Becoming a prosthodontist means first becoming a dentist, then completing an accredited prosthodontics residency — a minimum of 34 months, per the Commission on Dental Accreditation's (CODA) published standard, or 45 months for a program with integrated maxillofacial training — and, optionally, earning board certification from the American Board of Prosthodontics.
The residency is where you master rehabilitating patients with missing or deficient teeth and oral tissues using crowns, bridges, dentures, and implant restorations.
Here's the path.
The short answer
You become a dentist first, then complete an accredited prosthodontics residency — CODA's minimum is 34 months, or 45 months for a program with integrated maxillofacial training — and can then pursue American Board of Prosthodontics certification.
The American College of Prosthodontists describes the training on its own site as "three years of extended training in several areas of restorative dentistry." The residency adds what general dentists don't have: focused training in rehabilitating patients with missing or deficient teeth and oral tissues using crowns, bridges, dentures, and implant restorations.
For how specialty training works in general — CODA accreditation, the match, and boards across all 12 dental specialties — see dental residency & board certification.
The step-by-step path
Five steps take you from dental student to prosthodontist — the last one only if you pursue the added maxillofacial fellowship:
Earn a bachelor's degree with prerequisites
Complete undergrad with the required sciences and a competitive GPA — the foundation for dental school and residency.Complete dental school (DDS or DMD)
Four years of dental school earns a DDS or DMD. Strong grades, board scores, and clinical experience matter for a competitive prosthodontics application.Match into a prosthodontics residency (34-month CODA minimum)
Apply to an accredited advanced dental education program in prosthodontics, typically through a match — 234 applicants competed for 130 positions in the 2026 Match, and 116 matched; see how competitive that match actually is for the full numbers. CODA's Standard 4-1 requires the program to encompass "a minimum of 34 months"; a program that includes integrated maxillofacial training must run a minimum of 45 months (Standard 4-2). See what the residency requires for the full standards, including the scholarly-activity requirement. Treat 34 months as a floor a program cannot go below, not a typical length — actual program lengths beyond that minimum aren't published.Earn American Board of Prosthodontics certification (optional)
After residency, a prosthodontist can pursue certification from the American Board of Prosthodontics. The pathway is mid-transition: the legacy Section A written exam runs for the final time in 2026, a new Qualifying Examination begins April 2027, and an Oral Certifying Examination has been effective since October 22, 2025. It's a recognized mark of expertise, not a requirement to practice. See how ABP certification actually works for both pathways in full.Add a maxillofacial prosthetics fellowship (optional, 12 months)
A prosthodontist can pursue a further 12-month advanced dental education program in maxillofacial prosthetics — but per CODA Standard 4-3, only after successfully completing an accredited prosthodontics program first. The American College of Prosthodontists describes this added training as requiring "one additional year of fellowship training."
What it takes — and what it pays
Prosthodontics is a referral-driven specialty — cases arrive almost entirely from general dentists rather than patients booking directly — so building those referral relationships is part of the career, alongside the restorative and prosthetic skill the residency builds.
Pay is best read as directional: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics does track prosthodontics under its own occupational code (SOC 29-1024), but no published median wage for it is in our data.
See which dental specialty pays the most for how that code compares to the specialties that do have a published figure.
For the full role, see what a prosthodontist does.
This article is general career information; pay figures are directional and vary by source, ownership, and location.