FAQ

Cleaning infection from inside of the tooth to prevent it’s spreading to the surrounding bone and your body. The infected pulp and internal walls of the tooth are thoroughly cleaned mechanically and copiously irrigated with antiseptics. Once the tooth is clean the inside space of the tooth previously occupied with infected pulp is filled in with a bioinert material.
This internal filling stays there permanently to seal the tooth from future infection.

The root canal therapy is a safe and very effective method of saving the tooth for a long term.
The tooth looks and feels like a normal tooth and the bone and gum tissue around it remains undisturbed.
Alternative treatment to root canal therapy is removal or extraction of the tooth. It is considered a more traumatic procedure leading to irreversible loss of the tooth. The empty space created after tooth removal leads to localized remodeling and loss of bone and shifting of the teeth within the area of the defect. Most of these changes could be minimized with replacing of the extracted tooth with a tooth implant.

It depends on the severity of the infection and complex anatomy of the root canal system of the tooth.

You may expect a mild soreness of the tooth for a few days following the treatment as a normal healing response.

CEREC restorations are highly esthetic, precise and long lasting 3D designed and 3D printed dental restorations delivered the same day. CEREC technology eliminates the need for outsourcing work to dental labs, waiting time associated with it, additional visits to the lab to make necessary corrections. The 3D scanning in the mouth is a great upgrade from conventional messy impressions in your mouth that sometimes trigger your gagging reflex.
This new streamline process does not require you wearing temporary restoration that sometimes get loose, broken, adding another visit to replace or fix them. The genius achievement of German engineering – CEREC streamlines the entire process delivering you the highest quality permanent restoration in only one visit.

The CEREC crown, veneer, onlay or inlay are tooth restorations that replace missing parts of a tooth and structurally reinforce the weakened tooth structures They differ in size and have specific indications for using one or another. For example, veneers are selected to improve tooth esthetics while the crown provides a full coverage solution for structural reinforcement. Inlays and Onlays are excellent alternatives to the composite filling where decay destroys a large part of the tooth and a more lasting solution is desired. These CEREC restorations work great where conventional composite fillings don’t. They save severely damaged teeth due to decay or wear and tear, improving teeth appearance. The main advantage of CEREC indirect restorations is strength, durability and esthetics. Being produced outside of the mouth allows a wider selection of dental materials ( porcelain or metal), more esthetic customizations and avoids recurrent decay or postoperative sensitivity due to large composite filling shrinkage.

The total visit time is about 3-4 hours of which the first 60-90 min are spent prepping and scanning your tooth. Following 1 hour of work done outside of your mouth designing and milling the restoration. The last 1 hour of your CEREC visit is devoted to fitting and cementing the final restoration in your mouth, cleaning out cement access, adjusting your bite and polishing completed restoration.

Most of the time your recovery is uneventful. You will return to normal chewing activity as soon as anesthesia wears off. Sometimes if the initial decay had progressed deep under the gum line or close to the pulp “nerve”) of the tooth you may experience a mild postoperative tooth or gum sensitivity. It always resolves in a few days as your body naturally heals. There are some cases when your dentist will warn you about questionable prognosis of the tooth due to critical proximity to the “nerve” or presence of the deep cracklins in the tooth.

We clean our teeth to prevent tooth decay, gum inflammation and bone loss.
No matter how great our brushing or flossing habits are there is always an area in the mouth that we miss.It could be due to individual brushing /flossing pattern, tooth location (wisdom teeth, tongue side of the lower front teeth), misalignment or crowding of the teeth, saliva composition, calcium/phosphate enriched diet etc.
Overtime soft plaque gets calcified by saliva and turns into hard buildup that is impossible to remove at home.This buildup consists of the colonies of the harmful bacterias that produce toxins persistently irritating the gum leading to chronic gum inflammation called gingivitis. it manifests clinically with red, swollen, bleeding, sore gums, bad breath. Chronic plaque induced gum inflammation causes bone loss or periodontitis that eventually leads to tooth loss due to lack of bone support. Fortunately these changes are easily prevented with regular professional teeth cleanings.

We take teeth cleaning very seriously.
Our hygienists are equipped with the best cleaning tools available today on the dental market. We use Piezo and Cavitron handpieces to gently vibrate and disrupt gluee structure of the hard buildup growing on your teeth. This gentle method protects your enamel from being scratched when hygienists relies only on sharp hand scalers to forcefully remove tenacious hard plaque. Per your request we could also naturally brighten your smile by safely removing stubborn stains. We use Airflow polishing with baking soda and Cavo profit jet with calcium This service is complementary. We finish teeth cleaning with sealing your enamel with fortifying fluoride varnish or fluoride paste.

