Dental Ceramist Job Description Template

Lead with the case mix.

Name the cases: porcelain layering, staining and glazing for crowns, veneers and implant restorations - and say what share of your bench they make up.

A listing that says only "dental lab experience needed" reads the same for a denture technician and a ceramist, and it will pull applications you will reject.

If your opening covers the whole bench rather than ceramics - dentures, partials, crown-and-bridge frameworks - our dental lab technician job description is the broader template.

Write the duties as bench steps.

Enumerate them: building porcelain from framework to final contour, staining and glazing, matching shade against tabs and photos (including custom shade checks when a case needs one), adjusting and finishing ahead of delivery, controlling remakes and logging remake reasons so recurring causes get fixed, and coordinating turnaround with the office schedule.

One of those lines is also a legal frame, not just workflow: working from the prescribing dentist's written work order.

The state rules behind that are right after the template.

Build the requirements from experience and a portfolio, not a license.

Do not list a state ceramist license in the requirements.

Our research found no state that licenses individual dental laboratory technicians or ceramists - the state rules we did find regulate the laboratory (Florida's registration, covered below) or require the dentist's written work order (Colorado's statute).

We have not checked every state board, so confirm with yours before you post.

Ask instead for years at the bench, the case types handled, and a portfolio of finished cases - photos tell you more than titles.

Treat the CDT as the preferred credential.

The credential for this bench is the Certified Dental Technician (CDT) in ceramics from the National Board for Certification in Dental Laboratory Technology (NBC).

Earning it means passing three exams within four years - a written Comprehensive Exam, a written Specialty Exam and a hands-on Practical Exam, all in the same specialty - and NBC's specialty list includes ceramics, alongside complete dentures, partial dentures, crown and bridge, orthodontics, implants and digital workflow.

NBC puts the number of technicians holding active CDT certificates at approximately 5,500, so "CDT preferred, not required" is the phrasing that keeps your applicant pool realistic.

If a candidate claims a current CDT, note that NBC requires renewal every year - ask when they last renewed.

Name the schedule and where the bench sits.

Give days and hours, and say whether the bench runs to the lab's rhythm or the clinic's - a ceramist doing custom shade appointments needs hours that overlap patient visits.

Say where the work happens: an in-office lab inside your practice, or a commercial lab.

If the role is in-office, say whether the ceramist works exclusively for your practice - in Florida that distinction changes which lab rules apply (below).

Then list the benefits you actually offer, and which of them cover part-time staff.

Quote a real pay range, not "competitive."

On October 6, 2026, DentistryHires' law list - checked that day against statute text and state labor departments - counted 14 states plus DC that required a pay range in job postings, and in those states 93.8% of dental listings stated pay.

Pay statements were common in the dental listings DentistryHires measured the same day: 78.4% of dental assistant listings (of 4,136) and 93.9% of billing coordinator listings (62 of 66) stated a rate or range.

On those counts, a blank pay line puts a dental listing in the minority.

The numbers to anchor a ceramist range are right after the template.

Keep the wording lawful.

EEOC regulations say job ads may not contain terms that limit or deter older applicants - the regulation's own examples are "age 25 to 35," "young," "college student," "recent college graduate," "boy" and "girl" - unless a statutory exception applies, and a help-wanted ad may not indicate a preference based on sex unless sex is a bona fide occupational qualification for the job.

On the closing equal-opportunity line: the old federal tagline requirement applied to federal contractors under Executive Order 11246 - not to every dental ad - and it was revoked in January 2025.

If your current ad carries the line, check your state's rules before dropping it.

Write the description before you advertise - and keep it on file.

EEOC regulations treat a written job description prepared before advertising or interviewing as evidence of which functions are essential to a job, alongside the employer's judgment, the time spent performing the function, and the consequences of not requiring it (29 CFR 1630.2(n)(3)).

For a ceramist, whose defining function is the bench work, the duties list you write today is that kind of evidence.

Borrow structure, not someone else's duties.

The general posting mechanics - length, structure, where the pay line sits, what to leave out - are what our guide to writing a dental job ad covers; this page is the role-specific template.

For the hiring process around the role rather than the posting, see how to hire a dental ceramist.

And for the worker-side view of the role - training paths, what the bench work looks like day to day - point candidates at the dental ceramist career guide.

Anchor the pay line before you post.

The BLS wage data has no separate "dental ceramist" line - the occupational series covering this field is dental laboratory technicians (SOC 51-9081), and across all industries it shows (OEWS May 2025) a median of $23.85 an hour ($49,610 a year), with the 10th percentile at $17.62 and the 90th at $36.99 across 34,410 jobs.

Treat it as a national frame for the technician field, not a price for your bench: it is one series spanning every industry and specialty, and our research found no published source for ceramist piece rates or a "master ceramist" premium - so set the range from live listings in your own market and the duties you listed above.

The state rules that shape this posting attach to the lab and the work order, not to a ceramist license.

The National Board for Certification in Dental Laboratory Technology's account of regulation says that state dental practice acts, in general, include fabricating and repairing dental prostheses in the practice of dentistry, so unlicensed technicians may do the work only at a licensed dentist's direction - normally a written prescription or work order - and NBC also says "just over a dozen states" have specific legislation regulating the operation of commercial dental laboratories.

Colorado's statute is a worked example: anyone who furnishes, constructs, reproduces or repairs a denture, bridge or other appliance worn in the mouth is practicing dentistry unless the work is done on the written laboratory work order of a licensed dentist (Colorado Revised Statutes 12-220-305(1)(d)).

So the work-order line in the duties list is doing legal work: under Colorado's statute, appliance work done other than on a licensed dentist's written work order falls inside the practice of dentistry, so the work order is what keeps an unlicensed technician's appliance work lawful there - and NBC's general account of practice acts treats the dentist's direction as the baseline.

Keep it.

Florida regulates the laboratory itself: every person or company operating a dental laboratory in the state must register with the Department of Health every two years, for a fee of up to $300 (Florida Statutes 466.032(1)), and the lab's owner or at least one employee must complete 18 hours of continuing education every two years for the registration to renew (Florida Statutes 466.032(5)).

Florida's definition of a "dental laboratory" excludes a dental laboratory technician who builds or repairs prosthetic appliances in a licensed dentist's office exclusively for that dentist under the dentist's supervision (Florida Statutes 466.031(1)) - so a practice employing its own in-office ceramist sits differently from a commercial lab, and which rules reach you depends on which one you are running.

None of this belongs in the ad verbatim; it belongs in the checks you run before you post.

And the requirements line stays experience-based: our research found no state that licenses individual dental laboratory technicians or ceramists - confirm with your own state board what applies where you are.

Screen portfolio-first.

Photos of finished cases tell you more about a ceramist than years-in-field, and they give you something concrete to ask about: which steps on each case the candidate personally did.

If you bench-test, design the test yourself around your case mix - our research found no published standard for how dental labs test ceramists.

NBC's own CDT practical exam, a hands-on test in the candidate's specialty, is one model to borrow from.

And pay anyone who performs real work during a working interview - treat a bench task that produces usable work as a paid trial, however short.

If a candidate lists a CDT, ask for current status: NBC requires Certified Dental Technicians to renew every year, attesting compliance with state dental technology laws and submitting proof of continuing technical education, so a lapsed certificate is a checkable claim.

Finally, keep the description you posted on file, and update it before you advertise the next opening if the bench changes.

A written description prepared before advertising is one of the items EEOC regulations list as evidence of essential functions - and the remake log you asked your new hire to keep will tell you what to rewrite first.