Clinical Dental Technician
OFO Code: 321401
Last checked 3 October 2026
1. Occupation identity
- OFO code
- 321401
- Occupation
- Clinical Dental Technician
- Classification
- OFO 2021
- Major group
- TECHNICIANS AND ASSOCIATE PROFESSIONALS
- Unit group
- 3214 · Medical and Dental Prosthetic Technicians
Official description
Medical and dental prosthetic technicians design, fit, service and repair medical and dental devices and appliances following prescriptions or instructions established by a health professional. They may service a wide range of support instruments to correct physical medical or dental problems such as neck braces, orthopaedic splints, artificial limbs, hearing aides, arch supports, dentures, and dental crowns and bridges.
More official OFO detail
Specialisations: Dental Prosthesis Maker Repairer
- Fitting appliances and devices onto patients, testing and evaluating them, and making adjustments for proper fit function, and comfort
- Making or receiving casts or impressions of patients' torsos, limbs, mouths or teeth for use as fabrication patterns
- Bending, forming, and shaping fabric or material so that it conforms to prescribed contours needed to fabricate structural components
- Fabricating full and partial dentures and constructing mouth guards, crowns, metal clasps, inlays, bridgework and other aids
- Examining, interviewing, and measuring patients in order to determine their appliance needs, and to identify factors that could affect appliance fit
- Instructing patients in the use and care of prosthetic or orthotic devices
- Repairing, modifying, and maintaining medical and dental prosthetic and supportive devices, according to specifications
- Conferring with medical and dental practitioners in order to formulate specifications and prescriptions for devices and appliances
- Designing and making orthotic and prosthetic devices using materials such as thermoplastic and thermosetting materials, metal alloys and leather, and hand and power tools
- Interpreting prescriptions or specifications to determine the type of product or device to be fabricated, and the materials and tools that will be required
2. Demand status
Demand evidence not yet linked
This is an official OFO 2021 occupation. Demand status is separate evidence and is not inferred from inclusion in the OFO.
A national demand signal is not a promise of a vacancy in your town.
3. Salary evidence
No sourced salary record has been ingested for this OFO code yet.
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5. Qualification
Qualification evidence pending.
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7. Industry, sector and provincial context
National occupation classification. Industry and provincial context are shown only where a separate official source supports the link.
No source-backed modern OFO↔SIC 7 industry link has been ingested for this occupation yet. PathLens does not infer one from the job title.
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9. Decision tools
10. Sources for this page
- DHET Organising Framework for Occupations (OFO 2021) · Planned
- DHET Occupations in High Demand · Planned
- Critical Skills List · Planned
- QCTO qualifications and occupational certificates · Planned
- Stats SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey · Planned
- SETA Sector Skills Plans / hard-to-fill vacancy tables · Planned