Cypress patients are 15 to 20 minutes down Valley View and Bolsa Chica from Safari Dentistry and Implants, where a board-certified periodontist places dental implants in the Huntington Beach office at Goldenwest and Heil. The CT scan, grafting, surgery and crown are all done in one place, and the fee for the whole treatment is quoted in writing at the first visit.
How the implant process works at Safari
Getting a dental implant takes three to four visits over three to six months: a consultation with a CT scan, the surgery to place the post, a healing period, and the visit where the crown is attached. For Cypress patients every one of those visits happens at Goldenwest and Heil, because the periodontist who places the implant also restores it.
- Consultation and CT scan. The scan shows bone height and width, the nerve and the sinus. You look at it with the periodontist and get a written plan and fee.
- Bone grafting if needed. Thin bone is built up first, or at the same visit as the implant when the scan allows it. Sinus lifts for upper back teeth are done here too.
- Implant placement. About an hour for a single implant, under local anesthetic. Oral sedation is available. Most patients are back to normal in two days.
- Crown. After healing, an intraoral scan is taken and the ceramic crown is made and fitted.
Why a periodontist rather than a general dentist?
Periodontists train for three years after dental school in the gum and bone around teeth, which is exactly where an implant lives. The long-term failures of implants are almost all gum and bone problems, and a periodontist is the specialist who prevents and treats them. Having that specialist do the placement and the follow-up is the difference between an implant that lasts twenty years and one that needs rescuing.
Why Cypress patients choose Safari for implants
Cypress families often find the office after an emergency extraction elsewhere, when the question becomes what to put in the gap. A periodontist can graft the socket, wait for it to heal, and place the implant in bone that is still there, rather than waiting a year and finding the ridge has collapsed. If the tooth has not been pulled yet, the extraction and the socket graft are done here at the same visit.
Cost, insurance and payment plans
You leave the first visit with the fee written down: implant, abutment, crown, any grafting, and the follow-up visits. That number does not change once you are in the chair. The front desk checks your PPO or HMO benefits first, tells Cypress patients on Medi-Cal Dental what the program will and will not pay for, and sets up monthly payments for the balance if you want them.
What to bring to your first visit from Cypress
- Any recent X-rays or a treatment plan from another office, for a second opinion.
- Your insurance card or Medi-Cal Dental member number; benefits are checked before the scan.
- A list of medications, especially blood thinners and osteoporosis drugs.
- A driver if you would like oral sedation for the surgery visit.
Getting to the office from Cypress
Safari Dentistry and Implants is at 16511 Goldenwest St, Unit 101, Huntington Beach, CA 92647, about 9 miles from Cypress and usually 15 to 20 minutes by car. From Cypress take Valley View St south; it becomes Bolsa Chica St as it enters Huntington Beach. Turn east on Heil Ave and Goldenwest St is about a mile and a half along, with the office on the corner. The 405 south to the Goldenwest St exit, then south to Heil, is the alternative.
- Hours: Monday to Thursday, 10 AM to 4 PM. Same-day emergency time is held each open day.
- Parking: free, in the lot at the door, with a level entrance.
- Patients come from: the Cypress College area, the neighborhoods along Ball Rd and Valley View, the Los Alamitos border near the race course and Cypress Village.