A dental specialist is a dentist first: the specialty rests on the same dental-school degree any dentist holds, followed by an accredited residency in one field — usually two to four years beyond dental school, with oral and maxillofacial surgery typically four to six (BLS).
Admission is competitive, and several specialties admit through a formal match.
After residency, specialists can add board certification from their field's certifying board, which eleven of the twelve fields have on the National Commission's recognized list.
Here's how residencies, the match, and board certification work.
The recognized dental specialties
Dentistry recognizes 12 specialties, each requiring dedicated residency training after dental school; eleven of the twelve have a certifying board on the National Commission's recognized list — oral and maxillofacial radiology is the one without a board on that list.
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 (most dental programs require one) and dental school for a DDS or DMD — the same path covered in how to become a dentist.
Practicing as any kind of dentist also means a state license: licensure usually requires the degree plus written and clinical exams, and requirements vary by state (BLS).
Specialty residency is built on top of that foundation.
You apply to residency during or after dental school.
The published data doesn't rank what residency programs weigh in admission — the match guide covers what it does publish.
The residency — and the match
Specialty residencies are accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA), which sets a minimum duration per specialty rather than a single typical length.
Endodontics and pediatric dentistry each carry a 24-month full-time minimum; orthodontics carries a 24-month minimum that must also schedule at least 3,700 hours; and oral and maxillofacial surgery carries the longest minimum — four years of full-time study with at least 120 weeks devoted to clinical OMS.
Some OMS programs also award a medical degree (BLS).
These are accreditation floors, not typical program lengths — actual lengths vary by program.
Admission is competitive and, for several specialties, runs through a formal matching process that pairs applicants with programs.
For the actual applicant and position counts, specialty by specialty, see which dental specialty is hardest to match into.
Residency and board rules change — verify before you rely on them
Are dental residents paid?
Often yes — but it runs by program type, not by a going rate.
The two general-dentistry residencies — the general practice residency (GPR) and advanced education in general dentistry (AEGD) — lean paid: nearly all GPR programs pay their residents a stipend, most with no tuition on top, while AEGD programs spread across programs that pay a stipend, programs that charge tuition, and programs that offer neither.
For orthodontics the direction flips: most of its programs charge tuition (57 of 69), only 31 paid a stipend, and the field's average stipend sits below its average tuition — orthodontics residents are more often paying into the year than being paid through it.
There is no single "resident salary" figure behind any of this, either.
These figures come from CODA's 2025-26 Survey of Advanced Dental Education, which measures stipends and averages them only among the programs that pay one — and the survey defines a stipend as money toward tuition and fees, not as a wage.
The first-year stipend and tuition averages for every program type — GPR, AEGD, oral surgery, orthodontics, endodontics, and the rest — are on our dental resident salary guide.
Board certification
After residency, specialists can pursue certification from their field's 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.
Eleven of the twelve recognized specialties have a certifying board on the National Commission's recognized list; oral and maxillofacial radiology is the one without.
Per the National Commission, a board-certified specialist is someone who has completed dental school and the advanced education residency, passed the board's certification exam, and keeps up the continuing education required to stay certified.
Certification is voluntary — not a legal requirement to practice the specialty.
Is specializing worth it?
Specializing trades several more years and cost for a focused scope.
On pay: BLS publishes medians for four specialist groups, and all four sit above general dentistry's $170,950 — oral and maxillofacial surgery $352,220, prosthodontists $311,180, orthodontists $289,140, and the grouped "dentists, all other specialists" $224,990 (May 2025).
How much of that gap survives once the ranges, ownership and the extra training years are counted is its own comparison — see which dental specialty pays the most.
The decision comes down to the work you want to do, your appetite for more training and competition, and lifestyle and financial goals — including how a specialty's practice is structured, which the 12 dental specialties explained covers field by field.
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.