Friday 22 June 2012

Last post before braces off!! - Day 411 (June 22)

Where have I been? 

I've spent the first 3 weeks of my summer in Europe. 3 friends and I traveled to: Paris, Barcelona, Cinque Terra, Florence, Salzburg, Munich, Berlin, and Amsterdam over the course of 21 days, knocking off everything a city had to offer in 3 days or less. Backpacking and living in hostels was a crazy experience and I would certainly do it again. I wore my elastics too like a good boy.




A view on top of the Arc de Triomphe

I'm taking summer school from mondays to wednesdays and on thursdays I am studying for the Dental Admissions Test in a Kaplan prep course. Time with braces has certainly been an afterthought to life.


A day with my jaw surgeon

I had the opportunity to shadow my oral surgeon last friday, and it was a lot of fun. I did not get to see surgeries, but I did manage to be present for 5-6 wisdom teeth removals and 2 patient's teeth extractions. Dr. Tocchio and his staff are very friendly and they made it very comfortable. It was nice to see what goes on from another point of view other than the chair!

Orthodontist

I went into the ortho on June 12. As he told me, I'm getting my braces off in July! The office is going to call me to fit a date in during the week of the 9th-13th, and I will get them removed! 2 days after it is required to come in and get molds, and fitted for a retainer.  I was given a small wire that's placed on my bottom 5 teeth in preparation. Here's the current state of my teeth:






As you can see everything is lined up. On the right side there is a small gap, but when braces come off, this may be difficult to imagine, but your teeth tend to slowly cave in, as the bottom and top rows of teeth angle inwards.

Once my braces are off I'll take a few pictures, create a video on youtube and that would be the completion of my jaw journey! 2 years flies by fast.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Gordon, first off your results look great, you must be really excited to have the surgery behind you.

I was just curious about your experiences with Dr. Tocchio. Did he explain his preference of BSSO over IVRO (does he even offer IVRO)? Also I was curious what the cost was of your double jaw surgery at his clinic?

I'm just in the process of deciding upon my preferred lower jaw surgery method and its tough, so if you get the chance to share some insight that would be awesome :]

Thanks man! (Sorry for messaging you via youtube as well, just wasn't sure which you checked more regularly)

Sean

Gordon said...

Hey Sean,

The double jaw was necessary for my situation because the top jaw needed expanding and the gap between the underbite was so big. I would consult him to see what you need. If he says both jaws, then just do both. The recovery is a bit slower but IMO worth it.

Dr. Tocchio is a great surgeon to have and has a really good hand for fixing both jaws.

The cost was bout 4 thousand at his clinic.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the quick reply Gordon, I plan to look into him!