The Asheville, NC VA Medical Center has an immediate opening for (1) Dental Laboratory Technician. The Incumbent functions in the Dental Laboratory as a fully qualified and experienced technician. His/her advice is sought on a regular and recurring basis by the staff dentists.

Duties

Major duties and responsibilities include: Designs and fabricates very complex dental or intra-oral maxillofacial appliances. This involves ( 1) working with dental and medical specialists in developing the design of the appliance, (2) personally fabricating the appliance, and (3) resolving problems in its fabrication. Reproduce dentures with a high degree of precision and accuracy; carefully record the relationship of teeth and ridge; remove teeth from dentures, reposition and wax teeth for processing. Construct and fabricate bite raisers, cleft palate obturators, fracture splints, immediate dentures, surgical template, and orthodontic appliances. Provide recommendations, which may be accepted and incorporated, into the patient treatment plan without significant modification. Also consults in the laboratory concerning the follow-up actions with ongoing cases. Provides on-the-job training and basic dental laboratory instruction to special individuals ( dental hygienists, dental assistants, dental students and residents) assigned on an intermittent basis for understudy or training in terminology, morphology, oral anatomy, dental materials and use of tools and equipment. Communicate with patients about concerns regarding the esthetics of their present prosthesis. Make a recommendation concerning possible corrections to the dentist(s). These recommendations are also generally accepted and incorporated without significant modification. Work Schedule: Monday-Thursday 7:30am and 5:00pm Friday 7:30am - 4:00pm; Alternating Friday off. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Dental Laboratory Technician/PD04093A Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 09/01/2023. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-9 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-8. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-08 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: using dental laboratory material such as impression materials, plasters, stones, hydrocolloids, waxes, metals, acrylics, porcelain, and similar materials; using laboratory equipment such as hand tools, dental lathes, engines, and hand pieces, furnaces, casting machines, presses, flasks, and related equipment; using precision instruments such as articulators, surveyors, and microanalyzers; constructing dental prosthetic appliances; fabricating complex removable and fixed oral-maxillofacial appliance including fixed, semifixed, or removable implant cases, partial and complete dentures, and complex porcelain crowns and fixed bridges. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successfully completed two full years of graduate education or a master's degree that is directly related to the work of this position as a Dental Lab Technician. NOTE TO APPLICANTS: One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent one year of full-time study; if that number cannot be obtained from the transcript, 18 semester hours will be considered as one full academic year of graduate study. OR, Combination of Specialized Experience and Education: an equivalent combination of experience and graduate level education beyond the first 18 semester hours that is directly related to the work of this position as a Dental Lab Technician. Transcripts Required. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Eye-Hand CoordinationSelf-Management Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: Work requires some bending, stooping, lifting of supplies and long periods of standing. The work is generally performed in a dental laboratory separated from the dental operatory. Will be required to wear safety glasses to minimize possible hazards during fabrication of prosthetic appliances and comply with other OSHA safety regulations. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

Education

A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.

Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html.

Contacts

• Address Charles George VA Medical Center 1100 Tunnel Road Asheville, NC 28805 US
• Name: Delores Harris
• Phone: 919-956-5541
• Email: [email protected]