Make and fit dentures, often in a clinic of your own. Three years of college and a licence in every province.
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Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $54,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $33,000 at the lower end to about $122,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
3 years after high school, on the usual route.
$18,000 to $45,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
Yes. It is a regulated job, so you need a licence or registration before you can work.
Good demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$54,000
Lower end
$33,000
Upper end
$122,000
Job Bank calls this job denturologist and reports a median of $54,000 a year from the 2021 Census, with a lower end of $32,867 and an upper end of $122,000. Many denturists are self-employed, so Job Bank gives yearly earnings, and the census counts part-timers and new grads, so the median looks low. Job Bank does not say which jobs sit at the top.
$69,000 a year
The median in Saskatchewan, the highest of the provinces Job Bank reports
Quebec follows at $59,600. Ontario is at $46,400 and British Columbia is the lowest, at $44,400. Many new grads work for an established denturist or a dental office first to build speed and learn the business side. Rural areas with older populations hire fastest.
Your own business
Owners keep what is left after rent, lab costs and staff
You make the dentures yourself, so the margin is yours. The catch is the start-up cost: a clinic with its own lab takes a bank loan.
Roughly, all in
$18,000 to $45,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is the three year diploma at Vancouver Community College, about $12,000 in total, plus instruments, a lab kit and uniforms and the first year of registration. The high end is the same three year diploma in Ontario or Alberta where it costs considerably more, with a fuller kit and the provincial qualifying exam, which in Ontario is a written and a clinical exam. Registration and insurance then run $1,000 to $2,000 a year for as long as you practise. This is far cheaper than dental school, but opening a clinic of your own later costs six figures and is not in these numbers.
Roughly $18,000 to $45,000 total. Cheaper than dental school by a mile, but a clinic of your own costs six figures to set up later.
Few, if you are self-employed
No pension, no paid vacation, no employer health plan. You buy your own.
Ownership
A clinic is an asset you can sell when you retire.
Daytime hours
Almost no evenings, nights or emergencies.
Employee jobs
Some dental offices and larger denture chains pay a salary with a small benefits package.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A three-year college diploma, then a provincial licensing exam everywhere except Quebec, where graduates join the order with no exam.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Grade 12 English, biology and a physics or chemistry. Vancouver Community College also runs a manual dexterity test.
Denturism diploma
3 years
Three years at one of a handful of schools: NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) in Edmonton, Vancouver Community College, George Brown College in Toronto, or a Quebec college. Two years of lab and classroom work, then a clinical year treating real patients.
Provincial qualifying exam
After graduation
Each province outside Quebec runs its own; Quebec graduates take no entrance exam. Ontario's has a written part and a hands-on clinical exam.
Register with your provincial college
A few weeks
For example the College of Denturists of Ontario or the College of Alberta Denturists. Then you can practise and use the title.
Biology
Required at most programs.
Physics or chemistry
One of them is usually required.
English
Required. You will explain and sell treatment to patients.
Art, sculpture or shop class
Dentures are hand-shaped. Programs test your dexterity.
Business
Most denturists end up running a clinic.
Only a registered denturist may call themselves one or fit dentures directly for the public. Each province has its own regulator: the College of Denturists of Ontario, the College of Alberta Denturists, the BC (British Columbia) College of Oral Health Professionals, and so on. There is no single national exam, so moving provinces can mean writing another qualifying exam. Scope rules, such as which partial dentures you may fit without a dentist's exam first, vary a bit by province.
Very few schools. Some examples:
George Brown College
Toronto
NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology)
Edmonton, with a clinic on campus
Vancouver Community College
British Columbia
Cégep Édouard-Montpetit
Quebec, in French
Quebec has one denturism program, in French at Cégep Édouard-Montpetit, and its graduates join the order without a separate licensing exam.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
With Secondary V physics, which the program requires.
Denturism Techniques DEC (Diploma of College Studies), 110.B0
3 years
Techniques de denturologie, 3 years and 2,745 hours, only at Cégep Édouard-Montpetit in Longueuil, in French. Fall start only, and you apply through the SRAM (Montreal regional admissions service).
Student clinic
During the program
The college runs a denturism clinic open to the public, where students treat patients. Clinical placements start in first year.
Show French
Before applying
Three years of full-time study in French counts, as does a Quebec high school diploma from 1986 on. Otherwise you pass the provincial French exam.
Join the Ordre des denturologistes du Québec
After graduating
The Quebec order of denturists. Quebec graduates write no entrance exam: you apply, pay and get your permit. The first year cost $1,148.97 in 2025 to 2026, insurance included.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Implant-supported dentures
Extra courses to work with dentists and surgeons on implant cases. Higher fees per patient.
Mobile service
Visiting long-term care homes and remote communities. Little competition.
Digital dentures
Scanning and 3D printing instead of hand-packing acrylic. Faster, and patients like it.
Your own lab
Making dentures for other clinics on the side.
Shadow a denturist
Programs expect you to know what the job looks like. Some require a career investigation.
Anything that trains your hands
Model making, sculpting, jewellery, drawing.
Work in a dental office or lab
Shows you know the environment.
Comfort talking to seniors
Most of your patients will be over 60.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Mornings are patients: an examination and impressions for a new set, a fitting where you adjust the bite, a reline, a repair for someone who dropped theirs. Afternoons are often in the lab in the back, pouring models, setting teeth in wax, and processing acrylic. Owners also fit in the phone, the supplies, and the bookkeeping. Most clinics close by 5.
The good
The hard parts
Like the field but not this exact job?
Things people don't tell you.
For decades, the people who made dentures were dental mechanics or denture therapists working behind the scenes for dentists. Alberta was the first province to license them to see patients directly, in the early 1960s. The title denturist came later and is now used across Canada.
A denturist is the only dental professional who both sees the patient and makes the appliance. Dentists send crowns and dentures out to a lab. A denturist takes the impression in the front room and pours the model in the back.
In the Canadian Health Measures Survey, the share of people aged 60 to 79 with no natural teeth fell from about 1 in 5 (22%) in 2007 to 2009 to fewer than 1 in 10 (8%) in 2022 to 2024, Statistics Canada reported in 2025. People are keeping their teeth longer, but the number of seniors keeps growing.
The Canadian Dental Care Plan, launched in 2024, covers denturist services for eligible lower-income Canadians. For many denture clinics it opened the door to patients who had been putting off treatment for years.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Dental and eye care first, then the rest of the field. See every career in health.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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