My First Surgery

You might already know that back in March I got braces (if not, read about it here) to start a long journey to get my underbite fixed. Today was another major step towards that.

I had a periodontal surgery today called, "Osseous Ridge Graft/ Augmentation." Basically, what that means is, I had bone added to my top jaw above my front six teeth.

They way it works is: they recess you gum, drill holes in your jaw and pack ground up bone into the holes and into the ridges between your teeth, then put a membrane down, put your gum tissue back in place, and suture it all back together. Sounds fun right? Oh and I had it all done with just local anesthetic. The surgery took just over an hour and believe or not, I drove myself home afterwards.

So you might be thinking, why did Tony need this surgery? Great question! After the surgery your own bone and gum tissue grows back in the graft area, and this gives you better bone and gum tissue and better foundation for the roots of your teeth.

I had to have this surgery because they need to move my teeth on my top jaw a lot to get them to where they are supposed to be and make my jaw fit right after I have the surgery to fix my underbite some time in the future.

My Orthodontist was worried that I might not have enough jaw bone and gum tissue to support all the movement. So he sent me to a Periodontist to have an evaluation, to see if he thought I might need this surgery. After my Orthodontist and Periodontist consulted they decided it would be best and prevent future problems like the roots of my teeth popping out of my gums. Ouch!

The recovery is fairly simple antibiotics and a mouth wash to help the healing, along with ice for the swelling. Oh and I get narcotics for the pain. I can resume normal activity after a few days, and in a week or so they will take out the stitches.

Anyways, my first surgery of my life is in the books, and although it was minor, it was a pretty strange experience, not to mention I have ground up cadaver bone in my jaw and gums. Weird Right?

For those of you that prayed for me, thanks so much, I appreciate it!

And as always thanks for reading my blog, may God bless you and your family!

PS Here are a couple pictures, just a note they are a little graphic:

You can see some of the stitches, and the swelling where the bone was added behind my gums.

Here is a closer look than above, Sarah gaged while taking this pic, lol.