Heather Pear, CDT: Loves the Palette of Possibilities

Heather Pear grew up with a lab in her home and knew from a young age that she wanted to be a technician. At age 15 she worked with her mother—Carol Ruset, CDT, MDT—helping with model and die work and learning every aspect of the lab. "I remember watching her build up a crown and longing to do that part of the job!" she says.

After gaining more experience as a technician in an in-office laboratory in Naples, FL, Pear opened her own one-person C&B lab. But when she became the mother of twins five years later, the responsibilities of both became overwhelming. So in 2010, she switched gears by closing her lab and joining AR Dental Lab in Toms River, NJ, as a ceramist or, as she calls it "her dream job."

There, Pear is building a reputation as a custom shade specialist and sees at least one patient a week, a service the lab is now pushing because of her. "If you're just seeing the prescription, you can't see the whole story. I like to see how the teeth...