Periodontist Job Description Template

A periodontist posting has six blocks, in this order: a scope summary, the duties, the license and permit requirements, the experience you want, the schedule, and the pay-and-benefits block.

For the ad mechanics that apply to any role, our guide to writing a dental job ad covers the format; this page is the periodontist-specific template.

The scope summary is the block to write with the most care.

Periodontics is one of the 12 dental specialties the ADA's National Commission recognizes, defined as covering the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the supporting and surrounding tissues of the teeth or their substitutes, and the maintenance of those tissues.

Your posting should say which parts of that scope this seat actually handles — surgical and non-surgical periodontal therapy, dental implant placement, bone and soft-tissue grafting, and how periodontal maintenance is co-managed with your hygiene department.

A surgical, implant-heavy seat and a maintenance-heavy seat are different jobs; state which one you are hiring for.

Say where the patients come from.

Periodontists work across very different practice shapes — ADA HPI's 2024 data has 30.0% of periodontists practicing solo in one location, 10.2% in groups with 100+ locations, and 14.3% affiliated with a DSO against 16.1% of all dentists — so name yours: hygiene recall and in-house referrals, referrals from general dentists in the area, or a column the hire is expected to help build.

The credential line has three parts.

First, an active [STATE] dental license in good standing.

Second, completion of a CODA-accredited periodontics residency — that residency, on top of the license, is what makes a dentist a periodontist rather than a general dentist.

Third, board status: the American Board of Periodontology provides certification in periodontics and dental implant surgery, certifying periodontists based on education, licensure and a written qualifying exam plus an oral exam — but board certification is voluntary, so require it only if you intend to filter on it.

If you mention board status at all, use the terms the way the National Commission defines them: board certified means dental school and the residency are complete, the board exam is passed, and continuing education is required to stay certified; board eligible means dental school and the residency are complete but the exam is not yet passed; educationally qualified means dental school and the residency are complete plus a state license, with no board certification.

The schedule block does real work in a specialist hire: days per week, hours, number of operatories, whether the role covers more than one location, and what support exists — surgical assistant, sterilization, treatment coordinator.

Surgical throughput depends on that support.

The pay block needs a structure and a number: name the model — a daily guarantee, a percentage of production or collections, or a base plus bonus — and the figure or range you have in mind, with the benefits on the same lines (health coverage, PTO, CE allowance, malpractice coverage, retirement).

Close with an equal-opportunity line; it costs one sentence and every posting should carry it.

The license line is the one to check against your own board before the posting goes live, because states handle the specialty credential differently.

The base license is state-issued: in Connecticut, for example, no one may practice dentistry without a license from the Department of Public Health (Connecticut General Statutes § 20-106).

Beyond that base license, the paperwork is not uniform.

The New Jersey State Board of Dentistry issues specialty permits in ADA-recognized fields alongside its sedation and anesthesia permits.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation lists "Specialty in Dentistry" as its own license category, separate from Dentist (Licensed).

Mississippi's licensee verification search carries a "Dental - Specialty" license type.

Look up how your own state board names the credential and write the requirement in the posting exactly that way — a candidate already in your state will recognize their credential, and one moving in will know what to obtain.

The same care applies to sedation.

In New Jersey, the State Board of Dentistry issues enteral sedation, parenteral conscious sedation, general anesthesia and local anesthesia permits; in Illinois, the dental professions list includes a Dental Sedation Permit — each a separate credential from the dental license.

If your seat includes sedation-supported treatment, name the specific permit your state requires rather than assuming the license covers it, and confirm the requirement with your state dental board.

If the periodontist will dispense controlled substances, DEA registration is place- and state-specific: DEA requires a separate registration for each principal place of business or professional practice at one general physical location where controlled substances are dispensed (21 CFR 1301.12(a)), a practitioner practicing in more than one state needs a separate registration in each state — with state authority to handle controlled substances obtained first — and a registration based on one state's license cannot authorize controlled-substance dispensing in another state.

If dispensing is not part of the role, leave it out of the posting; if it is, say which registrations you expect the hire to hold on day one.

On pay, quote real data and label it.

BLS publishes no separate periodontist series — in the federal SOC 2018, "Dentists, All Other Specialists" (SOC 29-1029) covers all dentists not listed separately, with endodontist, oral pathologist and periodontist given as illustrative examples.

In BLS OEWS May 2025 data for offices of dentists, that category numbered 2,570 and showed a median annual wage of $224,990 (mean $285,250; 25th percentile $159,530, 75th percentile $389,520) — a grouped figure, useful as context, not a periodontist salary.

The survey that does break periodontists out, the ADA Health Policy Institute's Survey of Dental Practice, last published a median net income for private-practice periodontists of $295,780, for 2024 — the 2025 periodontist figure was suppressed, with 27 responses.

That is net income for periodontists in private practice, not an employed salary.

Neither source tells you what to offer an employed associate: we found no authoritative source that publishes standard percentages of collections or production, daily minimums, or lab-fee splits for specialist associates.

Set yours from your own production and collections, choose a structure — guarantee, percentage, or base plus bonus — and put the number in the posting.

For everything that happens after someone applies — screening, verification, the interview itself — see how to hire a periodontist.

Verify before the first shift: license standing with your state dental board, and residency completion with the program.

Keep the description you posted on file after the hire, too — under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a written job description prepared before advertising or interviewing applicants is evidence of the job's essential functions, so the version that counts is the one written before you advertise.

Expect a strong candidate to ask what the seat leads to.

If the position is employed-only with no ownership track, say so plainly when the question comes up.

For the training and credential path behind "board eligible" — the residency, the certification ladder, the specialty as clinicians see it — our periodontist career guide covers it from the candidate's side.