AI Automation Index

Will AI Replace Dental Laboratory Technicians?

Task-level automation exposure for Dental Laboratory Technicians: 17 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.

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Developed & audited by Gini Loh

Automation Exposure

17% weighted task index

17 of 17 tasks scored

Median Salary

$49,610 / year

BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation

Employment Level

Medium

34,410 people hold this job — size, not growth

Projected 2025–35

-5.9% employment change

3,600 openings a year · BLS line item

Pay by state

BLS OEWS publishes 47 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.

$22,490 – $72,800

Highest medians

Massachusetts $72,800

North Dakota $67,580

Maine $64,020

Colorado $61,220

New Hampshire $60,610

Lowest medians

Puerto Rico $22,490

South Carolina $37,170

Louisiana $38,490

Delaware $38,500

New Mexico $45,300

State figures come from the 51-9081 row in the May 2025 state panel. States where the estimate was suppressed or too small to publish are absent.

What the score is made of

Each task is mapped to its work activities, scored for AI automation potential, and weighted by how important those activities are to the job. These are the components.

Automation potential 17%

Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.

Physical work 70%

Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.

Judgment & influence 6%

Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.

Routine administration 0%

Share in documenting, recording, and administrative activities.

Rewritten by O*NET 0%

Share of weighted tasks O*NET rewrote in a recent update. Reported, not folded into the score.

Consequence of error 13/100 Low

O*NET's own rating of how serious an uncorrectable mistake would be here — respondents, not us. Deliberately not in the index: the score measures what AI can do with the task content, and multiplying it by stakes would be our judgment dressed as data.

Constituent Task Mix

17 tasks for this occupation, weighted by work-activity importance. Shares below are of total task weight, not task count.

High exposure (≥ 60% of the task is automatable) 8%

1 tasks

Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 0%

0 tasks

Low exposure (below 35%) 92%

16 tasks

How would you survive?

Move your week away from the high-exposure tasks and toward the ones that need judgment. The simulator recalculates the index as you shift the mix.

Simulate Upskilling →

Emerging & rewritten tasks

Tasks O*NET added or rewrote for this occupation in its recent updates (05/2025 – 08/2026), with who proposed them. Additions are not in the scored task inventory — they are new work O*NET is still measuring, so they appear here and nowhere in the index. A Revision replaces a task that is scored, which is why only those move the "Rewritten by O*NET" share.

New 08/2022 · Incumbent

Meet with dentists or patients to discuss dental appliances.
New 08/2022 · Incumbent

Order parts or materials needed to make dental appliances.
New 08/2022 · Incumbent

Scan dental models to create digital files.
New 08/2022 · Incumbent

Stain porcelain on dental appliances to match the color of patients' teeth.

Constituent Tasks

#7133 · Core · 80% automatable

Read prescriptions or specifications and examine models or impressions to determine the design of dental products to be constructed.

information retrieval — Parse specs and materials from orders

Read work orders or other instructions to determine product specifications or materials requirements.

#7135 · Core · 18% automatable

Test appliances for conformance to specifications and accuracy of occlusion, using articulators and micrometers.

visual inspection — Physical device inspection requires hands-on access

Inspect medical or dental assistive devices.

#7134 · Core · 9% automatable

Fabricate, alter, or repair dental devices, such as dentures, crowns, bridges, inlays, or appliances for straightening teeth.

physical manipulation — Customized device construction is hands-on fabrication

Construct customized assistive medical or dental devices. Repair medical or dental assistive devices.

#7136 · Core · 20% automatable

Place tooth models on an apparatus that mimics bite and movement of patient's jaw to evaluate functionality of model.

physical manipulation — Physical body measurement for fit

Measure clients to ensure proper product fit.

#7139 · Core · 8% automatable

Remove excess metal or porcelain and polish surfaces of prostheses or frameworks, using polishing machines.

physical manipulation — Manual trimming of workpieces

Trim excess material from workpieces. Polish materials, workpieces, or finished products.

