An endodontist is a dentist who specializes in diagnosing and treating problems of the dental pulp — the soft tissue inside the tooth — and the tissues around the tooth's root.
That is the definition; in plain terms, it's the root canal specialist — the dentist other dentists send root canal cases to.
Becoming one takes at least 24 months of full-time specialty training after dental school (CODA's published minimum), in a residency whose required training spans non-surgical and surgical endodontic treatment and retreatment.
What is an endodontist?
An endodontist is a dentist who has completed specialty training in endodontics, the branch of dentistry concerned with the dental pulp (the soft tissue inside the tooth) and the tissues around the tooth's root.
The National Commission on Recognition of Dental Specialties and Certifying Boards — the ADA body that formally recognizes dental specialties — defines endodontics as "the dental specialty which is concerned with the morphology, biology, physiology, pathology and regeneration of the human dental pulp and periradicular tissues," including the etiology, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diseases and injuries of the pulp and associated periradicular conditions.
"Periradicular" simply means the tissues at and around the root, so the definition, decoded, covers the living tissue inside the tooth plus the tissues immediately around it.
That definition is also the meaning of the title in everyday terms: an endodontist is the inside-of-the-tooth specialist, the dentist other dentists send a tooth to when the pulp — the part a root canal treats — is diseased or injured.
The signature procedure is the root canal, the treatment for the diseased or injured pulp the definition names.
Endodontics is one of the 12 dental specialties the National Commission currently recognizes; how the full list fits together is covered separately.
General dentists perform root canals too.
What makes the endodontist a separate chair is the residency behind the title and a caseload built on referrals from other dentists — the sections below take each in turn.
What does an endodontist do day to day?
The core work is root canal therapy — the treatment that follows from the specialty's definition, treating diseases and injuries of the pulp — together with retreatment of root canals that didn't heal and endodontic surgery.
That caseload maps onto CODA's accreditation standards for endodontics, which require training in non-surgical and surgical endodontic treatment and retreatment; the standards' instruction topics also list implant dentistry, as a didactic topic.
Diagnosis runs through all of it: the specialty's scope begins with the etiology, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diseases and injuries of the pulp and the conditions around the root.
Endodontics is a referral-driven specialty: cases arrive from the general dentists who send them, so the practice runs on those relationships with referring dentists.
Endodontist vs. general dentist (when GPs refer)
General dentists perform root canals themselves and refer cases out as well; the endodontist's caseload is the referred side of that split.
Exactly where the line sits — which root canal cases a GP keeps, which go out, and how the patient is referred back for the final restoration — is its own comparison, so it gets its own page: endodontist vs. general dentist.
What holds on both sides is the direction of the relationship: endodontics is referral-driven, and the specialty's 24-month-plus residency (next section) is the training behind the title other dentists refer to.
How you become an endodontist
The path is dental school plus an endodontics residency.
First you become a dentist — a bachelor's degree, four years of dental school for a DDS or DMD, and licensure.
Then you complete an accredited endodontics residency — CODA's published minimum is 24 months of full-time study — with required training that spans non-surgical and surgical endodontic treatment and retreatment.
Board certification comes from the American Board of Endodontics (ABE) — see how the three-stage ABE process works.
It's a referral-driven specialty, so relationships with referring general dentists are part of the career alongside the clinical training.
See the step-by-step guide to how to become an endodontist or the deep dive on what the endodontics residency actually requires.
How much does an endodontist earn?
There's no endodontics-specific federal wage figure — the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics groups the role under "Dentists, all other specialists" (SOC 29-1029), whose median is $224,990 per year (OEWS, May 2025).
That category combines several specialties, so it is a grouped figure rather than an endodontist wage.
The nearest named-source anchor is ADA HPI's Survey of Dental Practice: its latest published median net income for private-practice endodontists is $279,040, for 2021 — HPI has suppressed the endodontist figures for every year since.
Ownership is one reason any figure is directional: BLS's OEWS wage estimates leave out the self-employed and owners and partners in unincorporated firms.
ADA HPI counted 26.9% of endodontists practicing solo in 2024, with another 16.6% in groups with 100 or more locations, so practice structures vary widely across the specialty — and region and case mix vary too.
Treat any figure as directional and check current listings; to browse roles, see endodontist jobs.
Endodontist pay figures are directional