A prosthodontist is a dentist who specializes in restoring missing or deficient teeth and oral tissues with prosthetics — crowns, bridges, dentures, and implant restorations.
The name means a tooth-replacement specialist: prosthodontics is the dental specialty focused on dental prosthetics.
General dentists refer complex restorative cases to one.
Becoming a prosthodontist takes a CODA-accredited residency of at least 34 months after dental school, and board certification — where pursued — comes from the American Board of Prosthodontics.
What is a prosthodontist?
Prosthodontist is pronounced pros-thuh-DON-tist — four syllables, stress on the third, with the soft "th" of "teeth."
The specialty name, prosthodontics, follows the same pattern (pros-thuh-DON-tiks).
The meaning is in the word: a prosthesis is an artificial replacement for a missing body part, so in plain terms a prosthodontist is a tooth-replacement specialist.
A prosthodontist is also a dentist first — every one completes dental school and holds a DDS or DMD before adding the specialty residency described below.
That cuts both ways: every prosthodontist is a dentist, but a dentist isn't a prosthodontist without that residency.
The specialty's recognized definition: the National Commission on Recognition of Dental Specialties and Certifying Boards (NCRDSCB) defines prosthodontics as covering "rehabilitation and maintenance of the oral function, comfort, appearance and health of patients with clinical conditions associated with missing or deficient teeth and/or oral and maxillofacial tissues using biocompatible substitutes," built on diagnosis and treatment planning.
The accreditation standard behind that training is a floor, not a typical length: the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) requires an advanced dental education program in prosthodontics to encompass "a minimum of 34 months" (Standard 4-1).
A program that includes integrated maxillofacial training must run a minimum of 45 months (Standard 4-2).
Treat 34 months as the minimum a program cannot go below — the published reference point for actual length is an average: accredited prosthodontics programs ran 35.4 months in 2025-26, per the CODA/ADA Health Policy Institute survey of advanced dental education.
Prosthodontists are also a small slice of the profession: the American Dental Association's Health Policy Institute counted 3,568 professionally active dentists holding a prosthodontics certificate or degree in 2025, out of 205,088 professionally active dentists overall.
What does a prosthodontist do day to day?
A prosthodontist restores and replaces teeth and, where needed, oral or maxillofacial tissues with biocompatible substitutes — crowns, bridges, dentures, and implant-supported restorations among them — for patients whose teeth are missing or deficient.
The specialty is referral-driven: most cases arrive after a general dentist identifies a restorative case beyond routine care and sends it to a prosthodontist for diagnosis, treatment planning, and rehabilitation.
A prosthodontist who completes an additional 12-month advanced dental education program in maxillofacial prosthetics — which must be preceded by successful completion of an accredited prosthodontics program, per CODA Standard 4-3 — can also treat patients needing prosthetic rehabilitation of missing or defective oral and facial structures.
A dental lab technician fabricates the crowns, bridges, dentures, and implant restorations a prosthodontist designs and fits.
What kind of training does a prosthodontist receive?
The direct answer: restorative-heavy specialty training after dental school, delivered inside a CODA-accredited advanced dental education program in prosthodontics.
The residency teaches the work in that definition — crowns, bridges, dentures, and implant restorations — and CODA's standards require residents to engage in scholarly activity (Standard 6).
The path starts the same way as every dental specialty: a bachelor's degree, four years of dental school for a DDS or DMD, and licensure.
From there, an advanced dental education program in prosthodontics accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) must encompass a minimum of 34 months (Standard 4-1) — 45 months for a program that includes integrated maxillofacial training (Standard 4-2).
A further 12-month advanced program in maxillofacial prosthetics can follow, but only after successfully completing an accredited prosthodontics program (Standard 4-3).
See what CODA requires for a prosthodontics residency for the full standards, including the scholarly-activity requirement.
Board certification is voluntary and comes from the American Board of Prosthodontics.
The board's certification pathway is mid-transition: the legacy Section A written examination was offered for the final time in 2026 and is being replaced by a new Qualifying Examination beginning in April 2027, paired with an Oral Certifying Examination that became effective October 22, 2025.
See how ABP certification actually works for both pathways in full.
For the broader framework of how CODA accreditation, the match, and certifying boards work across all 12 dental specialties, see dental residency & board certification.
For the full step-by-step path, see how to become a prosthodontist.
How competitive is matching into a prosthodontics residency?
In the 2026-2027 cycle of the Postdoctoral Dental Matching Program (National Matching Services), 234 applicants competed for 130 prosthodontics residency positions, and 116 were matched — see how competitive prosthodontics residency actually is for the full numbers, why there's no published acceptance rate, and why prosthodontics doesn't have a multi-year trend the way orthodontics, oral surgery, and pediatric dentistry do.
Prosthodontist vs. general dentist, and where the specialty fits
A general dentist provides broad-scope primary oral care and refers complex restorative and prosthetic cases that go beyond routine treatment; a prosthodontist has completed the additional CODA-accredited residency described above and focuses on rehabilitating patients with missing or deficient teeth and oral tissues.
Prosthodontics sits alongside periodontics among the 12 recognized dental specialties, and, like endodontics and periodontics, it is referral-driven — most cases arrive from general dentists rather than patients booking directly.
To see current openings, browse prosthodontist jobs.
How much does a prosthodontist earn?
Prosthodontists have their own federal wage series — the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks them under SOC 29-1024 — and the published numbers live on the prosthodontist salary guide: the May 2025 median, the percentile range, hourly rates, and what the data leaves out (self-employed owners aren't surveyed, and BLS publishes no state-level estimates for this code).
For how the specialty codes compare, see which dental specialty pays the most.
For job outlook rather than pay: BLS projects 6% employment growth from 2025 to 2035 for prosthodontists — a projection published jointly for oral and maxillofacial surgeons, orthodontists, and prosthodontists, against 1% for "dentists, all other specialists."