Well its not my career, but it's my current job.

I enlisted in the Air Force with an open contract, meaning I didn't know what my specific job would be, but I knew it would be a certain segment of all the jobs they offered.

I ended up landing Dental Lab Tech.

This is a job basically no one knows about. I know I didn't know it existed, let alone the military had them.

Basically, we are the people who make nearly everything that goes in your mouth. We make crowns and bridges (porcelain or gold), implants, dentures, retainers, night guards, sports guards, sleep apnea devices, custom made ear pieces for guys on the flightline, flippers (basically a retainer with a missing tooth in it), removable partial dentures, we even maxillofacial stuff replacing eyeballs and ears.

Anything that the dentist puts in your mouth permanently, or stuff they give you to put in and take out, we make.

It's all hands on, very arts and craftsy, and you need good hands. It takes skill to make a tooth look like an actual tooth, or to control acrylic, pour stone, etc. We get to do some cool things like casting (melt gold with a blow torch) and shoot it into an investment ring, out pops your gold crown when it cools down). We spend all day manipulating waxes, metals, bending wire, polishing metals, shaping acrylic.

It's really an interesting job, that a lot of time has to be spent to get a good skill level at. And you probably thought your dentist made your retainer. Nope. I did.