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Restoring Quality of Life

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COMMUNITY CALENDAR

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

Tucked away in a nondescript building near the Chico Airport sits ChromeWorks, a business that is just about as under the radar as the building it occupies. Though the business and the building shy away from being flashy, their products and services are flashed on the smiles of faces all over the country and certainly right here at home. Jerry Robinson, a master technician with over 32 years in the dental industry, opened the business 30 years ago to manufacture and provide dental solutions to individuals in need. Since then, the company has grown by leaps and bounds, expanding multiple times before moving into its 6,500-square-foot custom-designed facility at the Chico Municipal Airport. Now home to five additional master technicians and 17 other highly skilled and trained technicians, along with an abundance of state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment, the company is poised to continue its meteoric growth trajectory and expand into new product categories. As Jerry and his team will be the first to tell you, they couldn’t be more excited to do just that.

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“It’s true most people have no idea that we’re here.” Jerry laughs as he guides me through their maze-like headquarters, “We’re one of the older businesses in the area, but we’ve kept a pretty low profile. We figured, after recently celebrating our 30th anniversary, that it was time to let the public know we’re here! So many people use our products locally each and every day, but they have no idea those products were made right here in Chico.”

For the past 30 years, Chromeworks has manufactured dental frames that provide the foundation for a wide assortment of dental products necessary in bridgework, implants, bite opening, and dentures. They’ve also created a number of supplemental products like gingival masks and talon splints that help dental professionals provide better quality and more natural-looking dental restorations that last longer. “Quality is everything to us,” Jerry says, “and we do everything we can to ensure that each and every piece that leaves our facility is perfect. So many of our products are created by hand, and every frame that leaves our lab is inspected by either myself or Debbie Garcia, ChromeWorks’ general manager. Quality and attention to detail really matter when it comes to dental work, and we built this facility to ensure both.”

ChromeWorks’ headquarters not only provides quality and attention to detail but efficiency and sustainability as well. What seems like a maze happens to be a perfectly orchestrated and positioned workflow crucial to the productivity of this type of work. Workstations are positioned for a circular flow of product development, providing technicians the ability to safely and efficiently hand off projects from one technician to the next. Custom materialhandling equipment, developed by Jerry and his engineers, provide his team with an easier method of pouring heavy bags of mold into larger hoppers. Self-filling sinks eliminate handling errors, and water-cooling equipment keeps molds at 41 degrees, cutting the time to cure each project in more than half. These features dramatically improve the final quality and fit of each item they create. Finally, their massive solar array ensures the facility is powered as sustainably as possible each and every day. To say this production facility was painstakingly designed to optimize efficiency would be an understatement. Jerry says, “There’s a high attrition rate of dental labs all over the country with much of the work going overseas to cut costs. We’ve taken every measure possible and made significant investments in the company to ensure work stays right here in Chico to do right by our employees and support our local community.”

Garcia feels passionately about just that, saying, “Most labs went digital, but the product doesn’t fit as well, and that’s an important distinction for something that’s going to be in your mouth all day. Just a seed temporarily wedged in your tooth can drive you crazy—imagine an ill-fitting semi-permanent mouthpiece. We even went digital and quickly learned there was a significant difference, so we switched back. We’re now the only large lab doing everything by hand. It’s a huge thing for us, and our employees make that possible. Each position at ChromeWorks is a highlyskilled position, and we crosstrain each employee in-house in every position. We don’t care if they went to school previously, have a degree, or anything else. If they’re interested in learning and being an active and contributing member of the team, we’ll teach them everything they need to know.”

Debbie moved to Chico from San Jose in 2006 after being headhunted by Jerry. Having worked as a dental technician since 1976, she was the perfect candidate for the position, and as Jerry is quick to mention, he couldn’t have asked for a better individual to manage the business. “She knows everything there is to know about what we do here.” Jerry says, “More importantly, she cares—not just about the quality of the products we create but also about the quality of living for each member of our team. That kind of dual focus is difficult to find these days.”

Restoration is an art form, and a company that cares about creating realistic restorations that are nearly indistinguishable from the real thing requires an artistic touch. That creativity is delivered in spades by Michele DeVor, a breast cancer survivor who is helping ChromeWorks blend the worlds of art and medicine. A graphic designer by trade, Michele began working at ChromeWorks and soon found her calling in starting a new division for the company in nipple prostheses. “I’ve always been interested in medical arts.” Michele says, “We had the equipment to create something unique that was desperately needed, and I was passionate in providing breast cancer survivors with something that looked and felt real, just like our dental products do. It can sometimes take years after surviving breast cancer for a patient to be ready for reconstructive surgery. In the meantime, they often look at themselves in a mirror feeling disfigured or incomplete. It affects everything—your sense of self, your confidence, everything. After going through the treatments and surviving, patients just want to get back to life as usual, and many women will wear a prosthetic nipple after surgery until they become eligible for reconstruction. I did my research, and the items I found on the market looked generic and not at all life-like, so I decided to take my eye for art and make something better. It took a few months to do it, and I created all of the molds by stone, so there was considerable trial and error, but it was worth it in the end.”

One look at Michele’s creations next to others that are widely available on the market is enough to make that judgment for yourself—the difference between the two is night and day. Michele’s nipple prostheses are so life-like, they are nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. They are applied with a medical-grade adhesive so they can be put on or taken off as needed and are purely cosmetic. They are also seamless and blend naturally with the skin; as there’s no ridge along the edge, it’s almost impossible to tell where the skin ends and the prosthetic begins. One year into the project, Michele now creates everything digitally, designing each piece in 3D. With eight base colors, she is able to mix as needed to create a perfect match, and although she does provide custom work to perfectly match a remaining nipple in a single mastectomy, she also creates plenty of ready-to-purchase options on Etsy and Amazon for double mastectomies.

“There’s so much more we can do with this new division of the company.” Michele smiles, “I’m looking forward to eventually creating fingers, toes, noses, ears, and more to help doctors provide those who have lost a part of their body feel whole again. It takes a lot of time and effort to develop each piece, but the gift we’re able to give those in despair is worth every moment of it.”

ChromeWorks is currently looking to expand and train five more individuals interested in joining its incredible team of talented and passionate technicians. For more information on ChromeWorks or to apply for one of their available positions, visit them online at www.ChromeWorksInc.com or give them a call at (530) 343-2278

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