Dental Technician?

What kind of work they do? is it paid more or less than dental assistance? is it hot job?

Dental Technician?
Dental laboratory technicians are responsible for many of the big smiles we see on people’s faces--literally.





Working from dentists’ prescriptions and impressions of patients’ teeth and mouths, dental laboratory technicians make and repair all sorts of dental prosthetics, including crowns, bridges, braces, and dentures. These prosthetics are used to replace lost or missing teeth, resulting in good-looking man-made teeth that are indistinguishable from the real ones bestowed by nature.








Here’s how it work. First, dentists send specifications of the item to be fabricated along with an impression or mold of a patient’s mouth or teeth. Dental technicians then create a model of the patient’s mouth by pouring plaster into the impression and allowing it to set. Next, they place the model on an apparatus that mimics the bite and movement of a patient’s jaw, and the resulting model serves as the basis of the prosthetic device.





Technicians then examine the model, noting the size and shape of the adjacent teeth, as well as gaps within the gum line. Based on these observations and the dentist’s specifications, technicians build and shape a wax model of the tooth or teeth needed, using small hand instruments called wax spatulas and wax carvers. They use this wax model to cast the metal framework for the prosthetic device. They then apply porcelain layers to these metal frames, arriving at the precise shape and color of a tooth. They bake their porcelain handiwork in a furnace and further adjust shape and color, grinding and adding porcelain to achieve a sealed finish.





If this all sounds a bit like traditional artistic sculpting, it should. Dental technicians are very much artists whose work must appear totally natural when it finally gets to be "installed" in the mouth.





In small laboratories technicians perform all stages of the work on a variety of products. In larger laboratories they usually specialize in one kind of appliance or one part of the manufacturing process.








How they spend their time:





Building and shaping models of teeth





Casting metal frameworks for the prostheses and applying porcelain or other materials to them to make the actual prosthesis





Coloring, shaping, and grinding to match the prosthesis to the patient's real ones





Using gold and platinum wire to make wire frames for dentures





Making braces, retainers, and other orthodontic appliances





Yearly Income: $ 75000 and up
Reply:The title Dental Technician and Dental Assistant has a different meaning from Country to Country and from State to State. Mel gave a good description of a Dental Lab Technician. That salary she quoted will vary from place to place with experience and location. I would visit a Dental Office and ask to observe a chair side Dental Assistant performing her various duties for a day or two. Do the same at a Dental Lab. Also find out the training required, then determine just what it is you want to do. The jobs can be as different as being an OR Nurse or a watch repairman.

slippers