Oral Surgery & Dental Implant Center of the Ozarks

Implant treatment routed through an oral surgery practice usually arrives as two separate bills, and understanding that split in advance prevents the most common billing surprise in dentistry. The surgeon's fee covers extraction, any bone grafting and placement of the titanium fixture itself. Your general dentist bills separately, months later, for the abutment and the crown that sit on top. Plans code these stages differently, and some still treat the implant body as elective while covering the extraction that preceded it. Ask both offices for their share in writing, and ask specifically whether a sinus lift or graft is expected — that one line item can move a total by thousands.

This practice sits at 3820 South Fremont Avenue in Bradford Park, inside the medical corridor running alongside South National where Springfield's hospital campuses and specialist offices cluster. It is a surgical referral practice rather than a general dental office. Dr. Julie Becker is board certified by the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and the caseload reflects that: implant placement, wisdom tooth removal, exposure of impacted teeth for orthodontic treatment, teeth-in-a-day full-arch cases, and the grafting that often has to happen first. IV sedation is offered, which for many patients is the difference between an hour of vivid awareness and no recollection of the appointment at all.

A first visit is a consultation, not a procedure. Expect imaging, a review of your medical history and current medications — blood thinners, bisphosphonates and diabetes control all change surgical planning — and a written plan with a sedation decision attached. Nearly everyone here is sent over by a general dentist who stays involved throughout, and the two offices agree in advance on which stage belongs to whom and in what order. Weekday hours start at 8am and run to 4:30pm, with an earlier close on Friday. Because sedation cases need an escort home and an empty stomach, ask about fasting instructions when you book rather than on the morning itself. Recovery is the part people underestimate: swelling from a graft or multiple extractions typically peaks around day two or three rather than the day of surgery, and soft-food discipline in that first week affects healing more than anything else you do.