Diagnostic

• Dental Examination
  Dental exams – Usually, these exams are scheduled once every six months. However, if you have risks for conditions such as gum disease (like smoking), we will want to evaluate your gums, teeth, and associated oral tissues and structures more frequently.
• X-rays
  Upon arrival at our dental practice for CEREC crowns, the process begins with a consultation with our dentist. We will explain the ins and outs of CEREC dental crowns and answer any questions you might have about the procedure. Next, we take dental x-rays to examine the damaged tooth in detail. If the dentist is satisfied that he can restore your tooth with dental crowns, we take impressions of your mouth using a digital tooth scanner. Unlike traditional crowns, there is no need for goopy putty material to take your impressions.
• Oral Cancer Screening
  Each doctor spends personal time with you on your first and recall exams. Our doctors and hygienists take the time to listen, explain, and care for you. A thorough review of systems is done to understand your medical health and its relationship to your oral health. A comprehensive oral evaluation is performed which includes periodontal examination, oral cancer screening, dental cavities exam, bite analysis, cosmetic evaluation, and radiographic exam.

Preventive

• Teeth Cleaning
  Professional dental cleanings and check-ups: Children should see a dentist every six months for professional cleanings and check-ups. That will help maintain healthy teeth and gums and detect any potential issues at the earliest stage possible when they are easiest and most cost-effective to treat.
• Fluoride Treatment
  Our dental practice is equipped with the latest technologies that enable us to provide oral health care that is more efficient, precise, and comfortable for your child. We have small pediatric-size dental x-ray technology, silver diamine fluoride (SDF) for conservative tooth decay management, various flavors of toothpaste and fluoride treatments, and a full range of sedation options if needed. Standard pediatric dental services that we provide include, among others...
• Dental Sealants
  Dental sealants: This quick and painless treatment is designed to seal off the deep grooves within your child’s molars to prevent tooth decay.

Restorative

• Fillings
• Resin Composite
  Composite bonding for the teeth. Drs. Gary and Scott Pearl and the team at Pearl Dental Care describe composite bonding as a resin material dentists use to restore teeth. This material is cured and polished to look just like natural tooth enamel, making it an excellent way to repair a chipped or cracked tooth. This material might also be used to cover up a gap between teeth or disguise a tooth with a slight imperfection. With composite resin bonding, patients can address an issue and maintain the results for several years before the restoration needs to be replaced. Composite bonding is placed directly onto the teeth unlike veneers which are made by a dental lab or Cerec. Composite bonding is a 1 visit procedure. Teeth can be widened, lengthened, and surface texture improved.
• Veneers
  The “After” image displays the patient’s transformed smile after undergoing a dental veneer procedure. The transformation is remarkable as the teeth have significantly improved in appearance. They are noticeably whiter, and their shape and alignment have been enhanced, resulting in a more symmetrical and aesthetically pleasing smile.
• Crowns
  Advanced dental materials, technologies, and techniques allow the team at Pearl Dental Care in Hamden, Connecticut, to rebuild teeth in a way that restores and preserves their natural appearance and long-lasting, healthy function. Dental crowns designed and placed by our skilled father-son dentist team, Drs Gary and Scott Pearl, are durable ceramic, zirconia, and gold. Our ceramic crowns and onlays, including zirconia, can be fabricated in one short visit using Cerec technology. We can provide guidance on the best option to resolve decay or other trauma to the tooth. Additionally, our practice is proud to offer conservative alternatives to full-coverage crowns.
• Bridges
  Dental bridges are a time-tested option for tooth replacement. You may be a great candidate for such treatment if you miss a single tooth or some scattered teeth. While there are many different dental bridge designs, generally, candidates for the traditional standard approach need to have at least some remaining healthy teeth.
• Dental Bonding
  Porcelain dental veneers. Drs. Gary and Scott Pearl highly recommend veneers for patients with imperfections at the front of the smile. These imperfections are covered with a custom-made ceramic facing bonded onto the tooth to disguise the specific concerns. This dramatically improves the smile’s appearance while effectively boosting a patient’s self-confidence. Veneers can be made of porcelain or lithium disilicate. Veneers allow for the best improvement because of the utmost control of shade, shape, and contour. Veneers are stronger than composite bonding and when bonded to tooth enamel are extremely difficult to remove by a dentist. If there are concerns of teeth grinding then veneers may be a better choice. For a full smile design case we usually recommend 8 veneers but each case is unique.
• Restorative Dentistry
  Our dentists use advanced diagnostics, such as digital imaging to plan your new teeth. These technologies are precise and accurate. They support our technical skills in restorative dentistry. Additionally, we use quality materials to rebuild teeth and gum tissue in a way where the denture is as attractive and natural-looking in appearance as it is strong, functional, and long-lasting. The prosthetic teeth and gum tissue are perfectly color-matched to blend in attractively with the rest of your face, such as the whites of your eyes. The new teeth and gums that we design are never overly white and fake-looking, for instance.

