Question for seasoned oregon denturists

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I’m a denture tech with 20+ yrs of experience. I’ve had some formal training, 20 yrs ago. How would you characterize the state of the denturism today and what direction do you seeing going. Also, advice on setting a path to gain licensure. I see some schools charging upwards of 50k$ for formal training!? Denturism always seemed like a decent fall back if/when the lab industry took a s$&t. Curious about anyones thoughts.
 
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I’m a denture tech with 20+ yrs of experience. I’ve had some formal training, 20 yrs ago. How would you characterize the state of the denturism today and what direction do you seeing going. Also, advice on setting a path to gain licensure. I see some schools charging upwards of 50k$ for formal training!? Denturism always seemed like a decent fall back if/when the lab industry took a s$&t. Curious about anyones thoughts.
ADA will never let it happen. Too much money to lose. Dentures for someone who knows how to do it is a pure profit.
 
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ADA will never let it happen. Too much money to lose. Dentures for someone who knows how to do it is a pure profit.
It’s legal in a few states, including oregon, unless I missed something. 🧐
 
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It’s legal in a few states, including oregon, unless I missed something. 🧐
Yes about 7 states but they had to go thru hell to do it and not all of them are completely free on your own, you have to be supervised by a dentist.
 
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Name a denturism state that you need to be supervised by a dentist... Ive never heard that and it kinda defeats the purpose of denturism. Here in Idaho, its not a big money maker, in fact, the work I repair from denturist offices are some of the worst Ive seen. Im sure there are higher end offices that charge more, but most patients use a denturist not because they are better than a dentist, but because its much cheaper. Ive tried for years to look for a denturist that I can hire and offer a place to work, but they are unicorns...
 
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Name a denturism state that you need to be supervised by a dentist... Ive never heard that and it kinda defeats the purpose of denturism. Here in Idaho, its not a big money maker, in fact, the work I repair from denturist offices are some of the worst Ive seen. Im sure there are higher end offices that charge more, but most patients use a denturist not because they are better than a dentist, but because its much cheaper. Ive tried for years to look for a denturist that I can hire and offer a place to work, but they are unicorns...
Interesting
 
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for 30 seconds i thought this thread said Seasoned Oregano Doughnuts

and i was like yuck who would actually... oh wait its Oregon Denturists. carry on.
 
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for 30 seconds i thought this thread said Seasoned Oregano Doughnuts

and i was like yuck who would actually... oh wait its Oregon Denturists. carry on.
I was waiting for the word play. Lol
 
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Name a denturism state that you need to be supervised by a dentist... Ive never heard that and it kinda defeats the purpose of denturism. Here in Idaho, its not a big money maker, in fact, the work I repair from denturist offices are some of the worst Ive seen. Im sure there are higher end offices that charge more, but most patients use a denturist not because they are better than a dentist, but because its much cheaper. Ive tried for years to look for a denturist that I can hire and offer a place to work, but they are unicorns...
It does not make any sense that a denturist would not repair his or her own cases. The point of a denturist is to be able to do the things right as good as an independent lab on that side.
As far as prices why would they be cheaper than a Dentist if they are more experienced and better than one? Do you think Dentist know removable? They do not even know how to measure VDO or take a good bite registration.I know a denturist in Washington state that changes more than a dentist and he is very knowledgeable about removable. It is like one Dr called me because he is not getting food quality from a lab but wants me to charge the same. Insane world we are living in.
 
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It does not make any sense that a denturist would not repair his or her own cases. The point of a denturist is to be able to do the things right as good as an independent lab on that side.
As far as prices why would they be cheaper than a Dentist if they are more experienced and better than one? Do you think Dentist know removable? They do not even know how to measure VDO or take a good bite registration.I know a denturist in Washington state that changes more than a dentist and he is very knowledgeable about removable. It is like one Dr called me because he is not getting food quality from a lab but wants me to charge the same. Insane world we are living in.
I’d think, just like a doc, the money is made in the chair. Ideally it would seem like the best set up would be denturist that trains his own tech to do the lab work. As far as denturists being cheaper, I’d imagine less overhead? As well as public perception being ‘dds’ means ‘knows best’.
 
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Why is the word ‘ideally’ being changed to an emoji? I tried to fix it twice.
 
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Maybe they arent cheaper, I dont really know, hopefully I never use their services.. To me, If you need a denture and youre already edentulous, it might make sense to just go to a denturist.
If you want implants or need teeth pulled, or even bone spurs removed, anything other than taking an impression really, you still need to go to a dentist. So to say a denturist is more experienced than a dentist is nonsense, they are not legally capable of being as experienced.
 
