Occupational Employment Statistics
51-9081 Dental Laboratory Technicians
Construct and repair full or partial dentures or dental appliances. Excludes “Dental Assistants" (31-9091).
| Manufacturing | 430 | $24.54/hr |
| Education and Health Services | N/A | N/A |
| Public Administration | N/A | N/A |
- Read prescriptions or specifications and examine models or impressions to determine the design of dental products to be constructed.
- Test appliances for conformance to specifications and accuracy of occlusion, using articulators and micrometers.
- Apply porcelain paste or wax over prosthesis frameworks or setups, using brushes and spatulas.
- Fabricate, alter, or repair dental devices, such as dentures, crowns, bridges, inlays, or appliances for straightening teeth.
- Build and shape wax teeth, using small hand instruments and information from observations or dentists' specifications.
- Place tooth models on apparatus that mimics bite and movement of patient's jaw to evaluate functionality of model.
- Remove excess metal or porcelain and polish surfaces of prostheses or frameworks, using polishing machines.
- Prepare metal surfaces for bonding with porcelain to create artificial teeth, using small hand tools.
- Load newly constructed teeth into porcelain furnaces to bake the porcelain onto the metal framework.
- Load newly constructed teeth into porcelain furnaces to bake the porcelain onto the metal framework.