Prosthodontists

Prosthodontists (SOC 29-1024) earn a median $311,180 a year ($149.61 an hour) in the United States, with 870 employed as of May 2025.

What prosthodontists do

Prosthodontists specialize in replacing and restoring teeth and the structures around them. Their patients may have lost teeth, been born with missing tissue, or live with a disease or injury that affected the mouth or jaw. Work includes designing and fitting crowns, bridges, dentures and implant-supported replacements, and for some patients, prostheses for the face and jaw. The process starts with an examination and with impressions and measurements of the jaws and teeth, using tools such as face bows and dental articulators; the prosthodontist then designs the device, makes it or supervises the dental technicians who do, and adjusts it in the mouth until it fits and functions comfortably. They also repair, reline or rebase dentures. O*NET respondents mostly report post-doctoral training for this specialty. Complex cases are worked out together with general dentists, other specialists and health professionals.

Typical entry: O*NET respondents most often report postdoctoral training as the typical level of education for this occupation (61 percent).

Also called: DDS (Doctor of Dental Surgery), Dental Science Dr (Dental Science Doctor), Denturist, Maxillofacial Prosthetics Dentist, Maxillofacial Prosthodontist.

National wage percentiles, May 2025

Prosthodontists: US hourly and annual wage percentiles, mean and employment, May 2025
Area	Basis	Percentile wage					Mean	Employment
Area	Basis	10th	25th	Median	75th	90th	Mean	Employment
United States	Hourly	$49.77	$121.18	$149.61	$160.33	$165.75	$129.15	870
United States	Annual	$103,510	$252,050	$311,180	$333,480	$344,750	$268,630	870

Annual wage at the 10th, 25th, 50th (median), 75th and 90th percentiles. The same numbers are in the table above.

Employment per 1,000 jobs and the location quotient are area measures; they appear in the state and metro tables below. To see what a wage in this range leaves after tax, use FastCalc's take-home pay calculator.

Where prosthodontists earn and work most

Five highest-paying states

Prosthodontists: the five states with the highest median wage, May 2025
Area	Basis	Percentile wage					Mean	Employment	Jobs per 1,000	Location quotient
Area	Basis	10th	25th	Median	75th	90th	Mean	Employment	Jobs per 1,000	Location quotient

Five states with the most jobs

Prosthodontists: the five states with the highest employment, May 2025
Area	Basis	Percentile wage					Mean	Employment	Jobs per 1,000	Location quotient
Area	Basis	10th	25th	Median	75th	90th	Mean	Employment	Jobs per 1,000	Location quotient

Five highest-paying metropolitan areas

Prosthodontists: the five metropolitan areas with the highest median wage, May 2025
Area	Basis	Percentile wage					Mean	Employment	Jobs per 1,000	Location quotient
Area	Basis	10th	25th	Median	75th	90th	Mean	Employment	Jobs per 1,000	Location quotient

Five metropolitan areas with the most jobs

Prosthodontists: the five metropolitan areas with the highest employment, May 2025
Area	Basis	Percentile wage					Mean	Employment	Jobs per 1,000	Location quotient
Area	Basis	10th	25th	Median	75th	90th	Mean	Employment	Jobs per 1,000	Location quotient

Top industries employing prosthodontists

Offices of Dentists employ 90.8% of prosthodontists nationally (790 jobs) at a median $311,220 a year ($149.63 an hour), followed by Medical Equipment and Supplies Manufacturing (4.6%).

Prosthodontists: the 2 industries with the highest employment, United States, May 2025 (4-digit NAICS)
Industry	Employment	Share of occupation	Median annual	Median hourly
Offices of Dentists NAICS 621200	790	90.8%	$311,220	$149.63
Medical Equipment and Supplies Manufacturing NAICS 339100	40	4.6%	$163,620	$78.66

Share is the industry's employment over the occupation's national employment (870). Industries whose employment BLS withheld are not ranked.

Published medians, May 2021 to May 2025

BLS published a median annual wage of $100,950 for prosthodontists in May 2021 and $311,180 in May 2025, with employment of 790 and 870.

Prosthodontists: median annual wage, median hourly wage and employment in each OEWS May release, United States, as published
Release	Median annual	Median hourly	Employment
May 2021	$100,950	$48.54	790
May 2022	not published	not published	not published
May 2023	$234,000	$112.50	570
May 2024	#	#	760
May 2025	$311,180	$149.61	870

Median annual wage in each release, as published; a release without a published median has no point. The same numbers are in the table above.

BLS does not design OEWS as a time series: each release pools three years of samples, and occupational classifications, area definitions and estimation methods change between releases, so a difference between two releases is not a measure of change over time. The figures are shown as published, side by side, and nothing is computed from them. See how often OEWS is updated.

Every state, by median wage

0 states and DC publish a row for this occupation. A linked state has its own page with the within-state metro table and comparison; the others appear here only.

Rank	State	Median hourly	Median annual	10th pct (annual)	90th pct (annual)	Employment	Jobs per 1,000	Location quotient

Occupations in the same SOC broad group (29-1020), with their national median annual wage.

Part of Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations. Compare any area in the wage explorer.

Source and notes

Data: BLS OEWS May 2025, released 2026-05-15. Cross-industry estimates, all ownerships. BLS page: OEWS 29-1024 Prosthodontists.

#: Equal to or greater than the top code (BLS publishes no wage above it).

Annual wages assume 2,080 hours a year at the hourly rate; occupations BLS publishes on one basis only show an en dash (–) on the other.
Employment is rounded to the nearest 10 by BLS. Where BLS withholds a cell, nothing is estimated in its place.
Top industries: nat4d_M2025_dl.xlsx in oesm25in4.zip (BLS OEWS May 2025, national, 4-digit NAICS, cross-ownership). Employment is the industry's rounded total for this occupation; industries whose employment BLS withheld (**) are not ranked.
Published medians: national_M2021_dl.xlsx to national_M2024_dl.xlsx in oesm21nat.zip to oesm24nat.zip (BLS OEWS May 2021 to May 2024, national, cross-industry, all ownerships) and the May 2025 spine. Each release is shown as published; nothing is computed between them. A withheld or top-coded cell in that table shows the marker explained above. A release with no row for this code says "not published".

Sources

BLS Standard Occupational Classification 2018, definition of 29-1024, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (public domain).
O*NET 30.1 Database, 29-1024.00, National Center for O*NET Development, USDOL/ETA (CC BY 4.0).
OEWS May 2025 national industry-specific estimates, 4-digit NAICS (oesm25in4.zip), US Bureau of Labor Statistics (public domain).
OEWS May 2021 national estimates (oesm21nat.zip), US Bureau of Labor Statistics (public domain).
OEWS May 2022 national estimates (oesm22nat.zip), US Bureau of Labor Statistics (public domain).
OEWS May 2023 national estimates (oesm23nat.zip), US Bureau of Labor Statistics (public domain).
OEWS May 2024 national estimates (oesm24nat.zip), US Bureau of Labor Statistics (public domain).
OEWS May 2025 national estimates (oesm25nat.zip), the site's data spine, US Bureau of Labor Statistics (public domain).

Includes information from O*NET 30.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, used under the CC BY 4.0 license.

Description written 2026-10-17 in our own words from the sources above.