The Alps Technology Academy, Inc.

THE MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Welcome to the ALPS Technology Academy. You passed our stringent screening requirements. To us, this is a proof of your strong will and capacity to learn.

You have chosen to train to become a dental technician, a very specialized and financially rewarding profession. Here at ALPS Technology Academy, you will receive the best training in dental technology. The Academy has an excellent academic curriculum that can effectively impart to you the knowledge, principles and values necessary to be a good dental technician. Your skills will be honed using our complete and advanced facilities and equipment.

As President of this Academy, I will complement your education by share with you insights that come from my years of experience as a dentist and dental technician. I will start by providing you with a few practical guidance.

THE PRACTICAL GUIDANCE

First, you must understand the profession you chose, dental technology, involves the making of an appendage to an organ of a human body. You should face your profession therefore with dedication and absolute confidence.

Second, you must learn and understand all the knowledge related to dental technology and acquire the necessary skills. However, you should do this in a deliberate manner and without haste. You have to memorize accurately and give yourself adequate time to learn.

Third, practice with discipline. You must continue a long series of training of refining dentures or prosthetics; repetitive practice is the most effective way of acquiring and enhancing your skills. This can be done effectively through a disciplined adherence to a strict training schedule.

Fourth, observe and learn from successful persons. You will find three characteristics common among them.

Persistence and steadfast in their efforts.

Powerful ability to concentrate.

Interest to learn and gain deep insight about everything.

Maintaining your focus on your desired result, combined with continuous hard work, helps successful people reach what they had set out to achieve.

Fifth, develop good friends. Good friends are your mirror and evaluator. They can provide you with an objective viewpoint about yourself—your strengths and more importantly your weaknesses. Likewise, good friends can share and affirm moral values that will guide you to be an upright person.

Sixth, seek and listen to advices of senior friends or your teachers, and read as many books as possible. You will enrich your wisdom and make you wiser. These will also help you discover new insights about yourself.

The above practical guidance directs you towards an integral self-training to attain a mature personality, which is the foundation of your ability and skills as a dental technician.

THE FUNDAMENTAL GUIDANCE

Motto of the Academy

The Academy adheres to the following motto:
- Learn up slowly, pick up accurately, finishing up quickly and clearly.
- No pain, no gain.
- Sweet is the fruit of labour
Advantages Offered by the Academy

The Academy offers the following advantages to its students:
- A comprehensive course where they can acquire total knowledge in dental technology techniques; and a wide coverage of trainings from drawing of oral anatomy to full arch carving.
- Access to the heist machinery and dental apparatus where one can practice and hone one's skills. Graduates of the Academy can also use the facilities of an affiliate, an acknowledged pioneer training center in the country.
- Opportunity to listen to foreign specialists in the field of dental technology that the Academy invites to hold seminars.
Educational Policy of the Academy

The Academy educates students with the end view of developing them:
- As leaders in the field of dental technology.
- To be independent and capable of managing their own dental technology practice and business.
- As well-rounded dental technicians that combine accuracy, fineness and quickness in their job with functional creativity and aesthetic sense.

THE BASIC KNOWLEDGE

What is a Dental Technician
The dental technician is a person who produces, processes and repairs dental treatment appliances, like prosthodontics, restorative or orthodontic appliances based on the prescriptions of a dentist. A dental technician performs these tasks in a laboratory.
The relation between a dental technician and a dentist
The dentist specializes and performs duties related to the medical care for oral cavity. The dental technician is charged with the production of prosthetics on a cast as prescribed by the dentist. Prior to this separation of duties between the dentist and dental technician, the dentist used to performs both duties.
What makes an effective dental technician?
To be effective, a dental technician must strive for the following:
- One must have finished the required specialized vocational training where one acquired the basic knowledge and skills for the duty.
- Develop and maintain close working relationships and coordination with dentists. ?
- To know by heart the required materials in prosthetic-making, such as metals, porcelain and resins. 4.
- To keep an insatiable thirst for knowledge and skills. 5.
- Improve on one’s skills and techniques to accurately meet the various condition of each patient or dental case. The morphology of the teeth, condition of dentition and occlusal relation vary from one patient to another. The dental technician should therefore be able to make the most adjusted prosthodontics for each patient.
- Master the systematic operation of machineries in the dental technology laboratory.
The ethics of a Dental Technician
The Dental Technician must:
- Must exhibit professionalism and expertise in performing his duties.
- Must be responsible for his/her work and the result of such work.
- Must treat his duties with utmost dedication and care because it is related to human health and welfare.
- Must maintain through his/her technique a moralistic attitude to contribute to the society. 5.
- Must have complete devotion to his/her occupation as a means to improve ones occupational status.

THE DENTAL TECHNOLOGY PROFESSION IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

A. GERMANY
To be a dental technician in Germany, one must complete the required course. After which, he/she must serve as trainee in a dental laboratory for three years. As a trainee, he/she has to attend the school for dental technique once a week. The remaining four days of the week are spent in the laboratory for practical training.

After completing the three-year training period, the trainee can take the board examination for dental technicians. He/she then officially becomes a dental technician when he passed the examination.

To open and own a dental laboratory, a dental technician must obtain the title of Meister . A dental technician must have at least three to five years of experience in dental laboratory work to qualify in a Meister school. In the Meister school, the dental technician will undergo a one-year course. Once a Meister , the dental technician should be able to train and educate new trainees.

B. AMERICA
There is very minimal difference between the requirements of each State in the USA to be a dental technician. A dental technician can work in a dental laboratory even without any qualification.

However, if one wants to open a dental laboratory, one must obtain a Certificate of Dental Technician (CDT) , which is recognized by the Association of Dental Technicians. One can earn this certificate by studying the required two-year course in a school for dental technology. The school must be accredited by the Association of Dentists. Then, after completing the course, he/she must gain three years of experience. Finally, he/she must pass an examination that the Association of Dental Technicians administers.

C. JAPAN
A person who wants to be dental technician must be a senior high school graduate. He/she can enroll in dental technology course, which can run for two years in day schools or three years in night schools. After completing the course, he/she needs to take and pass the board examination for dental technicians.

Those who passed the board examination can open and manage a dental laboratory. A person who did not pass the examination is not allowed to make prosthetics.

In Japan, the “Article for Dental Technique” was amended as “Article of Dental Technician” to provide a better status for dental technicians.

D. PHILIPPINES
Dental technology courses are normally part of the course offerings in many colleges in the Philippines. This Academy is the only independent school accredited to offer courses for dental technicians. One must be a high school graduate to be accepted in this Academy.

A graduate of dental technology course is given a “Certificate of Dental Technician.” No board examination is required to practice this profession. In fact, many so-called dental technicians have no formal training or education in dental technology. They honed their skills and gained their knowledge only through experience.

The Academy is requesting the government that it be allowed to expand the course to a diploma course. This would entail the increase its curriculum years from two to four years. The Academy expects that through this the status of the dental technology profession will be improved.