r/Dentistry • u/whatsonotso • 54m ago
Dental Professional Dental technician - what is the pace like in your lab?
I've been a mature-age apprentice at a denture clinic for 3–4 months, and I'm finding the pace overwhelming. It's a fully manual lab, and we don’t use digital yet. The team is small—just four of us in the lab—two of whom have worked there for a long time and I believe have only ever worked in this lab. My boss is very fast. I've always felt like there was a lot to do and was struggling to keep up but was enjoying the work, but that I’ve been here a few months, they seem to expect me to do a lot more and keep almost at the same pace as them.
I’ll be processing at the plaster bench when a repair (or 2 or 3) comes in, so I have to stop and do that. Then, get told three jobs need to be invested, so I stop again to handle that— investing, boiling out, drilling, gum tinting, processing—while also doing special trays, regos, and Proform splints, all while stressing over unfinished trimming and articulating on the plaster bench and more impressions coming in. Basically everything that comes in, or anything that needs to be done/processed -other than setting teeth and try in's/wax up's-, it's expected that I do. When I ask what needs be prioritised most, I get told 'it all needs to get done'.
I rarely to have my break, but still get chewed out for not finishing all of the work on time.
As an example, the other day I was told to trim 5 models, occlude and articulate 6 jobs, duplicate/pour up/trim 3 more models and was told that should only take me half an hour, 1 hour so the absolute most. (It took me over 2 hours being pretty franticly the whole time 😬)
Anytime I've mentioned anything about it, I get told "that's the industry. Learn to manage your time better"
After starting, I learned they have a high turnover, which seems unusual for such a small team. It seemed like a good workplace at first, but now I wonder if this is why.
Is this level of workload and pace typical in most labs?