411213A 职业全职与兼职从业者税前周薪比较(Income Based On Employment Status Per Week - Before tax)
What’s it like to be a Dental Technician?
Dental technicians construct and repair dentures (false teeth) and other
dental appliances, including crowns, bridges and orthodontic appliances.
Dental technicians work in dental laboratories on their own or in small
groups. They use a wide range of materials and techniques in their work,
including plaster casting, electro-spot welding, metal casting, metal
polishing, wax modelling, ceramics, wire bending, electroplating and
sandblasting. The use of small CAD/CAM (computer-aided design/manufacturing)
units is increasing in the design and manufacture of some dental products.
Dental technicians work closely with dentists and dental prosthetists and
usually have no direct contact with patients.
How much can I expect to earn?
Full-time employed Dental Technician earn an average of $1250 per week. The
[average annual salary for this job is $65000 excluding super.]
Personal requirements
- good communication skills
- good hand-eye coordination
- able to do precise and detailed work
- an eye for form and design
- able to concentrate for long periods.
This job also involves:
Full use of hands/fingers
Use of precision or semi-precision tools or instruments or deft hand movements
are required for these occupations. Included are jobs where poor co-ordination
or incomplete use of hands or fingers may make tasks dangerous or difficult to
undertake.
Good vision for detail
These jobs require you to be able to see clearly to examine items close-up. It
covers jobs where poor vision e.g. tunnel vision, could make the work place
unsafe or the job difficult to undertake, e.g. draftsperson working with
detailed drawings; checkout operator reading dockets; work requiring good
hand-eye co-ordination for working with precision or semi-precision tools.
Mainly indoor work
Workers performing these jobs would usually be expected to spend more than
three-quarters of their day indoors, in an office, factory or other enclosed
area protected from the weather.
Reading or writing
These jobs require moderate or better reading and writing skills. Workers may
be expected to prepare, understand or act on written materials, such as
letters or reports. People may wish to avoid these jobs if their reading or
writing English skills are limited to a small range of words or phrases and
symbols. Jobs remaining may still require very basic reading or writing
skills.
This occupation offers jobs at the following skill levels:
Skilled Trade Jobs
These jobs do not usually require completion of secondary education, however
further part-time study usually at Certificate III level, and on-the-job
training offered as an apprenticeship, is required.
Study requirements
At school, you can study these subject(s) to get a good foundation for this
occupation:
Biology
School subjects that include some aspect of BIOLOGY provide a useful
background to these jobs. In some cases a biology-related subject is a pre-
requisite for entry to courses that provide the training for the job.
Industrial Arts
School subjects that include some aspect of INDUSTRIAL ARTS provide a useful
background to these jobs. In some cases an industrial arts-related subject is
a pre-requisite for entry to courses that provide the training for the job.
Duties and tasks of a Dental Technician
Dental technicians may perform the following tasks:
- make models of the mouth and teeth from impressions of the patient’s mouth (taken by the dental prosthetist, dentist, dental hygienist or dental therapist)
- use models and moulds to make dental restorations such as inlays, onlays, veneers, crowns and bridges
- polish and finish the appliance prior to placement in the patient’s mouth
- make appliances for patients with cleft palates, braces and plates for correcting irregular teeth
- make mouthguards.
Specialisations
Dental technology may be divided into the following categories:
- General prostheses: the largest field in dental technology, in which partial or full dentures (metal and non-metal) are constructed to replace the partial or total loss of natural teeth.
- Crown and bridge: used in the restoration of teeth and fixtures in the patient’s mouth.
- Maxillo-facial: prostheses are made to replace missing facial and body tissues due to injury, disease or developmental abnormality.
- Orthodontics: the manufacture of fixed or removable appliances for the correction of dental irregularities in the mouths of patients.
Dental Prosthetist
A dental prosthetist works as an independent practitioner in public or private
clinics to provide complete and partial dentures and mouthguards to the
public, consulting directly with patients about their removable dental
prosthetic needs.