Welcome to the website of Hamden, Connecticut dentists, Drs. Gary and Scott Pearl!

You walk in you feel like everybody knows you, it’s welcoming, I have been here for nearly 20 years, my husband comes, my children come. A lot of the staff are actually friends with their patients, they think of them as family.  We look forward to seeing a lot of patients when they come in, I know them by name, if I don’t know all their names, I know something about them, and usually the names come to me. My name is Gary Pearl and I graduated dental school in 1984 and we opened up in Hamden in 1987, and we have been in Hamden every since. I love working with Dr Pearl, I think he is a great dentist, he takes a lot of pride in his work. I was born and raised in Connecticut, I went to school in Connecticut, and my wife is from Old Lyme. We love the state. I think Connecticut people are great, especially our patients. So we are very happy to practice here. There is a lot of new techniques that we use to make dentistry less painful. So the anesthetic is better, and we also offer choices from nitrous oxide which is laughing gas to oral sedation, and if someone is really nervous, Ivy sedation. Patients can’t believe how easy the dentistry was after we get them sedated.  Sometimes they come in the next day or a week later for me to check and they say “I don’t know, I can’t remember anything, I think I slept through the whole visit. And they realize they don’t need to be afraid.  I came here when I was afraid of dentists, and Dr Pearl took care of me, and I have been coming for over 25 years.  Some have come in really upset and unhappy with their parents and we were able to transform it and give them a brand new smile, so you know they got a new smile and it’s nice for us to feel they are glad. I had root canals on my front teeth, and it required surgery on my gums, so Dr Pearl wanted to make sure that my teeth were beautiful for my wedding. And after the surgery, Dr Pearl, he was so concerned that he gave me his home number to call him if I had any problems, and that I have never experienced that from any doctor. For me, that really touched my heart – I felt he really cared.  I feel that my general health and my teeth especially, have improved, I am very happy with them, and Dr Pearl always have the latest technology at his fingertips. One of the things about Dr Pearl is that he is very state-of-the art, everything that he has, and he does tell me about it which I feel comfortable about him using new equipment because he always explains the new procedures, and everything is state-of-the-art when you come back.  We have a lot of great technology in the office.  We have a cone bean which is a 3 dimension kind of a cat scan. The cone beam shows us in a 3 dimensions, a 3D model of the jaw, and from the cone beam we can actually determine what size and implant is best to position angulations. It’s a unique technology to have in a dental office, not many offices have it, so it’s one of the services that we can offer our patients. One of the new technologies is the CEREC machine. The advantage of CEREC for our patients is you have your crowns made in a day.  Before we would prepare your tooth, take an impression, make you a temporary crown, and you have to go with a temporary anywhere from 2 – 4 weeks.  Now we do it all at once and patients find it much easier. In addition to that, because it’s made by computer, it’s made from a solid block of porcelain designed by the computer, the accuracy is extremely high. You know it’s all about constantly improving the patient experience. People that I do work with comment on how white my teeth are and what a great smile I have, and it’s all because of Dr Pearl.

Hi, I am Dr. Scott Pearl. And today, I’d like to talk about five questions patients should ask their dentist.

What new technology do you have?

In our office, every year, we plan on what new technology we should invest in to make the patient experience better. Our latest technology is the newest CEREC scanner so that we can make crowns, onlays, and other restorations in our office in one visit. And also, take all kinds of impressions to avoid goopy uncomfortable impressions.
Other new technology we have is Cone Beam Imaging to better plan for root canals and implants. And we have new technology for treating gum disease, including lasers.

What do you do for continuing education?

Both my dad and I are very active in continuing education. We are often reading journals, attending continuing education seminars, and very often watching continuing education videos at home. My dad’s a Master in the Academy of General Dentistry, and I’m a fellow in the Academy of General Dentistry, which means we have taken a lot of continuing education to try to stay up to date, and really every part of general dentistry as general dentists, we have to be knowledgable and skilled in every dental discipline.

What can you offer for dental anxiety?

We often see patients with dental anxiety—patients who are so fearful of the dentist that they are even so fearful to come to the dental office. And one of the most rewarding aspects of being a dentist is being able to complete a treatment plan and get patients to no longer have their fear and happily come to the office. So we offer local anesthesia for every patient and nitrous oxide; laughing gas is also very effective for some people. Other people get varying levels of oral sedation, and my dad can even offer IV sedation.

How do you handle dental emergencies?

I think one of the distinguishing features of our office is how promptly we see dental emergencies. I would say just about 99% of the time we see emergencies on the same day.
And we try to squeeze in patients and at least get people out of pain or address the urgent problem as soon as we can. And also, we have after-hour phone coverage, and we are pretty much always available.

What can I do at home to help my oral health?

Well, I think our team of hygienists are really great at helping patients come up with a home routine to care of their teeth and gums. We have a list of recommended products that we provide patients, and we can customize cleaning aids and routines for each patient to help that patient the best.

Thank you.