50-Year Veteran Still Going Strong
Posted Mar 03, 2015 in Labs & Profiles
In his 50-plus-year career in dental technology, David Zielinski, CDT, FNBC, has worn many hats: technician, lab owner, instructor, R&D evaluator, consultant and author. So which one has been his favorite? “All of them,” says Zielinski, who has no plans to retire anytime soon.
His career in dental technology began as many do: by chance. While studying advertising and art at the University of Buffalo (UB) in 1965, he got a job as a laboratory’s part-time pick up and delivery person and ended up falling in love with the craft, especially ceramics. After his freshman year, he left UB to attend the Kerpel School of Dental Technology in New York City and, when he graduated two years later, he got a job at a university teaching laboratory procedures to dental assistants. His salary? $8,700 a year.
To supplement his income, in 1969 he got a $6,000 business loan and opened his own one-man C&B laboratory—David’s Dental Lab in West Seneca, NY—in...
