Every dental specialist starts as a general dentist, then completes an accredited residency in one specialty — typically two to six years beyond dental school, depending on the field.
Admission is competitive, often through a formal match, and most specialists go on to earn board certification from their specialty's certifying board.
Here's how residencies, the match, and board certification actually work.
The recognized dental specialties
Dentistry recognizes 12 specialties, each requiring dedicated residency training after dental school and each with its own certifying board.
The most familiar are orthodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, endodontics, pediatric dentistry, periodontics, and prosthodontics (compared directly in periodontist vs. prosthodontist); the rest are smaller diagnostic, hospital, and public-health fields.
What each specialty treats — and why older sources still say there are nine — is covered in the 12 dental specialties explained.
This guide covers the machinery that gets a general dentist into one of them: the residency, the match, and the board.
Step one: become a dentist
There's no shortcut around the base degree.
Before any specialty, you complete a bachelor's degree, four years of dental school for a DDS or DMD, and licensure — the same path covered in how to become a dentist.
Specialty residency is built on top of that foundation.
You apply to residency during or after dental school, and strong grades, board scores, research, and clinical experience all factor into a competitive application.
The residency — and the match
A dental residency is accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA), which sets a minimum duration per specialty rather than a single typical length.
Endodontics, orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics, and pediatric dentistry each carry a 24-month full-time minimum (orthodontics also requires at least 3,700 scheduled hours); oral and maxillofacial surgery is the longest, with a four-year minimum and at least 120 weeks devoted to clinical OMS, and some programs also award a medical degree.
These are accreditation floors, not typical program lengths — actual lengths vary by program and aren't published beyond that minimum.
Admission is competitive and, for several specialties, runs through a formal matching process that pairs applicants with programs.
The most competitive specialties accept a small fraction of applicants, which is why residency admission — not the coursework alone — is often the hardest step.
See which dental specialty is hardest to match into for the actual applicant and position counts, specialty by specialty.
Board certification
After residency, most specialists pursue board certification from their field's certifying board — for example the American Board of Orthodontics, the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, the American Board of Endodontics, or the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry.
Each board sets its own exams and requirements.
Board certification is generally voluntary rather than legally required to practice the specialty, but it's a widely recognized mark of expertise and is often expected by employers and patients.
Many boards also require ongoing renewal to keep certification current.
Is specializing worth it?
Specializing trades several more years and cost for a focused scope and, usually, higher pay — specialists generally out-earn general dentists, though the ranges overlap and the pay ranking is narrower than it looks.
It also shapes your practice: some specialties are direct-to-patient (orthodontics, pediatric dentistry), while others are largely referral-driven (endodontics, periodontics, oral surgery, prosthodontics).
The decision comes down to the work you want to do, your appetite for more training and competition, and lifestyle and financial goals.
For the specialty-specific paths, see the individual specialist guides — for example, how to become an orthodontist.
This article is general career information. Residency requirements, specialty recognition, and board rules change over time — confirm current details with the relevant program or specialty board.