Dental Laboratory Technicians
Construct and repair full or partial dentures or dental appliances.
34,410 people do this job in the US. $49,610 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 0%
- 0%
- 100%
Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 4.4 h long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 0%. Today's estimate: 0%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
The tasks
Sorted by . 17 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fabricate, alter, or repair dental devices, such as dentures, crowns, bridges, inlays, or appliances for straightening teeth.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 29% | 3.3 h50 min to 1 work day | Stays with people | |
| Build and shape wax teeth, using small hand instruments and information from observations or dentists' specifications.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 11% | 1.3 h25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Apply porcelain paste or wax over prosthesis frameworks or setups, using brushes and spatulas.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 8% | 50 min17 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Rebuild or replace linings, wire sections, or missing teeth to repair dentures.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 1.3 h25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Melt metals or mix plaster, porcelain, or acrylic pastes and pour materials into molds or over frameworks to form dental prostheses or apparatuses.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 38 min17 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Train or supervise other dental technicians or dental laboratory bench workers.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 50 min25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Test appliances for conformance to specifications and accuracy of occlusion, using articulators and micrometers.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 25 min13 min to 42 min | Stays with people | |
| Read prescriptions or specifications and examine models or impressions to determine the design of dental products to be constructed.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 17 min8 min to 29 min | Stays with people | |
| Shape and solder wire and metal frames or bands for dental products, using soldering irons and hand tools.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 4% | 1.1 h17 min to 2.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Mold wax over denture setups to form the full contours of artificial gums.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 4% | 50 min17 min to 2.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Remove excess metal or porcelain and polish surfaces of prostheses or frameworks, using polishing machines.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 4% | 25 min8 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Place tooth models on an apparatus that mimics bite and movement of patient's jaw to evaluate functionality of model.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 3% | 17 min8 min to 38 min | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Medical Appliance Technicians3% now, 3% by 2028
- Dental Assistants17% now, 17% by 2028
- Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians7% now, 7% by 2028
- Medical Equipment Repairers7% now, 26% by 2028
- Molders, Shapers, and Casters, Except Metal and Plastic0% now, 0% by 2028
- Calibration Technologists and Technicians17% now, 55% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).