How To Become A Dental Technician: What It Is and Career Path

What is a dental technician and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted Expert

Daniela Taranto

The responsibility of a dental technician is to form and fix stationery and detachable tooth prosthesis and gadgets corresponding to dentist directions. You will develop wax examples or mannequins from dental perspectives and design metal and non-metal tooth alternatives. You should also make final amendments to tooth equipment before completion. You are expected to handle archives actions and also obey the company's procedures and safety principles.

In addition, you must be updated with the progress in the sector of dental laboratory automation and strategies or methods. You will also be required to correctly set dental devices in patients' mouths to change the location and connection between teeth and jaws or to reorganize teeth. You will make a recall date and confirm insurance admissibility.

To fit this role, you must have a minimum of two years of experience as a dental technician. Beyond this, you must also possess either an associate degree or a bachelor's degree. Furthermore, you must be detail-oriented and able to apply a manual approach. Alongside these, you must have excellent communication, listening, time-management, interpersonal, and technological skills. A dental technician earns an average of $48,872 annually or $23.50 hourly.

What general advice would you give to a Dental Technician?

Daniela Taranto

Generally dental assistants like the gratification in helping patients. In calming the anxious child, putting a smile of a lonely geriatric patient's face, listening to their family stories, gaining essentially a stranger's trust and helping them feel safe in what can be a scary environment for them. What they may dislike is some dental specialties such as oral surgery may be more graphic than others, and not everyone can withstand the occasional gore that accompanies a difficult extraction or surgery. So, knowing yourself and your own limits is important when selecting what type of practice, you may consider working in.

ScoreDental TechnicianUS Average

Salary

5.3

Avg. Salary $68,232

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

5.4

Growth Rate 2%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

9.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.53%

Asian 9.46%

Black or African American 7.17%

Hispanic or Latino 21.91%

Unknown 3.78%

White 57.15%

Gender

female 48.40%

male 51.60%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress Level

5.4

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

5.2

Complexity Level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

4.1

Work Life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a dental technician

Explore dental technician education requirements

Most common dental technician degrees

Associate

28.4 %

Bachelor's

27.8 %

High School Diploma

23.7 %

Start to develop specific dental technician skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	37.62%
Dentures	17.48%
Dental Care	16.72%
Prosthetics	11.56%
Dental Lab	2.72%

Complete relevant dental technician training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New dental technicians learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a dental technician based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real dental technician resumes.

Research dental technician duties and responsibilities

Utilize 3-D scanning and printing software and hardware to create zirconia dental appliances.
Take impressions and seat Invisalign aligners.
Wax and/ or finish implants and substructures.
Specialize in Invisalign but also apply braces when necessary.

Prepare your dental technician resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your dental technician resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a dental technician resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Dental Technician Resume templates

Build a professional Dental Technician resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Dental Technician resume.

Apply for dental technician jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a dental technician job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do dental technicians rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

4 Stars

3 Stars

2 Stars

1 Star

Dental Technician reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on May 2019

Pros

Many many many things. The flexible schedules, the happy patients, the relationships you create with your patients and the lifelong bonds you make. You get to see the Joy and happiness flow off of them when their braces come off. It's so rewarding

Cons

Literally nothing