Do you have a pediatric residency at your school? Or any D4s that matched pedo? Or last resort just some pediatric dentists? Start with talking to them.
I will attempt to address some things here. Firstly no amount of CE courses will ever be equivalent to a residency, period. Pediatric dentists are significantly better at managing peds pts than average GPs.
I do not think perfing an RCT means you are bad at clinic, and I strongly believe this will have zero impact on your ability to get rec letters etc and get in. It is only January, and the app cycle opens in July. you have PLENTY of time to do externships, even do some research in PEDs, and start working on your rec letters.
You will generally make more as a specialist in the vast majority of cases. E.g. most beginner associate positions are 5-600$/day and a percent of production. Most peds right out of residency are 1000$/day just to start with.
Anyways you most definitely have the chance to build a strong app and apply. Start by reaching out to any D4s who just found out they matched pedo last week at your school. Ask them what they did and go from there. you can do this!