Meet Dr. Sargon Lazarof

Education & Training

Dr. Sargon Lazarof earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery — graduating with honors — in 1986 from the University of Southern California (USC) School of Dentistry. His postgraduate studies focused on the study of disease of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) at the TMJ Research Foundation, giving him a deep foundation in the function and mechanics of the entire stomatognathic system.

The Birth of the Immediate-Load Implant

In 1988, just a few years out of dental school, Dr. Lazarof attended a seminar on dental implants and asked a question that would change dentistry: why couldn’t an implant be designed to be stable and integrated from the moment it was placed, so the crown could be attached immediately? Traditional implants required months of healing before a tooth could be restored. Drawing on ideas he sketched out — and consulting his father-in-law, a mechanical engineer — he conceived a one-stage implant that expands directly into the bone socket with an expanding screw, allowing it to be “loaded” with a functional crown the same day.

In 1991, Dr. Lazarof wrote the paper that first coined the term immediate load, defining it as achieving full function at the time of placement, and patented the design through Sargon Enterprises, Inc. By 1994, what is known today as the Ultratooth™ — the first immediate-load, permanent dental implant — received clearance, becoming the only FDA-cleared device for the immediate replacement of fully functional teeth.

A Landmark in Implant Dentistry

Dr. Lazarof’s invention has been described within the industry as the “first major innovation in dental implantology since the early work of P. I. Brånemark” — the Swedish researcher widely regarded as the father of the modern dental implant. Where Brånemark established osseointegration over a multi-month healing period, Dr. Lazarof’s immediate-load system compressed that timeline into a single visit, restarting what many in the field call the implant revolution.

An Inventor at Heart

Dr. Lazarof founded the dental manufacturing company Biodent, Inc. in 1992 to develop and produce his implant technology, which is commercialized today under the Ultratooth™ name. Over the years his work has yielded roughly twenty patents. His inventive drive extends well beyond implants: he developed NumBee™, a needle-less anesthesia system, and Diamoneers™, a proprietary, trademarked process that infuses diamond dust into porcelain veneers for an unmatched, lasting sparkle.

Author, Educator & Industry Leader

In 1998, Dr. Lazarof’s book The Immediate Load Implant System: Esthetic Dentistry for the 21st Century was published by Quintessence Publishing Co. He has served as a Clinical Professor at the USC School of Dentistry and is the CEO of Sargon Enterprises, Inc. As founder of the Sargon Dental & Implant Institute in Encino, he trains dentists from around the world in both basic and advanced implantology, sharing the techniques he pioneered with the next generation of clinicians.

A Personal Approach to Care

For more than three decades, Dr. Lazarof has maintained a full-time implantology practice in Encino and West Hollywood, where he and his multilingual team care for patients in English, Farsi, Armenian, Aramaic and Russian. For all of his accolades and inventions, he is known above all for the time he spends with each patient — listening carefully, explaining every option, and designing treatment around the individual’s health, comfort and goals.