Board-certified periodontist Dr. David Ahn provides advanced gum treatment, dental implants, and laser surgery in a quiet, private office just 7 minutes from downtown Santa Ana. No crowded waiting rooms. No parking headaches. Just focused specialist care.
If you have been referred to a periodontist or you know you need specialist care for your gums, implants, or jawbone, you have probably already started looking at options close to home. Santa Ana has plenty of general dental offices, and some of them are excellent. But the environment you walk into for periodontal surgery is not the same as the environment you need for a cleaning. Gum grafting, implant placement, bone regeneration, laser surgery — these are procedures where you are in the chair for an extended period, often under sedation, in a state that feels genuinely vulnerable. The space around you matters more than you might expect.
Many dental offices along Bristol Street, 17th Street, and Main Street in Santa Ana sit inside busy commercial corridors. Street parking is tight. Lots are small and shared with other medical practices. You pull up for a surgical appointment and find yourself circling a packed garage or feeding a meter. Inside, the waiting room may be shared by multiple providers — other patients coming and going, televisions running, a general atmosphere of traffic and noise. None of that is wrong for a routine visit, but it is not what most patients want before someone operates on their jawbone.
The Loft Dental Studio occupies a quiet, private professional building in the South Coast Metro area of Costa Mesa, less than four miles from downtown Santa Ana. The building has a large, free parking lot — no meters, no garages, no circling. You pull in, park steps from the door, and walk into a calm, dedicated specialist office. There is no shared waiting room. There are no other practices in the suite. The entire space is designed for periodontal and implant surgery: unhurried, focused, private. Many of our Santa Ana patients tell us they chose this office specifically because the setting felt safe and personal in a way that larger multi-practice offices did not. The drive from the Santa Ana Civic Center takes approximately seven minutes via the CA-55 freeway southbound.
A significant number of our Santa Ana patients arrive through referrals from general dentists. This is how periodontistry is meant to work. Your general dentist identifies a problem that requires surgical intervention — advanced gum disease, bone loss around a tooth, a failing bridge that needs implant replacement — and refers you to a specialist trained to handle that specific procedure. After surgery, you return to your Santa Ana dentist for the restorative phase: the crown on an implant, the ongoing maintenance cleanings, the long-term monitoring of your gums.
Dr. David Ahn coordinates care with general dentists throughout Santa Ana and surrounding cities. He performs the surgical portion of treatment — implant placement, bone grafting, gum grafting, LANAP laser therapy, osseous surgery — and then communicates directly with your referring dentist about healing progress, implant positioning, and restoration timing. This collaborative model means you do not have to give up the dentist you already know and trust. You get specialist surgical care from a board-certified periodontist with Yale training and a UCLA School of Dentistry faculty position, then go back to your local office for everything else.
If you do not currently have a general dentist, Dr. Ahn can recommend trusted colleagues in the Santa Ana area who share his standards for patient care and clinical precision.
Periodontal disease is the leading reason Santa Ana patients seek us out, and for good reason. Gum disease affects nearly half of American adults over 30, and in its advanced stages it destroys the bone that holds your teeth in place. Left untreated, it leads to tooth loss, chronic infection, and systemic health complications that extend well beyond your mouth. Dr. Ahn provides the full spectrum of evidence-based periodontal treatment, from non-surgical scaling and root planing for early-to-moderate disease, to osseous surgery for patients with deep pocketing and significant bone loss, to LANAP laser gum therapy for those who qualify for a minimally invasive approach.
LANAP — laser-assisted new attachment procedure — is one of the treatments we are most often asked about. It uses a specific wavelength of laser energy to selectively remove diseased tissue and bacteria from periodontal pockets while leaving healthy tissue intact. For eligible patients, LANAP can reduce pocket depths and promote true regeneration of bone and attachment without the cutting and suturing involved in traditional surgery. Recovery is typically faster, with less post-operative discomfort.
Dental implants represent another core area of our practice. Whether you need a single implant to replace one missing tooth, a series of implants to support a fixed bridge, or a full-arch solution such as All-on-4 for patients who have lost most or all of their teeth, Dr. Ahn handles the surgical placement from start to finish. As a periodontist, he specializes in the bone and soft tissue that implants depend on — a critical distinction from offices where implants are placed by providers whose primary training is in other areas of dentistry.
