Applying for a dental technician?? Help

[Cofo]

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I really want to work as a dental technician. It will look excellent on my dental school application, but more importantly it will help me have experience prior to entering dental school. I still have 3 more years before I graduate from undergrad, and I am 20 years old and a male. I figured I could just go in to a dental laboratory and explain my future plans of going to dental school, ex cetera, ex cetera... and ask if I could shadow a technician, and possibly get trained in order to start working in a lab as a dental technician. ...What are my chances of actually being considered for a job and getting paid? BTW, I have OUTSTANDING hand skills (Not to brag.) Also, is there a more tactful way of getting trained an eventually receiving pay?

 

[sl2obel2ts]

have u done any wax work? painting? It is actually pretty hard to get used to what dental waxers or ceramists are doing. It took me days and weeks to just to get proper waxing technique. I asked if I can volunteer for free for dental school app later. I just went in whenever possible and had fun. Other than waxing and ceramics, everything else is pretty easy. I think most labs work pretty late (due to mean dentists and their deadlines). so if you got school or work, you can probably volunteer at night or something.

By the way, dental ceramics lab field isn't so "hot" anymore. too many people are doing it. With all those automated machines rolling in, it ain't good no more. You won't get paid so much unless your color matching skill and anterior porcerain skill is godly. Most pay you by how many pieces of work you do, you probably cant do much. You will probably end up as a model work tech (low-end) or waxer. It is much better to just volunteer and have fun with another outstanding and well paying full time job.

 

[SHC1984]

You are right. I applied to work at a large dental lab and at first I thought it was going to be sooooo fun, but it was NOT! My job was to make night guards but I suck soooo much at waxing that my job now is model work and articulating!! thats all I do is pour up models and articulate all day long! the pay sucks (9 dollars an hour 👎) I hope being able to articulate very fast helps in dental school but I highly doubt it...haha...

have u done any wax work? painting? It is actually pretty hard to get used to what dental waxers or ceramists are doing. It took me days and weeks to just to get proper waxing technique. I asked if I can volunteer for free for dental school app later. I just went in whenever possible and had fun. Other than waxing and ceramics, everything else is pretty easy. I think most labs work pretty late (due to mean dentists and their deadlines). so if you got school or work, you can probably volunteer at night or something.

By the way, dental ceramics lab field isn't so "hot" anymore. too many people are doing it. With all those automated machines rolling in, it ain't good no more. You won't get paid so much unless your color matching skill and anterior porcerain skill is godly. Most pay you by how many pieces of work you do, you probably cant do much. You will probably end up as a model work tech (low-end) or waxer. It is much better to just volunteer and have fun with another outstanding and well paying full time job.

 

[bluejellybelly]

Yeah, the automated machines pretty much are capable of doing a lot more than we imagined. Also, anyone with equipment and some good dental experience could open up their own lab- which doesn;t make the field very hot.

I work in one where I design copings and pontics for bridges and crowns and its something similar to CAD/CAM technology. We mill zirconia crowns through a computerized design base software and then get some ridiculously priced machine to mill it out. The guy that works in my room next to me does wolceram and captek coping crowns, the old fashion way- by hand. He gets paid like, 5 bucks a unit plus base salary per hour. It's a lot of work for not much reward unless you're like me; I'm a tooth enthusiast. It never gets boring for me. I was born for wax-ups, inlays onlays and composites. In fact, most of the workers there think I'm crazy for being so happy with a small wage.

The truth is, it's a good brush up for REAL hands on dental experience. Your dentist isn;t going to likely let you do anything to your patient besides the UV-curing of bonding or handing him a reamer. At the lab, you get a feel for the tooth anatomy, the dental terminology and your hands workin'. Personally, it was very rewarding for me (I never wrote that I was a technician on the application though) just because I had a chance to know what I was going through. Heck, working with plaster models isn't quite but close to working with a real patient.

Now, I feel bad for the guy pouring the models and attaching the articulations. Luckily, that's not my job.

 

[Theta1]

Did you need some sort of certification/license in order to work as a lab tech or is it just on-the-job training?

 

[sb1759]

yes, i would like to know this as well...i am looking to get a part time paid position in a dental lab...and was wondering what the training procedure entails.

also...does anyone know of any dental labs in the NYC area??

 

[SHC1984]

I work at a very big dental lab. I got on the job training for 2-3 weeks and it was paid as well...only 8.50 an hour would not recommend this job if you have bills to paid...LOL...
The training didn't really help much though...mostly just watching videos...and reading...I got the PTC training if anyone has heard of it.
If you are looking to work at a small dental lab then you will most likely need certifcation and lots of experisence. The only way you can get away without any certification is if you apply to a big lab with lots of $$$...small dental labs with private owners would not have the resources to personally train you.

 

[sl2obel2ts]

my advice.

don't do it for $$. I volunteer at a private small lab. I go there whenever I am free or saturdays. I graduated 07, working as a full timeat a dental RESEARCH lab. And I do get hands-on experience with pretty good pay (a little less than 20 / hour). I just do dental cermaics for fun. If I were to get paid, I would be probably stuck with doing model work ALL DAY and be miserable with low pay (minimum wage). Since I am NOT getting paid, I actually get the taste of EVERYTHING. I actually did EVERY single work from model work thru fitting it into a patient's mouth. well the last part I just watched. My supervisor (more of a friend, we drink and chill together) walked me thru everything. I got to pick what I really want to accomplish or what I thought was the best for developing dexterity and worked on it. That was waxing.

and some states require certificates, but noone really gives a crap. Most of people who work in my lab do not have certificate.

 

[BuffaloFL]

I started working at a relatively small lab a couple months ago.... I started out as a driver, but that was only for a little bit in the afternoons, and I got to spend all day in the lab watching/learning... The other neat thing about driving was the 15+ offices I got to go into daily... There really are more office climates than I could imagine, and I have done LOTS of shadowing...

Yeah, the pay isn't great, since the owner knows I'm not trying to make a career as a tech, but it has been so reassuring of my goals. I have worked as both a dental assistant in a clinic and private office and now as a lab trainee/tech... I really enjoyed assisting b/c of the patient interaction and learning procedures and such, but the lab work has provided such a hands on knowledge... I'm about to just start putting the models in a mannican to do some Die Trims and say I prepped teeth for Crowns....lol