Endodontics

• Root Canal Treatment
  Root canal therapy. Drs. Gary and Scott Pearl can relieve dental pain and help you save your teeth with this precise treatment, performed at their practice in Hamden, Connecticut.

Periodontics

• Deep Cleaning
  The good news is we have some great treatment options for periodontal disease depending on the severity of your periodontal disease. We have a spectrum of treatments ranging from seeing the hygienist for scaling and root planning. Some people call that a deep cleaning. That’s what we do for earlier periodontal disease. If your pocketing is about four or five millimeters, you’ll see the hygienist for a scaling and root planning, which means she is cleaning plaque and tartar from under the gum line and making sure the roots of your teeth are very smooth. We may also use perio protect trays, which are custom made trays that you wear at home with a hydrogen peroxide gel, which can help improve your probing even more. In more advanced cases, we have laser treatments that we offer. Some of our laser treatments are truly amazing at getting your body to heal from loss of bone, and we are actually able to regenerate bone around your teeth, and in some cases we might even use bone grafting materials, gum grafting, and traditional approaches to improve your perial disease when the pocketing is 7, 8, 9 or more millimeters.

Prosthodontics

• Dentures
  At Pearl Dental Care, we encourage you to rethink your perception of dentures. If you associate dentures with ill-fitting, uncomfortable, fake-looking “false teeth,” Drs Gary and Scott Pearl are happy to acquaint you with their precision denture options and exacting approach to planning and designing your new teeth in Hamden, Connecticut.
• Overdentures
  4-implant upper overdenture. The patient had a poorly fitting upper denture. Dr. Adam Abel placed 4 implants in the upper jaw and Dr. Scott Pearl made an implant overdenture. The new denture can be taken out to be cleaned but has excellent retention. The patient no longer has plastic cover the roof of his mouth and no denture adhesive is needed.

Implants

• Dental Implants
  At Pearl Dental Care, we also offer bridges supported by dental implants instead of the natural, surrounding, crowned teeth. Dental implants are designed like cylinders and made from medical-grade titanium or zirconia. These materials are biocompatible. So, once placed in the jaw, they naturally join the surrounding bone as part of the process of “osseointegration.” Once the implants have integrated into the bone, they function like tooth roots. They “root” the replacement tooth (or teeth) to the rest of the jaw. This approach presents an attractive alternative to conventional bridges for patients because...

Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

• Oral Surgery
  At Pearl Dental Care, we can assist patients with various oral surgery solutions. Our team of Dr. Gary Pearl, Dr. Scott Pearl, and Dr. Adam Abel are pleased to provide oral surgery services to address issues such as wisdom teeth, overcrowding, tooth and bone loss, pathology, and trauma. We invite you to educate yourself further on our services and our dentists who can assist you with your dental health needs. Adam Abel, DMD, MD is a board certified Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon who provides patients with excellent surgical care at our Hamden location.
• Jaw Surgery
  Outside of our office Dr. Abel works in NYC and has a teaching position at Weill Cornell where he also performs advanced jaw surgeries including orthognathic surgery. Dr. Abel enjoys traveling, hiking, saltwater fishing, cooking, and spending time with his wife Elizabeth and daughters Samara and Leora.
• Maxillofacial Surgery
  Dr. Adam Abel is a dental specialist providing outstanding oral and maxillofacial surgical care at Pearl Dental Care. Dr. Abel completed dental school at UConn and then completed his specialty training in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center six year residency program. He earned an MD degree at Weill Cornell Medicine and completed extensive training in anesthesiology and general surgery as well.
• Osseous Surgery
  Osseous surgery: Also called “pocket reduction surgery,” this treatment is performed to reduce the size of periodontal pockets that have developed in your gums and may be recommended if you have periodontal pockets that have become very deep. Our treatment for the most advanced periodontal disease cases.
• Tooth Extractions
  Dental extractions: Drs. Gary and Scott Pearl and Dr. Adam Abel offer two types of dental extractions for patients, including simple and surgical. Simple extractions are performed on teeth that have erupted through the gum line, while surgical extractions require opening into the gum tissue and removal of some bone to remove the tooth. Simple extractions require less recovery time than surgical extractions, and both are done with proper sedation and anesthetics.
• Ridge Augmentation
  Bone grafting: Bone grafting is a procedure that is sometimes necessary to rebuild lost bone in the jaw that may be due to periodontal disease, tooth loss, or trauma. Our dentists have the experience and expertise to provide you with the best possible outcome and can provide bone grafting to prepare for the placement of dental implants in the future. Bone grafting can be performed at the time of tooth removal or afterward to increase the amount of bone for a dental implant. Bone grafting can also be performed around a dental implant that has lost its bone support or around teeth suffering from periodontitis. Dr. Adam Abel is an expert at ridge augmentation, socket preservation, and sinus lifts for the placement of dental implants.
• Bone Grafting
  If bone grafting is needed to make the site better, or if there is an infection, we often wait about four months after extraction to place the implant.

Orthodontics

• Orthodontics
  W hen people think of orthodontics, they immediately picture a mouth full of metal brackets and wires. Not so with Invisalign. Invisalign utilizes a modern orthodontics approach by using clear aligner trays to reposition crooked teeth into a straighter position. These FAQs from Pearl Dental Care in Hamden, Connecticut, provide answers to help you decide if Invisalign is the best orthodontic treatment.
• Invisalign Orthodontics
  Invisalign® has made continual improvements through the decades. While it still effectively addresses minor crowding and spacing issues, today’s Invisalign® is also designed to treat more complex concerns. These conditions include...
• Braces
  Led by father and son, Drs Gary and Scott Pearl, our family at Pearl Dental Care in Hamden, Connecticut, is proud to serve your family with treatment as comfortable and convenient as it is precise, safe, and effective. Invisalign® represents just one of our advanced alternatives to conventional dental treatments. It presents a removable and discreet way to straighten the teeth and correct bite issues without braces.

General

• Teeth Whitening
  Darkening or yellowing of the natural teeth is a part of the ageing process. Patients who want to maintain their youthful appearance might first think of treatments for fine lines and wrinkles but may also want to consider how their teeth look. At Pearl Dental Care in Hamden, Connecticut, patients can speak to Drs. Gary and Scott Pearl about the benefits of professional teeth whitening as a great way to quickly improve the color and vibrance of their teeth.
• Cosmetic Dentistry
  T oday, cosmetic dentistry makes it easier than ever for everyone to have a winning smile. If there are aspects of your smile you’re not happy with, our doctors at Pearl Dental Care can help you change them with cosmetic dentistry. Your Hamden, Connecticut dentists offer a number of cosmetic teeth procedures that can work wonders in improving your smile’s appearance. The answers to these questions give you greater insight into what to expect from cosmetic dentistry.
• General Dentistry
  The “pearl” in our practice name refers to father-son dentists, Drs Gary and Scott Pearl. However, it also aptly defines the Pearl Dental Care approach to partnering with patients. We treat our patients in Hamden, Connecticut, and greater New Haven County as the “pearls” that they are. We respect and value them as one-of-a-kind individuals deserving of highly personalized, warm, and inviting care. This approach is primarily built on a foundation of general dentistry and routine check-ups. The services that fall under this category include...