Bill Williams has been bringing the smiles back to people's faces since 1948.

The owner of Williams Dental Lab on South Jasper Street started working on what would become his full-service crown, bridge, partial and denture business at the age of 20.

Now, Williams works each day with his daughter, Jill Taylor, who has been with the lab for 28 years, and his two grandsons, Kevin and Tim Taylor, who have been working there 19 and 10 years, respectively. One other employee helps with clerical work and deliveries.

"They do beautiful partials," local dentist Carol Cunningham said, adding that she has been using the lab since she first came to town 25 years ago.

Cunningham said dentists in Decatur are fortunate to have several quality labs locally for them to send their work.

Kevin and Tim Taylor have dental technician and business school backgrounds, respectively. Their mother studied art in college and is certified in every porcelain application available.

Williams, whose specialty lies in dentures, said the work of a dental lab is both an art and a science.

"Usually in a denture, you try to get the warmth of their smile back if you can," he said, recalling an instance in which a dentist sent over two cases, hoping he could make two pairs of dentures for a husband and wife who were only in town for the weekend.

Williams said the dentist told him the husband and wife had both chosen the same set of teeth, and when they put the dentures in and smiled at each other, they had the same smile.

He says it's really an art to making false teeth look right. Rather than just crafting all sets of dentures the same, with perfectly straight white teeth, he said a little character in the mouth can make all the difference.

He adjusted some teeth on a chart of denture options he keeps in the office. A slight gap, he said, can return some of the joviality to a person's smile.

A masculine smile is different from a feminine smile, he said, adding that he's been studying teeth for years. Sending a picture of a person a few years back can also aid in the accuracy of creating a natural grin.

"I think the big thing is trust," Taylor said about why many dentists decide to use local labs. "It's the integrity that my father had with his work: that I have, that Kevin has, and that Tim has."

The advantage of dealing with an in-town lab, Williams said, is that if something goes wrong, the dentist can send the work back to have it corrected.

Jill Taylor has been known to have a patient come to the lab so she can more accurately match a porcelain shade, something for which she has a real knack, her father said.

"That's something that is a big issue," Williams said, adding that thinking of the patient and his or her satisfaction as well as the dentist's need for technical quality is something the lab's employees strive to do.

But several factors have caused the once 11-employee laboratory to decline to four full-time workers, employees said. Three generations of the Williams family now put in work each day. Jill said a point system the lab instituted several years ago eliminated some positions.

A decline in the crown business over the past few years could be caused by a combination of the outsourcing of crowns to China by some labs across the country and the ability of dentists to do their own work in their offices because of a computerized system.

"The Chinese can make a crown cheaper than we can buy the materials," Williams said.

Because of all-night assembly line production in Chinese factories, crowns can come back to the lab in as little as one day, Kevin Taylor said. The Williams lab needs at least five working days to complete a crown.

"There isn't quality there," he said. "That's the whole thing."

He said the lab had sent out a few test crowns to determine if the workmanship stood up to their standards. At one-fifth the price of making the crowns themselves, he said the lab had to try it out. What came back, his mother said, was shiny and pretty but generic in its craftsmanship.

"The anatomy looks like a crow's foot someone stamped out of it," Kevin said.

He said that quality matters to his family's business.

"It wasn't good enough to put in my mouth, so we couldn't sell it," he said.

Pride in their work and their place in the community has led the Williams lab to survive for more than 50 years.

"That's where I think we will survive," he said. "That's one thing we've got going for us right there."

The lab also is able to donate work each year for low-income patients who can't afford a denture or partial. Jill said the feeling of being able to help patients and give them a reason to talk, laugh and smile without hiding their teeth is a reward for her.

"You have to love your own work," she said.

Annie Getsinger can be reached at agetsinger@herald-review.com or 421-6968.