Regular cleaning takes about 30-40 min pending on the amount and hardness of plaque/buildup present. Deep cleanings are done in several visits.

It depends how regularly you come for professional teeth cleaning, your home care and how thorough your hygienist cleaned your teeth last time. These factors directly relate to the amount of gum inflammation you have when you present for your visit. Gum inflammation makes your gums sensitive, sore and easy to bleed during cleaning. Our hygienists use high magnification loupes skillfully removing plaque without hurting the gums. Our regular patients actually enjoy their hygiene visits – read their reviews.
Following your teeth cleaning visit it is very important to resume right the way brushing and flossing despite postoperative soreness. Your gums heal in absence of bacterial plaque. Adding warm salt water rinses for a day or two will speed up recovery.

Dental exam includes a thorough evaluation of your teeth, gums and oral cancer screening. We use advanced diagnostic tools like digital XRays, Carivu, intraoral 5x magnification camera, transilluminator, 3 D scanner to properly diagnose you. All of the collected data is in a digital format and is readily available for you at any time via email.
We are thoughtful about limiting your exposure to radiation by using digital XRays with 70% educed exposure time, also we invested in radiation free CariVu cavity check devices. Our transilluminator finds the hidden cracks of the symptomatic teeth that otherwise look absolutely normal . Our magnifying intraoral camera allows you to see any tiny detail inside of your mouth like never before. We help you to interpret everything we find explaining how to improve your oral health. Your questions are always encouraged.

The ultimate goal of our exam is to discover the current condition of your mouth and to understand what led to it. Together we come up with a simple and effective plan of fixing it and preventing its recurrence in the future. This is the primary goal of our exam. In our treatment recommendations we chose a minimalistic approach. We encourage you to take a charge of your mouth by helping you to improve your oral hygiene. Over the years we’ve observed a great success with our patients using prescription strength toothpaste stopping and reversing teeth decay. You’ll receive personalized diet recommendations and learn how everyday stress affecting your oral health, etc.

Cavity filling is made of toothlike dental material that restores any structural, functional or esthetic tooth defect from decay, trauma or developmental malformation.
The procedure consists of thoroughly cleaning out the damaged part of the tooth with sandblasting (slurry mix of water sand and air) or using high speed finest diamond burs.
We always take special care to keep the healthy part of the tooth untouched. We strongly believe that aggressive cutting of the teeth weakens them and must be avoided at all times. Next step in placing the filling is etching and bonding using special chemical agents to increase filling retention to the tooth surface. We pick a matching tooth shade filling material and artfully blend it with the tooth. The filling material remains soft and moldable until we hit it with a blue halogen light that triggers polymerization setting reaction, making it hard as the tooth. The final touch is bite adjustment and polishing. Polishing is a very critical step. A smooth surface won’t attract the plaque. The weakest part of any filling is the interface /gap between the tooth and the filling- it has to be seamless not only for esthetic reasons but more importantly for prevention of the recurrent decay around the margin.

You should not have any tooth pain following the visit unless the doctor will worn you of possible gum soreness or tooth sensitivity due to normal healing process.

The numbing usually lasts up to two hours . It depends on your age, body mass, metabolism rate, etc

The duration of this visit usually we need about half an hour per cavity it depends on the size and location of the restoration the very back teeth are hard to access and the very deep cavities require much slower decay excavation to be careful once we get closer to the nerve the entire visit we schedule for one hour to include also the time for you to get numb and comfortable and to take the photos and to answer any of your questions.

We use the highest quality of the materials that we update on a regular basis based on the newest developments and clinical research please see the link to our specifications for the materials that we use.

The invisible aligners is a socially acceptable alternative to metal braces. Aligners are virtually invisible when you wear them.
You wear them for 22 hours daily, remove them only to eat, drink (except drinking water) and clean your teeth. Every 2 weeks you move to the new aligner. Every new aligner will shift your teeth slightly bringing you closer to your perfect smile.

The duration of the treatment depends on the amount of teeth movement and your compliance wearing aligners. It may take a few months or over a year based on the complexity of an individual case. Some external factors may speed up or slow down the teeth alignment process. Taking anti inflammatory drugs like NSAIDs slows down bone remodeling , clenching/grinding due to stress speeds up the progress.

The Invisalign treatment includes intraoral scan to register initial position of your teeth.

A save and long lasting tooth replacement that looks and feels like a tooth. It consists of two parts : titanium screw anchored in the bone like a natural root and porcelain tooth screwed to it or cemented pending on the implant position.