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Maybe they arent cheaper, I dont really know, hopefully I never use their services.. To me, If you need a denture and youre already edentulous, it might make sense to just go to a denturist.
If you want implants or need teeth pulled, or even bone spurs removed, anything other than taking an impression really, you still need to go to a dentist. So to say a denturist is more experienced than a dentist is nonsense, they are not legally capable of being as experienced.
When we talk Denturist,we mean more experienced than dentist in making dentures. If we are talking denturist, no one claims that they do extraction or any other appliances other than removable ones. I am a denturist that did not take the final exam because I live in a state that would never see that happening ever and I still teach Drs in a nice way how to take a damn bite registration. Or how to adjust a flexy patrtial without diamond burr. Or how not to grind on teeth in a wax try in on a denture. That is called a whole lot more experienced.
 
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So youre not a denturist..
 
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I’m a denture tech with 20+ yrs of experience. I’ve had some formal training, 20 yrs ago. How would you characterize the state of the denturism today and what direction do you seeing going. Also, advice on setting a path to gain licensure. I see some schools charging upwards of 50k$ for formal training!? Denturism always seemed like a decent fall back if/when the lab industry took a s$&t. Curious about anyones thoughts.
I've been an denturist in Oregon for 6 years...from what I have seen there are a lot of "keep it in the family" operations going on around in the state. Parents training their kids and passing the torch. There are 2 pathways - Pathway 1) the official denture school route which is 60K+ or Pathway 2) 1000 supervised internship after your college work is complete. The first route is ~60k and I don't think it is covered by regular student loan type programs but I may be wrong and the 2nd route is pretty hard to find a denturist to take you under his/her wing to do the internship because they would essentially be introducing competition to their area. And, even if you've got 20 years experience in the lab doing removables, your 1000 hours do not count or start until you are officially supervised by someone that is approved by the state. I don't see it getting too saturated because of how difficult it is to get your foot in the door but right now the lower populated areas are pretty saturated with denturists. For instance, we are planning on moving to Coos Bay to open shop there and there are already 2 denture offices in a town with a population of only 20k ish. It's that way all up and down the coast. So it kinda depends on where you are going to live and open shop. Big cities along I5 are probably ok but the smaller communities already have denturists with a patient base you'd have to break through to. I'm very rarely on this site but feel free to send me a PM if you have any questions. Hopefully it will alert me on my email so I will see it.
 
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Name a denturism state that you need to be supervised by a dentist... Ive never heard that and it kinda defeats the purpose of denturism. Here in Idaho, its not a big money maker, in fact, the work I repair from denturist offices are some of the worst Ive seen. Im sure there are higher end offices that charge more, but most patients use a denturist not because they are better than a dentist, but because its much cheaper. Ive tried for years to look for a denturist that I can hire and offer a place to work, but they are unicorns...
Arizona. There is at least one other but I don't remember...think it is Maine. Most patients where I'm from use a denturist because they get a more custom denture by cutting out the middle man who doesn't do the lab work and or know how to make simple quick adjustments without grinding out the intaglio surface and replacing with chairside liner (not all of them of course, but the far majority of younger dentists.) Denturists almost always make a better denture than a dentist - simply be the fact that most denturists do more dentures in 1 or 2 days than a dentist does in a month. Kinda like a sheet rock guy - I used to do handyman stuff and did sheetrock every now and then. But to do it right and learn all the ins and outs of it, you have to do it everyday. I can sheetrock - but my work pales in comparison to a guy who does it everyday. Same comparison goes to dentists and denturists. In Oregon, denturists are considered specialists by the insurance companies. It cracks me up when I get referrals from dentists saying they cannot make a denture because of lack of ridge or they can't fix a denture fit issue and to send it to the specialist as their justification to approve the referral. I'm not sure if you are a lab tech or a dentist but a denturist likely won't work for you because they make A LOT more money making dentures for a patient than doing lab work. The only reason I would even consider working for a lab is if I ever get to move to Florida, where denturism is illegal. Several years ago I tried doing lab work for local dentists but stopped because I refuse to put my name on the product from the crap impressions/bites they were sending me. Never again - unless in Florida :cool:.
 
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So youre saying in Arizona, if a denturist makes a denture for a patient, the patient then has to see a dentist after to evaluate the denturists work? The website says that denturists are overseen by the arizona assoc of denturists.. So where did you get that info? Maybe you misunderstood my question.. Where are denturists supervised by dentists? Not talking about clinical training.
 
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So youre saying in Arizona, if a denturist makes a denture for a patient, the patient then has to see a dentist after to evaluate the denturists work? The website says that denturists are overseen by the arizona assoc of denturists.. So where did you get that info? Maybe you misunderstood my question.. Where are denturists supervised by dentists? Not talking about clinical training.
 

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Thanks for the info, I had never heard that.. seems to contradict the point, but not necessarily a bad idea. What is the incentive to the denturist? Youre basically an employee of the dentist.
 
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