Dental Laboratory Technician salary in Hickory

At a verified median of $48,810, dental laboratory technicians in Hickory earn slightly below the U.S. median of $49,610 — a gap of about 2%. Among the 377 metro areas where the BLS reports dental laboratory technician pay, Hickory ranks 171st.

Compared with North Carolina as a whole (median $49,700), Hickory pays dental laboratory technicians about 2% less than the statewide median. Local demand, cost of labor, and the mix of practices drive most of that difference.

The pay range is wide: the lowest-paid tenth of dental laboratory technicians in this metro area earn around $29,790, while the top tenth earn $72,660 or more — a spread of about $42,870. That gap reflects experience, practice setting, and local demand more than any single factor, so an individual offer can sit well above or below the midpoint.

The BLS counts roughly 40 dental laboratory technicians employed in Hickory — a measure of how deep the local job market is for the role.

Within Hickory, a dental laboratory technician earns about 4.0× less than a general dentist, about 1.9× less than a dental hygienist and about 1.0× what a dental assistant earns ($193,320, $94,050, $48,720 respectively) — a quick way to see where the role sits in the local dental pay ladder.