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Dental Laboratory Technicians vs Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians

Side-by-side · O*NET · BLS · AI-exposure research · Anthropic Economic Index

A factual, source-backed comparison of Dental Laboratory Technicians and Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians on the dimensions both occupations carry. Every figure is a position within an independent published dataset — not a verdict on which job is better, safer, or more “future-proof.”

Dental Laboratory Technicians Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$48,310
$38,420
Employment · BLS OEWS
33,920
18,740
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
7th pct
15th pct

At a glance

Dimension Dental Laboratory Technicians Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians
Median pay $48,310 $38,420
Employment 33,920 18,740
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Declining (-4.7%) About average (+2.3%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 3,900 2,400
Typical education · O*NET Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not. Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Low · 7th pct Low · 15th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 27th pct · 18% of tasks 16th pct · 14% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — —
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman No Yes

Pay and employment are BLS OEWS estimates; outlook and openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections; AI exposure and observed-use figures come from separate research and reflect exposure and usage, not predictions that either job will disappear. Compare like with like.

Skills

Shared: Finger Dexterity, Near Vision, Arm-Hand Steadiness, Control Precision, Administration and Management, English Language, Visualization, Production and Processing, Reading Comprehension, Customer and Personal Service, Problem Sensitivity, Deductive Reasoning, Information Ordering, Critical Thinking, Time Management, Written Comprehension, Selective Attention, Manual Dexterity, Mechanical, Operations Monitoring, Judgment and Decision Making, Oral Comprehension, Category Flexibility, Speech Recognition, Active Listening, Speaking, Monitoring, Oral Expression, Inductive Reasoning, Flexibility of Closure, Perceptual Speed, Visual Color Discrimination.

Specific to Dental Laboratory Technicians

  • Design
  • Medicine and Dentistry
  • Education and Training
  • Speech Clarity
  • Computers and Electronics
  • Active Learning
  • Complex Problem Solving
  • Writing

Specific to Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians

  • Mathematics
  • Operation and Control
  • Quality Control Analysis
  • Rate Control
  • Reaction Time
  • Wrist-Finger Speed
  • Written Expression
  • Multilimb Coordination

Knowledge, skills & abilities O*NET rates as important for each occupation. “Shared” are common to both; the columns list what is distinctive to each (top by the order O*NET surfaces).

Tools & technology

Shared: Spreadsheet software , Office suite software , Electronic mail software , Presentation software , Word processing software , Computer aided design CAD software .

Specific to Dental Laboratory Technicians

Specific to Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Dental Laboratory Technicians or Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians — tasks, the full skill graph, tools, work context, preparation, wages by percentile, industries, AI exposure and the AI work map.

More comparisons

Related occupations you can place side by side on the same sourced scale.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Dental Laboratory Technicians vs Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/dental-laboratory-technicians-vs-ophthalmic-laboratory-technicians

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Dental Laboratory Technicians vs Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/dental-laboratory-technicians-vs-ophthalmic-laboratory-technicians

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-dental-laboratory-technicians-vs-ophthalmic-laboratory-technicians,
  title  = {Dental Laboratory Technicians vs Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/dental-laboratory-technicians-vs-ophthalmic-laboratory-technicians}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.