Dental Laboratory Technicians
Construct and repair full or partial dentures or dental appliances.
A wage reference for United States.
Published wage percentiles describe a distribution within the source occupation group. They provide context for a career decision; employer packages and job offers have their own terms.
This wage group may include multiple detailed occupations. The figures are for the source group, which may be broader than Dental Laboratory Technicians. They are not an exact-title, employer, experience or seniority match.
May 2025 · USD · United States. Annual and hourly figures are shown only when the source publishes them; neither is calculated from the other.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage data, distributed through the O*NET® OnLine service.
Annual wage thresholds
USD per year
Hourly wage thresholds
USD per hour
| Percentile | Annual wage (USD/year) | Hourly wage (USD/hour) |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $36,660 | $17.62 |
| 25th | $40,420 | $19.43 |
| 50th · Median | $49,610 | $23.85 |
| 75th | $62,070 | $29.84 |
| 90th | $76,940 | $36.99 |
“≥” means at least the published amount; “≤” means at most that amount. These are bounds, not exact values. “Not published” means the source did not provide that figure. Occupational wages follow the source definition and do not establish an employer’s base salary, equity or total compensation.
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What this career involves.
Occupation definitions describe common work. Responsibilities and requirements vary by employer and specific job.
Selected title examples
Expand more title examples (29)
Typical tasks
- 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.
- Fabricate, alter, or repair dental devices, such as dentures, crowns, bridges, inlays, or appliances for straightening teeth.
- Place tooth models on an 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.
- Train or supervise other dental technicians or dental laboratory bench workers.
Expand more tasks (11)
- Melt metals or mix plaster, porcelain, or acrylic pastes and pour materials into molds or over frameworks to form dental prostheses or apparatuses.
- Prepare metal surfaces for bonding with porcelain to create artificial teeth, using small hand tools.
- Rebuild or replace linings, wire sections, or missing teeth to repair dentures.
- 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.
- Load newly constructed teeth into porcelain furnaces to bake the porcelain onto the metal framework.
- Mold wax over denture setups to form the full contours of artificial gums.
- 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.
- Shape and solder wire and metal frames or bands for dental products, using soldering irons and hand tools.
- Fill chipped or low spots in surfaces of devices, using acrylic resins.
Skills used in this work
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
Expand more skills (29)
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Quality Control Analysis
- Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Operation and Control
- Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
- Equipment Selection
- Determining the kind of tools and equipment needed to do a job.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Equipment Maintenance
- Performing routine maintenance on equipment and determining when and what kind of maintenance is needed.
- Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the needed tools.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Troubleshooting
- Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it.
- Science
- Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
- Mathematics
- Using mathematics to solve problems.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Management of Financial Resources
- Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
- Management of Material Resources
- Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.
- Technology Design
- Generating or adapting equipment and technology to serve user needs.
- Operations Analysis
- Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design.
- Programming
- Writing computer programs for various purposes.
- Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or programs to meet specifications.
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