Best degree programs for Prosthodontists, ranked by enrollment
1 college programs and 19 schools train Prosthodontists. Compare graduates per year, cost and pay, $311,180 median wage, 870 U.S. jobs. Federal data.
1 college programs at 19 schools train prosthodontists, graduating 106 people a year (IPEDS completions). The largest is Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology. The job pays a median of $311,180 (BLS OEWS May 2025).
About prosthodontists
Diagnose, treat, rehabilitate, design, and fit prostheses that maintain oral function, health, and appearance for patients with clinical conditions associated with teeth, oral and maxillofacial tissues, or the jaw.
Fields of study that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level, the tier our program pages are built on. Numbers are graduates per year.
1 degree programs that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are College Scorecard figures for people who finished the program, reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. That is a different measurement from the occupation-wide wages further down this page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIP 51.0511 | 106 | 100.0% | 19 | $195,650 | — |
Top 19 schools by graduates into this job
Counting every feeder program a school offers, not just its largest one.
| # | School | Graduates / yr | Top feeder program | Grad rate | Net price | Acceptance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boston University Boston, MA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 15 | Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology | 89% | $21,956 | 11% |
| 2 | Columbia University in the City of New York New York, NY Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 13 | Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology | 96% | $15,315 | 4% |
| 3 | Loma Linda University Loma Linda, CA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 10 | Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology | — | — | — |
| 4 | The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Houston, TX Public · 1 feeder programs | 9 | Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology | — | — | — |
| 5 | Tufts University Medford, MA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 8 | Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology | 94% | $23,570 | 11% |
| 6 | University of Michigan - Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI Public · 1 feeder programs | 6 | Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology | 93% | — | 16% |
| 7 | University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 6 | Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology | 92% | $26,873 | 10% |
| 8 | University at Buffalo Buffalo, NY Public · 1 feeder programs | 5 | Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology | 75% | — | 74% |
| 9 | University of Puerto Rico - Medical Sciences San Juan, PR Public · 1 feeder programs | 5 | Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology | — | — | — |
| 10 | Rutgers University - New Brunswick New Brunswick, NJ Public · 1 feeder programs | 4 | Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology | 84% | — | 58% |
| 11 | Texas A&M University - College Station College Station, TX Public · 1 feeder programs | 4 | Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology | 84% | — | 57% |
| 12 | University of Illinois Chicago Chicago, IL Public · 1 feeder programs | 4 | Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology | 62% | — | 77% |
| 13 | The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio San Antonio, TX Public · 1 feeder programs | 3 | Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology | — | — | — |
| 14 | University of Minnesota - Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN Public · 1 feeder programs | 3 | Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology | 85% | — | 80% |
| 15 | University of Rochester Rochester, NY Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 3 | Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology | 85% | $25,874 | 40% |
| 16 | Nova Southeastern University Fort Lauderdale, FL Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 2 | Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology | 63% | $31,672 | 73% |
| 17 | University of Louisville Louisville, KY Public · 1 feeder programs | 2 | Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology | 61% | — | 79% |
| 18 | University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 2 | Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology | 97% | $22,055 | 5% |
| 19 | University of Washington - Seattle Campus Seattle, WA Public · 1 feeder programs | 2 | Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology | 85% | — | 39% |
What prosthodontists earn
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Skills and tools
From O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupational database. Importance is a 1 to 5 scale.
What they do day to day
- Examine patients to diagnose oral health conditions and diseases.
- Fit prostheses to patients, making any necessary adjustments and modifications.
- Replace missing teeth and associated oral structures with permanent fixtures, such as implant-supported prostheses, crowns and bridges, or removable fixtures, such as dentures.
- Measure and take impressions of patients' jaws and teeth to determine the shape and size of dental prostheses, using face bows, dental articulators, recording devices, and other materials.
- Collaborate with general dentists, specialists, and other health professionals to develop solutions to dental and oral health concerns.
- Design and fabricate dental prostheses, or supervise dental technicians and laboratory bench workers who construct the devices.
- Restore function and aesthetics to traumatic injury survivors, or to individuals with diseases or congenital disabilities.
- Repair, reline, or rebase dentures.
Skills
- Active Listening4.0
- Critical Thinking4.0
- Speaking4.0
- Monitoring3.6
- Reading Comprehension3.6
- Writing3.4
- Science3.0
- Active Learning3.0
Knowledge areas
- Medicine and Dentistry5.0
- Customer and Personal Service4.1
- Administration and Management3.4
- English Language3.3
- Biology3.2
- Education and Training3.1
Abilities
- Problem Sensitivity4.1
- Near Vision4.1
- Oral Expression4.0
- Deductive Reasoning4.0
- Inductive Reasoning4.0
- Oral Comprehension4.0
Core activities
- Assisting and Caring for Others4.7
- Documenting/Recording Information4.7
- Getting Information4.7
- Making Decisions and Solving Problems4.6
- Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge4.6
- Thinking Creatively4.6
Tools and technology
hotmarks an O*NET hot technologyHow to get in
How to become a Prosthodontist
Job zone 5 of 5 · SVP 8.0 and above- Typical entry education
- Doctoral or professional degree
- On-the-job training
- Internship/residency
Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 3 majors mapped to Prosthodontists1 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 51.0511Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology
- 60.0108Prosthodontics Residency Program(no graduates reported)
- 60.0110Implantology Fellowship Program(no graduates reported)
Related careers
Jobs O*NET identifies as close to this one, with their own pay and outlook.
Common questions
What degree do you need to become a Prosthodontist?+
Doctoral or professional degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Prosthodontics/Prosthodontology, which awarded 106 degrees in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming a Prosthodontist?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Advanced/Graduate Dentistry and Oral Sciences. Together they graduate about 106 people a year.
How much do prosthodontists earn?+
The median is $311,180 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). The middle range runs from $103,510 at the 10th percentile to $344,750 at the 90th. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.
Is demand for prosthodontists growing?+
BLS projects a +4.5% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 0 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career?+
19 institutions reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.
What other job titles do prosthodontists work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Denturist, Prosthodontist, Maxillofacial Prosthodontist, DDS (Doctor of Dental Surgery) among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 29-1024.
About the data on this page
Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024-25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).
BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics
May 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.
IPEDS Completions
2024-25 (provisional)Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.
College Scorecard, Field of Study
2020-21 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
Explore every U.S. college in one conversation
Clema turns plain-language questions into sourced answers across every U.S. institution — earnings, aid, acceptance, graduation, safety, and athletics from IPEDS, College Scorecard, and 10+ federal datasets, built in.
Free for teams up to 3 · No credit card