable control, though a party affected must tell the other promptly and do what it reasonably can to limit the effect.

You will indemnify us against claims brought by a patient or a third party to the extent they arise from your diagnosis, treatment planning, clinical technique, consent process, or from a prescription that was inaccurate or given by a person not entitled to give it. We will indemnify you against claims to the extent they arise from a manufacturing defect in a device we supplied, subject to the limits above.

13. Suspension and termination

Either party may close the account on notice. There is no minimum term, no volume commitment and no termination fee. Cases already in production will be completed, delivered and invoiced normally.

We may suspend access where an account is being used in breach of these terms, where credentials appear compromised, or where undisputed invoices are materially overdue. We will tell you why, and what will lift the suspension.

Clauses 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 15 survive closure. After closure we retain the device and financial records described in the privacy notice. You may request an export of your case history at any time, before or after closing the account.

14. Changes to these terms

We will update this page when the terms change, and will notify account holders by email of material changes rather than amending the page quietly and moving the date. Changes take effect for cases submitted after the stated effective date. Continuing to submit cases after that date is acceptance.

15. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Quebec and the laws of Canada applicable there, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. The courts of the judicial district of Montreal have jurisdiction, save that either party may seek injunctive relief in any court of competent jurisdiction.

Nothing in this clause deprives you of the protection of any mandatory rule of the law of the state in which your practice is located that cannot be varied by agreement.

Before filing, each party will raise the dispute in writing with the other and give it thirty days to be resolved between us. Most disagreements about a case are settled by opening the case record, which is why it is kept.

If any provision is held unenforceable, the rest continues in force. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it.

16. Contact

Questions about these terms, or about an invoice: support@benchsidedental.com. Case and clinical enquiries: cases@benchsidedental.com. Case desk hours: Case desk open Sunday 18:00 – Friday 13:00 Eastern.

Benchside Dental is a sole proprietorship established in Quebec, Canada, and supplies dental practices in the United States. Full legal and contact details of the proprietor are available on request.