Nakanishi Dental Laboratory has been a purveyor of state-of-the-art dental technology and manufacturing for close to three-quarters of a century. In that time they’ve been a continuous supporter of dental education in the Pacific Northwest. Longtime president and owner, David Nakanishi, made the company’s first donation to the UW School of Dentistry back in 1982, and the company has consecutively donated each of the last 27 years.
Following David’s retirement in August 2023, his daughters, Megan and Kaila, now run Nakanishi Dental Lab as co-owners. The two have been carrying on their father’s tradition of donating, this year pledging the company’s third consecutive gift of $50,000. The relationship is a two-way street, as Nakanishi is one of the dental labs that the School relies on for clinical laboratory work in the predoctoral and postdoctoral clinics.
On top of their donations, Nakanishi routinely offers tours of their Bellevue lab (they have a second lab in Federal Way) to the School of Dentistry students, allowing them firsthand experience with their technology while providing transportation and dinner. “Since the first day I worked here, the [UW] School of Dentistry has been top of mind,” said Megan, who runs the business side of the operations. Kaila manages the laboratory operations.
“We love being able to work with the students, provide CDE courses, guest lectures, to host students here, even have them come work one-on-one on specific cases. The most fun thing we get to do is work with the dental students.”
Megan and Kaila didn’t visit their dad’s lab much growing up, and neither had aspirations to work in the dental field through college. But when they each took on part-time roles at the lab after graduating, they both fell in love with the industry, and the business, and worked hard to learn everything they could about it. Megan noted how much she enjoyed when the students visited at that time, since she was the same age as them, studying the same technology.
Nakanishi’s Customer Development Manager JR Dudley enjoys making himself available as a teaching resource for current and future dentists, like School of Dentistry students. He helps them learn more about digital dentistry and the technology that is becoming commonplace in dental offices.
“We’re excited to help educate wherever we can and help bridge the gap between the School and the lab,” said Dudley. “More and more dentists are going to be going into digital technologies right away, so the more we can help support them the better.”
This year, in the company’s 71st year in operation, Megan feels that the connection between Nakanishi Dental Lab and the UW School of Dentistry is stronger than ever. The lab looks forward to hosting more students, and to help educate the future dentists they will be working with across the Pacific Northwest. “We’re really proud to support the school and we’re really proud of our relationship,” said Megan. “We feel extremely positive about the direction that we’re both going in.”