Career Paths
Dental Lab Technician
Dental Lab Technicians are part artists and engineers. They typically construct and repair full or partial dentures and dental appliances. There are many jobs in the field, where they read prescriptions and examine models or impressions to determine the design of the dental product to be constructed. Some tasks include:
- Fabricating, altering, and repairing dental devices, such as dentures, crowns, bridges
- Build and shape wax teeth, using small hand instruments
- Constructing customized medical or dental devices
- Melt metals, mix plaster, porcelain, and acrylic pastes
CAD/CAM Lab Technician
Modeling Lab Technicians are part artists and model game designers. They typically create models of a patient’s mouth using the latest CAD/CAM software and then can get into 3D printing making molds, and working with a variety of materials. There are many jobs in the field, where they read specifications and examine models or impressions to determine the design of the dental product to be constructed. Some tasks include:
- Creating models of patient’s mouth by pouring plaster into dental impressions
- Working with a variety of metals, soldering irons, waxes, and acrylic resins, ceramics
- Working with Asiga 3D printers, Digital CAD/CAM, VHF R5, Roland 52-dc mill
Metal Waxer and Finisher
Metal Waxer and Finisher Technicians are highly motivated and creative artists. The job duties of a Wax and Metal Technician include performing diagnostic wax-up procedures and full-contour restorations. They get to complete the finishing of full gold crowns, bars, and full mouth cases. They get chances to solve problem cases and get to perform detailed instructions and procedures. You typically see a least a year of experience and require certifications.
Denture Technician
The duties of a denture technician involve working in a laboratory setting to fabricate dental prosthetics. In this career, they focus on the fabrication or the repair of dentures. Another name for someone in this specialty is a prosthodontics technician. Some duties include using plastics, metals, ceramics, and composite materials to create dentures with the help of a model and a mold of the patient’s mouth. They also create partial dentures that fasten onto existing teeth. They use welding, casting, and sanding tools, and responsibilities can include visualizing a design using computer-aided design (CAD) software.
Certified Dental Technician
Nationally Board Certified
The CDT designation is a great achievement and demonstrates a significant mastery of the knowledge and applied skills needed in dental technology. Technicians achieving this designation have demonstrated a competency not all of their peers will achieve. The CDT designation illustrates a technician’s commitment to the field of dental technology and demonstrates their knowledge in all six specialty areas. The pride of earning a CDT is personally rewarding and the CDT designation places the certificant among a group of individuals who are at the top of the dental technology profession. This group forms a basis for networking, professional recognition, friendships, and life-long learning.
