About Joseph Tagliarini, DMD
A short biography.It might sound a tad corny, but I think I’m the luckiest dentist alive. I get to practice my field in the best little city in the world. Second only to my excitement for great dentistry is my enthusiasm for New Haven. I enjoy some of the most interesting patients in Connecticut. I love my neighborhood in the Elm City’s Lincoln-Bradley area (where I’ve been fortunate enough to take ownership of New Haven’s first modernist home in the International style—I’m a little proud, OK?). Whether it’s eating sushi at Miso or picking up omelet supplies from Nica’s on a Saturday morning, I truly relish living and working here. It’s the perfect blend of small town warmth and intimacy with big city sophistication. Born in New York City in 1961, the son of Sicilian immigrants (my sisters were born in Italy), I grew up in a similar place, in a way – a friendly place where people really got to know each other in neighborhoods. One-on-one interaction was standard. Still, the glitz of Manhattan was always nearby, too. My first brush with New Haven was attending Yale (BA, 1983), where I majored in architecture. Ironically, what I enjoyed most about architecture was making models and working with my hands – things you get to do often in dentistry, of course. With its emphasis on structure, strength, and beauty, dental work could be called architecture for the mouth. In the 1980s, I spent a couple years doing “the corporate thing” (real estate asset management). Not for me; I wasn’t quite satisfied. Maybe it’s the Brooklyn in me, but I felt I missed working with people close-up. I eventually figured out that my great love was dentistry, and I attended dental school in Connecticut. I remember running into one of my former Yale professors a few years ago, telling him I was slightly ashamed at giving up architecture. He said something to me I’ve never forgotten, something which revolutionized my way of thinking about my job. “Well, dentistry is architecture for the mouth.” Indeed, it is. For me, the penny dropped that day.
