The changing role of dental technicians in New Zealand.

Legislation now before Parliament proposes changes to the traditional role of dental technicians which will permit them to deal directly with the public in the supply of removable dental prostheses. This paper examines the historical perspectives of the role, and applies principles of social dynamics to predict probable effects and reactions to the change. The dental profession should play an important part in the training of clinical technicians; it should also ensure that the concerns and demands on resources for clinical technicians are not such that they weaken the viability of the traditional role of technicians in the supply of the technically sophisticated appliances and prostheses required in the delivery of modern dental care.