We also provide gum grafting and recession treatment for patients whose gum tissue has pulled away from the tooth surface, exposing root structure and causing sensitivity. Bone regeneration procedures rebuild jawbone that has been lost to disease or trauma, creating the foundation needed for implant placement or preserving teeth that might otherwise require extraction. Crown lengthening reshapes gum and bone tissue to expose more tooth structure, either for restorative purposes or to correct a gummy smile. And since 2016, Dr. Ahn has been certified in Wilckodontics — a surgically facilitated orthodontic technique that accelerates tooth movement for patients undergoing braces or aligner treatment.
Scaling and root planing, osseous surgery, and comprehensive gum disease management.
Minimally invasive laser treatment for gum disease with faster healing.
Single-tooth, multi-tooth, and full-arch implant solutions.
Full-arch tooth replacement with as few as four implants per arch.
Restore gum tissue to protect exposed roots and reduce sensitivity.
Guided bone grafting to rebuild jawbone for implants or tooth preservation.
Surgically accelerated orthodontics — certified since 2016.
IV and oral sedation options for anxious patients or lengthy procedures.
The Loft Dental Studio is located at 3151 Airway Ave, Suite F-103, Costa Mesa, CA 92626. We are in the South Coast Metro business district, just off the CA-55 freeway, with a large free parking lot directly in front of the building entrance.
Take I-5 South or head south on Bristol Street to the CA-55 South. Exit at Baker Street. Turn right onto Baker, then right onto Airway Avenue. The office is on your left. Approximate drive time: 7 minutes.
Head south on Bristol Street and turn right onto Airway Avenue. No freeway needed. Approximate drive time: 5 minutes.
Parking is free. The lot is spacious and well-lit, with spaces directly adjacent to our building entrance. There are no parking garages to navigate and no meters to worry about. Patients in wheelchairs or with mobility concerns will find level, accessible entry from the lot to our front door.
Your first appointment at The Loft Dental Studio is designed to be thorough but unhurried. When you arrive, you will be greeted in our private reception area — no crowded waiting room, no clipboard assembly line. Dr. Ahn will review your dental and medical history, examine your teeth, gums, and supporting bone structure, and take any imaging needed to understand your condition fully. If your Santa Ana dentist has already sent X-rays or a referral letter, Dr. Ahn will have reviewed those before you sit down.
After the examination, Dr. Ahn will sit with you and explain exactly what he found, what your treatment options are, and what he recommends. He will walk you through costs, insurance coverage, and scheduling so you leave with a clear plan rather than a vague sense of next steps. Many conditions can be discussed and treatment-planned in a single visit. For patients who are anxious about dental procedures, we offer both oral and IV sedation options to ensure your comfort during treatment.
Call us directly or request an appointment online. We are happy to answer any questions about your referral, your insurance, or what to expect.
(714) 549-7030Less than four miles. Most Santa Ana patients reach our office in approximately seven minutes by car. The most direct route is via the CA-55 freeway southbound, exiting at Baker Street. From the South Coast Plaza area or lower Bristol Street, it is roughly a five-minute drive with no freeway required.
Please bring your dental insurance card and any X-rays or records your referring dentist has provided. If your dentist has not already sent your records to our office, we can request them directly on your behalf. It is helpful to have the name and phone number of your referring dental office so our team can coordinate smoothly.
We accept most PPO dental insurance plans. Because periodontal and implant coverage varies significantly from plan to plan, we recommend calling our office at (714) 549-7030 before your first visit. Our team will verify your specific benefits and give you a clear breakdown of estimated costs and coverage so there are no surprises on the day of treatment.
Yes. We are located at 3151 Airway Avenue in the South Coast Metro area of Costa Mesa, just off the CA-55 freeway at Baker Street. The building is straightforward to find, and there is a large, free parking lot right at the entrance. No parking garages, no meters, and no confusing multi-building medical complexes to navigate. If you use GPS or a maps app, searching for "The Loft Dental Studio" or the address 3151 Airway Ave, Costa Mesa will bring you directly to our door.