A pediatric dentist — also called a pediatric dental specialist — is a dentist who has completed specialty training in children's oral health, caring for patients from a baby's first tooth through the teenage years, including kids with special health-care needs.
On top of general dentistry, the specialty adds child behavior management, growth and development, and the techniques for treating anxious or very young patients.
It takes an accredited residency after dental school — at least 24 months by CODA's accreditation floor.
What is a pediatric dentist?
A pediatric dentist — often written as pediatric dental specialist — is a dentist who has specialized in treating children.
The two titles describe the same provider, not two different credentials: "pediatric dental specialist" is simply the descriptive phrase for a dentist trained in this specialty.
Pediatric dentistry is one of the 12 dental specialties the ADA's National Commission on Recognition of Dental Specialties and Certifying Boards recognizes, which defines it as "an age-defined specialty that provides both primary and comprehensive preventive and therapeutic oral health care for infants and children through adolescence, including those with special health care needs."
The clinical work overlaps with general dentistry — exams, cleanings, fillings, sealants — but the specialty is defined by the patients: infants, children, teenagers, and patients with special needs, whose care requires different skills and approaches.
That means training in child psychology and behavior guidance, growth and development, and techniques (including sedation where appropriate) for treating young or anxious patients safely and calmly.
Where a general dentist may see children, a pediatric dentist is built around them.
It's also a sizable specialty: the ADA Health Policy Institute counted 9,521 professionally active dentists holding a pediatric dentistry certificate or degree in 2025, up from 4,213 in 2001, out of 205,088 professionally active dentists overall.
What does a pediatric dentist do day to day?
The day is general dentistry adapted for kids: exams and cleanings, cavity treatment and fillings, sealants and fluoride, and monitoring how teeth and jaws are developing.
Threaded through all of it is behavior management — helping frightened or wiggly children through a visit, and coaching parents on prevention and habits.
Pediatric dentists also handle early orthodontic assessment and referrals, manage dental trauma in active kids, and provide sedation or hospital dentistry for extensive treatment or patients who can't tolerate the chair.
Much of the practice is built on reassurance and parent trust.
Pediatric dentist vs. general dentist
Many general dentists happily treat children, so for routine care either can be a fine choice.
The pediatric specialist's edge shows with the harder situations: very young children, significant dental anxiety, special-needs patients, extensive treatment needing sedation, and complex behavior management.
Parents often choose a pediatric dentist for the child-focused environment and expertise, and general dentists refer children they'd rather a specialist handle.
It's less a hard line than a matter of complexity and comfort.
How you become a pediatric dentist
The path is dental school plus a pediatric 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 a pediatric dentistry residency accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA): the accreditation standard sets a floor of at least 24 months of full-time formal training, and CODA's standards require resident case records tracking nitrous oxide, sedation and operating-room cases, and require a suite equipped for comprehensive care under general anesthesia and/or sedation.
The child-specific layer — behavior guidance for young or anxious patients, growth and development, and special-needs care — is what a patient base of infants through adolescents calls for; see what the residency itself requires for the CODA specifics.
Board certification comes from the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry (ABPD) — a voluntary step, not a license.
Pediatric dentistry offered the most residency positions of the dental specialty matches this site tracks in 2026 — the widest seat count among them.
See the step-by-step guide to how to become a pediatric dentist, and the sourced 2026 Match numbers.
How much does a pediatric dentist earn?
There's no pediatric-dentistry-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) — the catch-all category for dental specialties without their own BLS code, not a pediatric-specific number.
Ownership, region, practice setting, and case volume all move the number, and the ADA Health Policy Institute's survey figure combines owners and employed pediatric dentists, so real earnings blend clinical pay and practice profit.
Treat any figure as directional and check current listings; to browse roles, see pediatric dentist jobs.
The ADA Health Policy Institute does survey pediatric dentists as their own group: its 2025 private-practice median, quartiles and seven-year series are on the pediatric dentist salary page.
Pediatric-dentist pay figures are directional