Endodontist

The root canal specialist. A dentist who did 2 to 3 more years of residency to save teeth other dentists would pull. A long road, and no braces or cleanings.

Typical pay: $110,000a year
Time to qualify: 10 to 11 yearsafter high school
Demand: Very high
Licence needed: Yesregulated job

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Quick answers

How much does an endodontist make in Canada?

The median pay is about $110,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $33,000 at the lower end to about $228,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.

How long does it take to become an endodontist in Canada?

10 to 11 years after high school, on the usual route.

What does it cost to become an endodontist?

$163,900 to $442,900 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.

Do you need a licence to work as an endodontist in Canada?

Yes. It is a regulated job, so you need a licence or registration before you can work.

What is the job outlook for an endodontist in Canada?

Very high demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.

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Endodontist salary in Canada

What you earn and what it costs to get there.

What dentists make, all specialties together

Median

$110,000

Lower end

$33,000

Upper end

$228,000

These are Job Bank (the Government of Canada job site) figures for all dentists together, a year. General dentists and every dental specialist are in one group, so this is not an endodontist figure. The numbers come from the 2021 Census (Statistics Canada). Job Bank notes that a large number of people in this group are self-employed. We could not find a public Canadian source that reports endodontist pay on its own.

Where pay is highest

$180,000 a year

Job Bank's median for all dentists in Newfoundland and Labrador, the highest of any province

New Brunswick follows at $132,000 and Nova Scotia at $126,000. British Columbia's is the lowest, at $84,000. These figures cover every kind of dentist. Most new endodontists join an existing specialty practice or split time between a few general dental offices. Before that, residency pays little or nothing and usually charges tuition.

Owning a practice

Paid from profit

Owners keep what the clinic makes after staff, rent and equipment. No public survey reports this for endodontists

A root canal on a molar takes about an hour, so a busy endodontist sees a lot of them. A microscope and 3D imaging make the clinic expensive to set up.

What it costs to get there

University before dental school (2 to 4 years): $7,000 to $10,000 a year
Dental school (4 years): $25,000 to $60,000 a year
Endodontics residency (2 to 3 years): $20,000 to $50,000 a year, usually unpaid
NDSE (National Dental Specialty Examination): About $6,870 for the 2027 sitting
Specialty licence and insurance: $3,000 to $6,000 a year

Roughly, all in

$163,900 to $442,900

Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel

This is one of the most expensive routes in the country because the specialty residency charges tuition instead of paying you, unlike medical residencies. The low end is two years of university before dental school, a cheaper dental school, and a two year residency at the low end of fees. The high end is four years of university, dental school at $60,000 a year, and a three year residency at $50,000 a year. Many people finish with a very large debt, and the specialty examination alone is about $6,870.

Dental school plus a residency that charges tuition can leave you with a very large debt. Work out how you will pay it back before you start.

Benefits

Nothing automatic
Almost all endodontists are self-employed: you buy your own health plan and save for your own retirement.
Ownership
A specialty practice is an asset you sell when you retire.
Predictable schedule
Weekdays. Emergencies exist, since a toothache does not wait, but most are fit into the day.
Teaching
Part-time posts at a dental school add a salary and a pension.

How to become an endodontist in Canada

The exact path from high school to qualified.

The path to becoming an endodontist, step by step

You become a dentist first. There is no shortcut.

1
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Biology, chemistry, physics, math and English with top marks.
2
University, then the DAT (dental aptitude test)
2 to 4 years
2 to 4 years of science courses, then the dental admission test.
3
Dental school
4 years
4 years for a DDS (doctor of dental surgery) or DMD (doctor of dental medicine). You graduate as a general dentist.
4
Endodontics residency
2 to 3 years, plus any practice years
2 to 3 years at a dental school accredited by the Canadian Dental Association, usually with a master's degree attached. Only a few seats per program. Most programs want a year or more of general practice first.
5
Specialty exam and licence
A few months
Pass the NDSE (National Dental Specialty Examination), then register as a specialist with your provincial dental college.

High school courses that help you become an endodontist

Biology
Required.
Chemistry
Required.
Physics
Math
Calculus and functions.
Art or anything with fine detail
You will spend a career working inside a canal thinner than a pencil lead, through a microscope.

Time and money, at a glance

Years after high school: 10 to 11 for most people
Residency seats in Canada: A few per school, a few dozen a year nationally
Total tuition: $154,000 to $430,000
Paid while training?: No, and residency usually charges tuition

A protected specialty title

Endodontics is one of 12 dental specialties recognized by the Royal College of Dentists of Canada. Only a dentist who finished an accredited residency, passed the NDSE (National Dental Specialty Examination) and registered as a specialist with a provincial dental college can call themselves an endodontist. General dentists do root canals too, and most simple ones are done by them; specialists get the hard, curved, cracked and failed cases. Specialty registration moves between provinces without re-examination.

