Within the dental team, the contribution of dental technicians is an integral part of the dentists’ work to offer patients high-quality dental services. Dental technicians design and repair a variety of dental fixtures and components, including crowns, bridges and dentures, as prescribed by a dentist. When your dentist tells you to wait for the laboratory for your new dental fixture, this means that the dental technician has to fabricate, using the measurements and impressions taken by your dentist, your fixtures or dentures.

This profession demands great dexterity, attention to detail and creativity, as well as the use of the latest technologies to create the various products. Moreover, dental technicians must work in close collaboration with dentists to meet patients’ needs. Each patient is unique and requires a custom-made prosthesis or fixture that is perfectly adapted to them.

For several years now, dental laboratories have been converging towards a digital workplace, using innovative technologies. These include digital dental scanners, which use a stone model of a patient’s mouth and scan it to generate a 3D digital copy. There are also software programs such as 3Shape, which allows technicians to digitally create high-quality designs for full and partial dentures, as well as crowns and bridges, from scanned patient models. These designs can then be fed directly into a milling machine, and the resulting parts are placed in a furnace to obtain the desired products. Many dental laboratories also use 3D printers to design a range of dental appliances, including copies of patient models.

However, when dental fixtures or prostheses are machined or printed, the dental technician still has to make the necessary corrections and additions by hand to achieve final results that are functional and aesthetically pleasing. Behind the work of dentists, we mustn’t forget the efforts of our technicians!

A big thank you to the dental labratory Dental Technique for welcoming our dental intern and for the photos. 😊