#7147 · Core · 33% automatable

Train or supervise other dental technicians or dental laboratory bench workers.

interpersonal — Equipment instruction requires live demonstration and correction

Instruct workers to use equipment or perform technical procedures. Direct operational or production activities.

#7137 · Core · 7% automatable

Melt metals or mix plaster, porcelain, or acrylic pastes and pour materials into molds or over frameworks to form dental prostheses or apparatuses.

physical manipulation — Mixing finishes requires hands-on craft judgment

Mix ingredients to create specific finishes. Place materials into molds. Melt metal, plastic, or other materials to prepare for production.

#7138 · Supplemental · 10% automatable

Prepare metal surfaces for bonding with porcelain to create artificial teeth, using small hand tools.

physical manipulation — Physical preparation of materials by hand

Prepare materials for processing.

#7148 · Supplemental · 8% automatable

Rebuild or replace linings, wire sections, or missing teeth to repair dentures.

physical manipulation — Manual repair of assistive devices

Repair medical or dental assistive devices.

#7143 · Supplemental · 5% automatable

Apply porcelain paste or wax over prosthesis frameworks or setups, using brushes and spatulas.

physical manipulation — Applying parting agents is manual mold prep

Apply parting agents or other solutions to molds.

#7142 · Supplemental · 10% automatable

Build and shape wax teeth, using small hand instruments and information from observations or dentists' specifications.

physical manipulation — Customized device construction is hands-on fabrication

Construct customized assistive medical or dental devices.

#7141 · Supplemental · 3% automatable

Load newly constructed teeth into porcelain furnaces to bake the porcelain onto the metal framework.

physical manipulation — Manual loading into hot ovens or furnaces

Load items into ovens or furnaces.

#7146 · Supplemental · 10% automatable

Mold wax over denture setups to form the full contours of artificial gums.

physical manipulation — Casting molds of patient anatomy is manual lab work

Cast molds of patient anatomies to create medical or dental devices.

#7140 · Supplemental · 7% automatable

Create a model of patient's mouth by pouring plaster into a dental impression and allowing plaster to set.

physical manipulation — Casting molds of patient anatomy is manual lab work

Place materials into molds. Cast molds of patient anatomies to create medical or dental devices.

#7145 · Supplemental · 15% automatable

Prepare wax bite blocks and impression trays for use.

physical manipulation — Physical assembly of medical supplies

Prepare medical supplies or equipment for use.

#7149 · Supplemental · 7% automatable

Shape and solder wire and metal frames or bands for dental products, using soldering irons and hand tools.

physical manipulation — Soldering requires fine manual dexterity

Shape metal workpieces with hammers or other small hand tools. Solder parts or workpieces.

#7144 · Supplemental · 5% automatable

Fill chipped or low spots in surfaces of devices, using acrylic resins.

physical manipulation — Filling cracks is manual finishing work

Fill cracks, imperfections, or holes in products or workpieces.

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Community Sentiment

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Do you agree with the AI automation risk score calculated for this occupation?

Method

How this was scored

1. Tasks. O*NET task statements for this occupation, from a release whose newest record is dated 08/2026.
2. Work activities. Each task maps to 1–5 Detailed Work Activities; each activity belongs to one of 41 Generalized Work Activities that O*NET rates for importance (1–5) in this occupation.
3. Automation potential. Every work activity carries one score for how far current AI can perform it end-to-end. Tasks inherit the mean of their activities.
4. Weighting. Task weight = 0.35 + 0.65 × (importance − 1)/4, scaled by how often the task is performed and by 0.7 for Supplemental tasks. Importance is the task's own O*NET rating where it exists (18,369 of 18,838 tasks); the rest inherit their work activities' importance. The index is the weighted mean.

Check: across the 910 occupations where O*NET also rates how far machine speed sets the pace, this index moves opposite to it (Spearman ρ = -0.49). The more a job is paced by equipment, the less of its task content AI can address — the relationship you would expect if the scoring is working.

Sources · O*NET 31.0 (task records to 08/2026) · BLS OEWS May 2025 · BLS projections 2025-2035 · rubric v2.1 · tasks for O*NET, not a forecast

See the full method →

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