In dentistry, CDT means two different things — the American Dental Association's Current Dental Terminology billing codes, and the Certified Dental Technician credential this article covers.
A Certified Dental Technician (CDT) is a dental lab technician who has passed three exams — written Comprehensive and Specialty exams, plus a hands-on Practical exam — administered by the National Board for Certification in Dental Laboratory Technology (NBC) in one of seven recognized specialties.
Searchers also call this "certified dental lab technician" — same person, same exams; "lab" belongs to the job title, not the credential's official name.
It's a voluntary professional certification, not a state license.
What is a certified dental lab technician?
Searching "CDT" in a dental context turns up two unrelated things.
One is Current Dental Terminology, the ADA's procedure code set used for billing and insurance claims — nothing to do with a person's credentials; see CDT codes: what a dental billing coordinator needs to know for that side of the acronym.
The other is the Certified Dental Technician, the individual certification this article is about.
A Certified Dental Technician has passed three exams — a written Comprehensive exam, a written Specialty exam, and a hands-on Practical exam — administered by the National Board for Certification in Dental Laboratory Technology (NBC).
For the role itself, see what a dental lab technician does; for the full path into the job, including the CDT inside that broader career timeline, see how to become a dental lab technician.
The phrase "certified dental lab technician" names the same person.
The NBC's official credential title is Certified Dental Technician — the "lab" belongs to the job title (dental lab technician), not to the credential's name — and both phrasings describe a technician who has passed the same three NBC exams.
The NBC describes certification as voluntary rather than a legal requirement to work at the bench, and BLS says that while certification is optional, it may make candidates more attractive to employers and improve advancement — which is the practical case technicians weigh it on.
The three exams: Comprehensive, Specialty, and Practical
CDT certification requires passing three exams, and the NBC lets a candidate take them in any order — but all three must be passed within a four-year period.
- Comprehensive exam — a written exam covering the general body of dental laboratory technology knowledge.
- Specialty exam — a written exam taken within one of the NBC's seven recognized specialty areas.
- Practical exam — a hands-on fabrication exam in that same specialty, evaluated for craft and technical accuracy rather than multiple-choice recall.
The seven recognized specialties a candidate chooses between for the Specialty and Practical exams are Ceramics, Complete Dentures, Crown & Bridge, Digital Workflow, Implants, Orthodontics, and Partial Dentures.
"Digital Workflow" being one of the seven is notable on its own — it means CAD/CAM and digital lab work is a certifiable discipline in its own right, not just a tool added on top of traditional bench work.
See CAD/CAM and digital workflow skills in a dental lab for what that specialty actually looks like on the job.
The Ceramics specialty: the lane with its own job title
Ceramics is the NBC specialty that lines up most directly with a name you'll already know from the bench.
BLS says dental lab technicians who make ceramic restorations such as veneers and bridges are called ceramists — so the work and the credential slot together: a working ceramist can hold a CDT in Ceramics, earned through the same written Specialty exam and hands-on Practical structure as any other specialty choice.
There's a step above the single-specialty CDT, too.
The NBC awards Master CDT status to a CDT who passes the written specialty and practical exams in five specialty areas — and there's no separate NBC "master ceramist" title: "master ceramist" is an industry job title, not a credential.
What the Ceramics Specialty and Practical exams cover isn't detailed in the NBC materials this article sources — confirm current exam content and prerequisites directly with the NBC before registering.
For the job itself — the porcelain layering, shade matching, and hand-finishing the lane is known for — see what a dental ceramist does.
Who's eligible to sit the CDT exams
The NBC's application materials carry the baseline criteria a technician has to meet to sit the CDT exams, and those criteria are the application gate — the NBC's site is where the current list lives, so confirm it there before applying.
How much documented experience the NBC expects before testing is set by its published certification pathway, and it differs by background: technicians without a degree need at least five years of documented dental-technology training and/or experience — apprenticeships and training courses count — or fewer years combined with documented continuing education (4 years + 75 CE hours, 3 + 150, or 2 + 225), while graduates of an ADA-accredited dental laboratory technology program (or the Department of Defense lab technician course) need at least two years of documented training and experience after graduation.
If you're weighing which route to take before you're exam-ready, how to become a dental lab technician covers both the accredited-program and on-the-job paths in full.
What the CDT exams cost
What the three exams cost is a number only the NBC's current fee schedule can answer.
Exam fees change over time, so this article doesn't restate them — confirm the current per-exam amounts for the Comprehensive, Specialty, and Practical exams directly on the NBC's site before budgeting for certification.
Confirm what happens cost-wise if an exam has to be re-taken at the same time: that, too, is the NBC's to publish, not ours to guess.
How and where the exams are administered
Where and how the three exams are administered — test centers versus remote arrangements, and what supervision looks like — is set by the NBC's current exam policies, and those details change.
Confirm the current administration arrangements for all three exams directly with the NBC when you register.
What this article can state is the structure the NBC publishes: a written Comprehensive exam, a written Specialty exam, and a hands-on Practical exam, with the Specialty and Practical both taken in the same one of the seven recognized specialties.
Keeping the CDT current: recertification and continuing education
A CDT renews on an annual cycle, and each renewal requires 12 hours of continuing education, split three ways: 1 hour of Regulatory Standards, 6 hours of Scientific content, and 5 hours of professional development.
What counts inside each bucket — including which courses the NBC approves — is detail the NBC's current recertification materials carry, so confirm a course counts with the NBC before relying on it toward renewal.
We didn't find a renewal fee published on the NBC's CDT materials — this article doesn't state one, and you shouldn't assume it's free.
Confirm the current renewal fee directly with the NBC when you're up for recertification.
What isn't published — and what this article won't guess
Other NBC credentials you may see referenced
The NBC also administers a laboratory-level certification called CDL and a separate RG (Recognized Graduate) credential, both distinct from the individual CDT credential covered here.
This article doesn't detail their separate requirements — for either, see the NBC directly.
Sourced from the National Board for Certification in Dental Laboratory Technology (nbccert.org), current as of the date above. NBC exam formats, fees, and requirements change over time — verify current details directly with the NBC before applying or budgeting for the exams.