Where people study

Residency programs are small. Some Canadian ones:

University of Toronto
Ontario
Université Laval
Quebec, in French
UBC (University of British Columbia)
British Columbia
US programs
Many Canadians train in the US, where there are far more seats, then return.

Quebec routeIn Quebec? The route is different. 2 more cards.

The path in Quebec

In Quebec you start dental school straight from CEGEP (public college), with no bachelor's degree first.

1
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
With Secondary V math (Technical and Scientific, or Science option), chemistry and physics. These are the entry courses for the CEGEP (public college) science program.
2
Science DEC (Diploma of College Studies)
2 years
A 2 year CEGEP (public college) program (200.B1), offered in English at Dawson and the other English colleges. Take the biology and chemistry courses dental schools ask for.
3
Dental school, straight from CEGEP
4 to 5 years
McGill starts with a 1 year Dent-P preparatory year, then a 4 year DMD (Doctor of Dental Medicine). Montréal's DMD is 5 years, Laval's 4. Laval uses the TAED (dental aptitude test), Casper and interviews.
4
NDEB exams and ODQ (Ordre des dentistes du Québec) permit
After graduating
Pass the NDEB (National Dental Examining Board) exams, as everywhere in Canada. The ODQ, the Quebec order of dentists, then issues your permit once you show French.
5
Endodontics residency
3 years
Université Laval runs a 3 year program in French, the only French one in North America, taken with a research master's. It takes 2 residents a year and asks for an ODQ (Quebec order of dentists) permit.
6
Specialty exam and ODQ specialist certificate
End of residency
Pass the NDSE (National Dental Specialty Examination). Endodontics is one of the 10 specialties the ODQ (Quebec order of dentists) recognizes, and it then issues your specialist certificate.

Dental schools in Quebec

McGill University: Dent-P year plus a 4 year DMD (Doctor of Dental Medicine), in English
Université de Montréal: 5 year DMD, 219 credits, in French
Université Laval: 4 year DMD, 219 credits, in French, in Quebec City

McGill's Dent-P year is only for Quebec residents coming straight from CEGEP (public college). From fall 2027, Montréal drops the TAED (dental aptitude test) and Casper and uses a motivation questionnaire instead.

What helps you get ahead as an endodontist

Things you don't need, but that help.

Ways to stand out

Microsurgery
Surgical retreatment through the gum when a root canal fails. Fewer people do it well.
3D imaging
Cone-beam scanning in your own office. An investment that pays back in harder cases.
Referral network
Your patients come from general dentists. Building those relationships is the business.
Teaching and research
A part-time faculty post at a dental school.

Nice-to-haves

Shadow an endodontist
In university, and again in dental school.
Be a strong general dentist first
Residency programs weigh dental school marks and hand skills heavily.
Research during dental school
A published paper helps a residency application a lot.
Patience and calm hands
Hours of precise work under magnification on patients who are already in pain.

A side path: root canals without the residency

Every general dentist is trained to do root canals, and many do them daily. If you love the work but not another 3 years of school, you can build a general practice that leans toward it, and refer the hardest cases to a specialist.

What being an endodontist is really like

Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.

What an endodontist does day to day

Six to ten patients, most referred by a general dentist for a root canal that is difficult, or one that failed before. Each takes 45 to 90 minutes under a microscope: freeze, open the tooth, clean and shape the canals, fill and seal. A couple of emergency toothaches squeezed in. Consults and X-ray reviews between cases. The patients arrive scared and in pain and leave numb and relieved. Days end around 5.

The honest pros and cons of being an endodontist

The good

Well paid: Job Bank's median for the dentists group is $110,000 a year
You end people's pain the same day
Daytime hours, no nights
You can fall back on general dentistry at any point

The hard parts

10 to 11 years of school, and residency charges tuition
Residency seats are scarce
Debt from dental school and residency tuition can be very large
Repetitive: the same procedure many times a day, through a microscope

Work life

Typical hours: 32 to 40 a week, 4 days is common
Remote work: No
Physical demand: Moderate, fine work in a fixed posture under a microscope
Unionized: No, self-employed

Similar paths

Like the field but not this exact job?

Things nobody tells you about being an endodontist

Things people don't tell you.

The root canal is not the painful part

The infection is what hurts. The root canal removes it. With modern freezing, most patients feel nothing during the procedure, and the relief afterward is why endodontists have some of the happiest patients in dentistry.

Work you can only see through a microscope

The canals inside a tooth root can be thinner than a pencil lead. Endodontists work through a surgical microscope, and 3D imaging is now standard to find canals that older X-rays missed.

Saving a tooth beats replacing it

An implant costs several thousand dollars and needs surgery. A root canal keeps your own tooth for a fraction of that. Endodontists exist because a natural tooth, even a repaired one, is still the best tooth.

How an endodontist compares

Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.

More health careers in Canada

Dental and eye care first, then the rest of the field. See every career in health.

Where these numbers come from

Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.