There are some people out there who want a job or career that is out of the ordinary. If you have a natural artistic ability with a strong sense of aesthetics, you might be interested in becoming a dental technician. You would be making crowns, bridges and other dental prosthetics according to a dentist’s orders. You need to have good manual dexterity, and you also need to be able to differentiate between shades and colors. This work can be very detailed and precise, so you must take your time to do your work carefully to make sure it is done right.

Those who have an artistic ability might not be able to find something with a career in art, but there are favourable opportunities in the work force for a dental technician. You would be moulding and creating these prosthetics to fit patients. That means a dentist would send you an order, and you would have to analyze different things in order to make adjustments as needed for that particular patient. You would have to look at the mould of the patient’s mouth for how the surrounding teeth and gum line are, and make the prosthetic to fit their mouth perfectly.

There are schools that offer formal training for becoming a dental technician. Most of them offer 2 year programs with an associate degree, but there are some that offer a 4 year program that leads to a bachelor’s degree. There are dental offices that simply provide hands-on training to someone already employed within the office, but many prefer to have someone with a formal education. Once you receive the necessary hands-on experience and classroom training, you can also choose to become certified.

There are many advancement opportunities for a dental technician. Once you are experienced, you may want to become a supervisor or a manager in a laboratory. Others actually open up their own labs, while still others teach or work with dental suppliers. Since there are many opportunities, this is a great career for someone who is looking for something out of the ordinary. They make pretty good money with the median hourly wage for 2007 being over $16/hour. You can go online to find a school to apply for, and you could be in your new career in as little as 2 years.

Source by Paul Abbey