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Kraena Pre-Health
Career Library

Diagnose & Treat

Prosthodontist

Rebuilds mouths — the most design-driven dental specialty, and one of the best paid anywhere.

Years after high school

10-11

Degree

DDS or DMD plus specialty certificate

Entrance exam

DAT

Median pay

$311,180 national median for prosthodontists (BLS, May 2025).

What the job is actually like

Long appointments planning and executing full-mouth reconstruction: implants, crowns, bridges, and dentures, often for patients who have avoided smiling for years. Heavy collaboration with laboratories and surgeons.

The path

  1. 014 years undergraduate with science prerequisites
  2. 02DAT examination
  3. 034 years dental school (DDS or DMD)
  4. 043 year prosthodontics residency
  5. 05State licensure plus specialty credentials

Good fit if

  • You like design, aesthetics, and complex planning
  • You want dramatic, visible patient transformations
  • You are comfortable in a small specialty

Think twice if

  • You need to practise in one specific small market
  • Long, technically exacting cases would frustrate you
  • Managing high aesthetic expectations would stress you

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All salary figures here are median annual wages from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025 — the most recent full national dataset. 'Median' means half of workers earn more and half earn less. Three things to keep in mind: (1) pay varies enormously by state, city, setting, and experience — a nurse in California and a nurse in rural Alabama earn very different salaries; (2) training lengths are typical, not guaranteed, and programs differ; (3) these numbers change every year. Always verify current figures at bls.gov/ooh before making a decision. For context, the BLS median wage for all U.S. occupations was $50,980, while healthcare practitioner and technical occupations had a median of $86,530 — one of the reasons health care is such a stable field.