Careers

Career Description

When Airmen need dental work, they turn to dentists who then turn to Dental Laboratory specialists. These master craftsmen use the latest tools and techniques to craft everything from dentures to crowns and work with dental materials such as acrylic, gypsum and gold. This hands-on field requires precision and dedication because the oral health of our Airmen is just as important as their physical health.

Career Tasks

• Fabricate and repair complete dentures (artificial teeth), removable partial dentures (replace some missing teeth with artificial teeth), metal or porcelain crowns (caps), fixed partial dentures (bridges), orthodontic devices, mouth guards and other types of appliances designed to restore the appearance, function and health of a patient's mouth.
• Work with a wide variety of dental laboratory equipment and materials such as wax, acrylic, gypsum, gold and nickel-chrome alloys.

Relevant Interests & Skills

• Health and Medicine
• Science
• Business Operations

Training

After eight-and-a-half weeks of Basic Military Training, every Airman goes to technical training to learn their career. Here's the basic information about Dental Laboratory technical training:

School location: Sheppard AFB [TX]

Length of course: 129 days

College degree earned: Dental Laboratory Technology

College credits earned: 37