There are two paths into dental lab technology: complete a roughly two-year program accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA), or train on the job at a commercial dental laboratory.
Neither path requires a state license — dental lab technicians aren't licensed the way dentists or hygienists are.
Many technicians later earn the voluntary Certified Dental Technician (CDT) credential from the National Board for Certification in Dental Laboratory Technology (NBC), which requires passing three exams.
Here's how each path works.
The short answer
You don't need a college degree or a state license to become a dental lab technician — you need hands-on skill, and there are two accepted ways to build it.
The first is a roughly two-year program accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA); the second is on-the-job training at a commercial dental laboratory, learning under working technicians.
Neither route is licensed the way dental hygiene or dentistry is — there's no state board exam standing between you and the job.
What many technicians pursue instead is the Certified Dental Technician (CDT) credential, a voluntary certification from the National Board for Certification in Dental Laboratory Technology (NBC) that signals mastery of the craft to employers and dentists.
No national license — but check your state and your lab's policies
The step-by-step path
Both routes into the field — and the optional certification on top of them — follow a similar shape:
Finish high school
A high school diploma or equivalent is the baseline for both the school route and the on-the-job route, and it's also a hard requirement to sit for the CDT exams later on.Choose a route: accredited program or on-the-job training
A CODA-accredited dental laboratory technology program — usually about two years, awarding an associate degree or certificate — combines classroom material science and dental anatomy with hands-on lab practicals. The alternative is getting hired directly by a commercial dental lab as a trainee, learning one product line at a time (often simpler finishing or model work first) before rotating onto more complex cases.Build professional experience
Without Recognized Graduate (RG) status, the standard requirement is five years of dental-technology training and experience — or, if you graduated from an accredited program, two years of practical experience after your coursework (not concurrent with it). Becoming an RG can shorten this considerably; see the CDT section below.Pass the CDT's three exams — within four years
The NBC requires three exams for CDT certification: a written Comprehensive Exam (accredited-program graduates can substitute the Recognized Graduate, or RG, exam), a written Specialty Exam, and a hands-on Practical Exam — the last two both in one of the NBC's seven recognized specialties (Ceramics, Complete Dentures, Crown & Bridge, Digital Workflow, Implants, Orthodontics, and Partial Dentures). The three exams can be taken in any order, but all three must be passed within four years of passing the first one.Maintain the credential
Once certified, a CDT renews annually and completes continuing education each cycle — a mix of required regulatory-standards credit, scientific/clinical credit, and general professional-development credit — to keep the certification current.
The CDT credential, in more depth
The CDT is administered by the National Board for Certification in Dental Laboratory Technology (NBC), an independent certifying board founded by the National Association of Dental Laboratories (NADL).
It isn't a government license — no state requires it to work as a dental lab technician — but it's the field's recognized mark of competency, and some labs prefer or require it for senior and specialty roles.
Without Recognized Graduate (RG) status, eligibility runs through the standard path: five years of dental-technology training and experience, or two years of practical experience after graduating from an accredited program.
Becoming an RG can shorten this — a current RG who passed the RG exam within the last four years can use it in place of the Comprehensive exam, and an RG from an accredited program can then sit the Specialty and Practical exams right away with no extra experience required (an RG from a non-accredited program still needs three years of on-the-job experience first).
That RG substitution only holds for four years from when you pass the RG exam — after that window closes, you'd need to pass the standard Comprehensive exam instead.
For the exam-by-exam breakdown — item counts, fees, remote proctoring, and the CE requirement to keep the credential current — see CDT certification: the Certified Dental Technician exam.
Is earning the CDT worth it?
The CDT isn't required to get hired or to work as a dental lab technician — plenty of technicians build long careers without it.
What it does is signal a verified, employer-recognized level of skill, which can matter most when you're trying to move into a specialty niche, a supervisory role, or a lab that explicitly prefers certified staff.
There's no verified national figure for a CDT pay premium, so treat any specific number you see elsewhere as a lab-by-lab estimate rather than a guarantee — ask a target employer directly how, or whether, certification affects pay or role there.
For the broader role, see what a dental lab technician does.
This article is general career information. NBC exam formats, fees, and requirements change over time — verify current details directly with the National Board for Certification in Dental Laboratory Technology before applying.