Dental Laboratory Technicians

Construct and repair full or partial dentures or dental appliances.

Job Task

• Rebuild or replace linings, wire sections, and missing teeth in order to repair dentures.
• Remove excess metal or porcelain, and polish surfaces of prostheses or frameworks, using polishing machines.
• Shape and solder wire and metal frames or bands for dental products, using soldering irons and hand tools.
• Test appliances for conformance to specifications and accuracy of occlusion, using articulators and micrometers.
• Create a model of patient's mouth by pouring plaster into a dental impression and allowing plaster to set.
• Prepare wax bite-blocks and impression trays for use.
• Train and supervise other dental technicians or dental laboratory bench workers.
• Apply porcelain paste or wax over prosthesis frameworks or setups, using brushes and spatulas.
• Build and shape wax teeth, using small hand instruments and information from observations or dentists' specifications.
• Fabricate, alter, and repair dental devices such as dentures, crowns, bridges, inlays, and appliances for straightening teeth.
• Fill chipped or low spots in surfaces of devices, using acrylic resins.
• Load newly constructed teeth into porcelain furnaces in order to bake the porcelain onto the metal framework.
• Melt metals or mix plaster, porcelain, or acrylic pastes; and pour materials into molds or over frameworks in order to form dental prostheses or apparatus.
• Mold wax over denture set-ups in order to form the full contours of artificial gums.
• Place tooth models on apparatus that mimics bite and movement of patient's jaw to evaluate functionality of model.
• Prepare metal surfaces for bonding with porcelain to create artificial teeth, using small hand tools.
• Read prescriptions or specifications, and examine models and impressions, in order to determine the design of dental products to be constructed.

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