Sunday, June 22, 2014

Information About Manhattan Dental Labs

By Sally Delacruz


Dental laboratories refer to facilities that deal with studying, constructing, installing, repairing, and replacing of dental devices. In Manhattan dental labs assist licensed dentists with dispensing oral health care by manufacturing and customizing different dental products. People who are employed in such laboratories are called technicians or technologists and their work is to fill prescriptions from licensed dentists. Prescriptions filled include dentures, crowns, bridges, and prosthetics among others.

The technicians must follow the instructions of the dentists to the latter in manufacturing the devices. The devices manufactured may be prosthetic such as implants and denture teeth or therapeutic such as orthodontic devices. All the products made in these labs are subject to the quality and other requirements imposed by the FDA in the US. However, they are exempted from manufacturer registration requirements in most cases.

The laboratories use a number of tools and methods to do their job. Some of the tools used include dental polishing or finishing disks, articulators, lab casting machines, lathes, and furnaces. The specifications followed when constructing prosthetic appliances and other structures are produced using computer graphics or imaging software. Current facilities make use of sophisticated techniques and tools allowing them to produce perfect products with little effort.

When patients visit, a model of their mouth is created using an impression set or plaster. The model is customized to achieve precise specifications in the final product. In big laboratories, workers specialize in different sections of the building process while in small ones, they have to be involved from start to the end. Big laboratories also make effort to get certified by the government. This makes them more efficient and trustworthy.

Working environment is well lit and clean. All technicians are allocated tables and their own sets of apparatus. Some of equipment assigned include burners, personal computers, and hand equipment among many others. Most workers work for more than forty hours in a week. Their work does not involves making contact with patients. As such contact with patients does not happen or is very limited.

There are no strict academic requirements to get employment as a dental lab technician. Most lab owners employ people with at least a high school diploma because most of the skills are learned at the work place. However one can also get training in universities, community colleges, vocational institutions, the armed forces, junior colleges, or technical institutes. Some workers begin as helpers to main technicians but then learn gradually to become senior technicians themselves.

The salary of technicians may vary with the facility one is working for and the position held. The highest ranking workers hold the position of managers or supervisors. In the US, the average hourly wage of these workers was at around 18 US Dollars in the year 2009. Several people are employed in these facilities every year and the salaries keep getting better.

There are several advantages associated with working as a dental lab technologist. Skills one acquires give them a lot of flexibility that can allow them to be employed in bigger commercial laboratories. The experience and skills also allow one to be in a position to establish their own private lab and dispense services to the public. Clients are charges depending on how sophisticated the device fabricated is. Simpler devices cost lowly while complex ones cost a lot.




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