Clinical dental technicians (CDTs) are a profession who work predominantly in dental laboratories in making dental appliances. CDTs provide complete or partial dentures directly to patients who are over the age of 18 and other dental devices if requested by a dentist. CDTs refer patients to a dentist if they are concerned about a patient’s oral health or if the patient has not seen a dentist in the recent past. CDTs also make dental devices, including dentures, crowns, bridges and orthodontic appliances, to a prescription from a dentist. When fitting dentures CDTs follow infection control standards to ensure the patient's safety and satisfaction with their services.
CDTs can provide services to the public and therefore the Dental Council maintains a register of Clinical Dental Technicians under the provisions of Section 53 of the Dentists Act 1985.
CDTs are an important and valued part of the oral healthcare workforce and one of the priority actions in the National Oral Health Policy is to evaluate the training, focus and scope of practice of dental auxiliary workers including CDTs. In that context, my Department is currently conducting a workforce census of the oral healthcare sector, which will include all dental auxiliaries, including CDTs, to prepare for the skills assessment of the sector. Part of this work will consider the scopes of practice of the dental workforce in their entirety and in the context of a full dental team.
In line with the National Oral Health policy, my Department is also commencing a scoping exercise to establish the viability of a mid-level professional grade in oral healthcare. This will look at expanding the capacity of the oral healthcare workforce through dental auxiliaries such as CDTs through the introduction of a new substantive dental auxiliary grade. It is anticipated that this will help in meeting the growing demand for dentures for patients who may need them.
