Third-year student featured in Newsday

Dental student creating balloon animals for interested students.

When Brandon Axelrod visited his dentist nearly two decades ago – a slip in the shower prompting emergency care for his two front teeth – little did he know that it would launch a career in dentistry, with a twist.

Now a third-year student at Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine, Axelrod is well on his way to the career in oral surgery that he envisions. Since he was a teenager, Axelrod has brought a smile to people's faces in a different way – through twisting balloons into just about every shape that his audiences, young and old, could imagine. Newsday's Faces of Long Island section caught up with Axelrod to find out more about how his hobby turned into a part-time job, and how he expects it will be integrated into the practice he one day hopes to have.

"I know I’ll eventually incorporate my craft into my office, just how my dentist did," Axelrod said. "I’m always going have my office loaded with the balloons and everything that I need to make any creation that’s requested."

Read the full story on Axelrod's unique talent on the Newsday website.