"specialist or expert in periodontics," 1913; see periodontal + -ist.
Entries linking to periodontist
periodontal adj.
"surrounding a tooth, pertaining to the lining membrane of the socket of a tooth," 1848, literally "around the tooth," from peri- "around" + Greek odon (genitive odontos) "tooth" (from PIE root *dent- "tooth").
-ist
word-forming element meaning "one who does or makes," also used to indicate adherence to a certain doctrine or custom, from French -iste and directly from Latin -ista (source also of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian -ista), from Greek agent-noun ending -istes, which is from -is-, ending of the stem of verbs in -izein, + agential suffix -tes.
Variant -ister (as in chorister, barrister) is from Old French -istre, on false analogy of ministre. Variant -ista is from Spanish, popularized in American English 1970s by names of Latin-American revolutionary movements.