The computer guided implant is first placed virtually utilizing 3D scans of your teeth and your bone.The trained dentist is using a special computer program that allows to see all vital structures surrounding the implant site.
The implant is virtually placed in the best position in relation to neighboring teeth, for proper function and esthetics, utilizing the best bone available and avoiding any nerves, blood vessels or hidden bone undercuts for absolute safety and predictability. The data of the virtual planning is transferred to the mouth with a surgical guide. During actual procedure the implant is fully guided into exact position planned through the gum. This minimally invasive way guarantees zero postoperative discomfort and favorable body response of fast and uneventful healing.
The conventional way of implant placement requires direct visualization of the bone by incising and reflecting soft tissue flap to see where the implant is going. The surgery is less predictable and safe, following with sutures, swelling and postoperative pain.

The computer guided surgery takes more planning work outside of your mouth and about 10 min of actual implant placement time in the mouth . The conventional way has a longer actual surgery time and may need more of follow up visits ( suture removal, etc).
The steps are:
– Obtaining 3d scans of bone and teeth. – Dentist will thoroughly analyze the data to confirm that you are a good candidate for the guided surgery. In rare cases, when the tooth was missing for a long time, the additional bone grafting or sinus lift might be required. We will refer you to a specialist.
– Guided placement

Pending on the quality (hardness) of the bone 3-5 months.

Deep teeth cleaning or SRP scaling and root planing. This is non surgical gum treatment that involves removal of soft plaque and hard buildup LANAP or LAR laser assisted regeneration of gum. This is an adjunctive treatment modality that is usually recommended in combination with deep cleaning. The laser energy is directed at the unhealthy lining of the gum at the root surface of the tooth. It is selectively and intensely absorbed by the diseased tissues, has bactericidal effect and stimulates healing by activation of pluripotent cells from surrounding gum tissues. Laser gum treatment is minimally invasive compared to conventional gum surgeries: has significantly decreased postoperative pain, produces faster healing, less recession and teeth hypersensitivity.

The teeth whitening is an effective and safe way of lightening the color of your teeth without removing any part of your natural enamel. The active oxygen gets released from a whitening product and penetrates enamel to break internal enamel stains into smaller pieces, which makes the color less concentrated and your enamel gets restored to its original lighter color. The effectiveness of whitening products directly correlates to concentration of its active ingredient :Hydrogen Peroxide or Carbamide Peroxide. The highest concentration is allowed only under supervision of a dental professional.

The whitening does not cause irreversible damage to the enamel. The most common complication of teeth whitening is temporary teeth sensitivity that could be easily prevented or treated with a proper whitening protocol.
At Pearl Dental NYC we use a gentle yet effective original Zoom whitening.We carefully prepare your teeth and your gums, apply a thin layer of an advanced whitening varnish on your teeth. To accelerate the whitening process we’ll shine a Philips blue LED lamp onto your teeth. It comes with variable settings to ensure you’ll get a comfortable experience. You’ll get about 3 sessions of 15 min applications. At the end we always make sure to apply an amorphous Calcium Phosphate enamel recovery gel that replenishes enamel with minerals improves luster and reduces sensitivity.

Your teeth can get brighter up to 8 shades. The best whitening results we see in patients starting with yellow enamel. The most challenging to whiten is grey colored enamel but we still see significantly noticeable improvement.

Studies showed that the best whitening results follow preconditioning of the enamel with a whitening toothpaste. We recommend using Colgate Optic White Renewal toothpaste for at least 2 weeks twice a day for 2 min. This toothpaste contains powerful 3% hydrogen peroxide and is safe to your enamel.
For our patients that have sensitive teeth we also recommend to limit acidic food and drinks and prescribe a Colgate PreviDent 5000 Enamel Protect professional strength toothpaste to heal and to desensitize weakened enamel before starting whitening. This toothpaste stimulates buildup of tiny crystals on the exposed enamel surface that overtime block the sensory nerves of the tooth.
Prevident EP also increases tooth resistance to acid dissolution and hardens tooth enamel.

The duration of the whitening visit is about 60-90 minutes.

On average 3-5 years depending on your diet, oral hygiene habits and toothpaste you use.

Emergencies include wisdom teeth, jaw pain, broken teeth, loose/lost fillings/crowns, swollen/bleeding gums.

We will do our best to accommodate you the same day to diagnose and provide a palliative treatment. The definitive treatment may need to be scheduled when we designate an appropriate amount of time to get the work done perfectly.

Most of the time yes. The X-rays allow us to see what’s happening inside of your teeth, your bone.

It is better not to take painkillers before your visit, if you can, to allow us to first diagnose you. Location, duration and intensity of the pain helps us to establish a correct diagnosis that leads to effective treatment and ultimate pain relief.