Recovery Tips
Following is a summary of the most important things I learned during my recovery from double jaw surgery.
- Drink lots of prune juice and water. Your toilet time will be far from enjoyable for the first couple of weeks because you’re likely to be severely dehydrated. The prune juice will provide your body with the fiber it needs to work those bowels properly, but fiber is useless without water because it won’t dissolve in your body. I recommend a bare minimum of 1 L of water per day. Drink 2 L per day as soon as you can.
- Before you attempt to pull any dead skin off of your lips, be absolutely certain that it’s not a stitch. I learned this the hard way.
- Start using medicated lip balm immediately following your return to your own home. If you don’t, you’ll end up with flaps of dead skin that are half an inch in diameter, and I promise you they won’t feel good when they catch on your braces.
- Apply heat to your face 3-4 times per day for the first 5-6 weeks to help with the swelling. The heat will also help you fall asleep.
- Begin each day at a decent time. If you sleep most of the day, you won’t be able to sleep at night, and you’ll hate yourself for it. Get out of bed, shower, eat some breakfast and brush your teeth and you’ll enjoy each day a lot more. (This is good advice for any day of your life, but it especially applies when you’re on the verge of depression from having jaw surgery.)
- Go to bed on time. Yawning will cause you quite a bit of pain, so prevent it by getting the right amount of sleep during the proper hours.
- As soon as you’re able to talk clearly enough for friends and family to understand you, call people and be social. Go outside and enjoy nature. Whatever you do, ensure you don’t fall into a trap of loneliness and self-pity.
- Start drinking from a cup as soon as you’re physically able to. Your upwards trek back to having full energy begins the day you can throw your syringes in the garbage.
- Eat solid food as soon as your surgeon gives you the go-ahead. It’ll be a slow, tedious and frustrating process, but you need to go through with it in order to build your jaw muscles back up and learn how to chew properly once again.
- It may take some time to get used to your new smile and your newly structured face. Don’t be ashamed of yourself. You don’t look funny at all. You’re simply not used to looking like you’re supposed to.
- And lastly, don’t worry about your looks, bite or facial feeling for at least 6 months. You may have an open bite, but you’ll wake up one morning and your teeth will have migrated back together. You may be completely numb, but feeling will return almost overnight.
If you have any questions about the recovery process, or perhaps have other pointers to share with upcoming jaw surgery patients, feel free to jot them down in the comments.
August 20, 2011 at 6:11 am
Thanks guys so much! You are encouraging 🙂 My breath stinks, I’m going to attempt to clean it somewhat this morning 🙂
August 20, 2011 at 6:10 am
EmilyB – about cleaning your nose – my doctor suggested to shut some sailine water (ocean spray) in my nose every 2 hours, which helped a lot. I used q-tip to get all the jink out. I am still using this spray but much less, my nose still feels dry. For brushing my teeth I use a baby brush and a flat tong scraper. I feets perfectly in my mouth and scrapes all the junk out, after that I use prescription mouth wash. I was tricky at first to rise because I coudn’t keep my lips together and the mouth wash was spilling all over, but it got better overtime. Keep trying and you will be absolutely fine. Good luck with the recovery!
August 20, 2011 at 6:00 am
EmilyB – I am glad you are home! To be honest with you I didn’t realy eat much in the first 4 days at all. I would have a couple of sips of water of juice and that’s it – no ensure no carnation, I just couldn’t hold anything in my stomach, I dropped 8 lbs in the first 3 days. So, I think you are doing great considering the amount of food you eat! Keep doing this great job! Trust me things will suddenly get better; and in a couple more days you will not even think of what you had been done through. You will just wake up one morning and feel your normal self again, very very tired but normal!
August 19, 2011 at 10:27 pm
Oh and the mouth, I used salt water the very first day. Also my doctor gave me a prescription rinse to help heal the gums. Tasted horrid (very metallic but did have a minty after taste). My surgeon let me use a baby toothbrush as soon as I was comfortable with it. I didn’t do much for the first week, but after that started brushing regularly. Just the taste of tooth paste in my mouth made me happier then nasty stink breath! lol Still can’t really stick my tongue out and brush that yet. But it comes back in baby steps.
August 19, 2011 at 10:22 pm
I know what you mean Emily, it is so irritating. I was a bad patient. I did the very thing you are not supposed to do… I didn’t blow my nose right away but I did clean it out. I slept with a humidifier too which helps tremendously, plus sleeping with a wedge pillow that kept my head elevated. Not recommending you go against your doctor’s wishes because there is a risk you could cause more harm than good, but I totally now where you are at.
August 19, 2011 at 9:36 pm
How soon is too soon to clean out the nose and mouth? I was told to not clean out the nose at all but it’s really irritating me
August 19, 2011 at 7:40 pm
Emily B – I had my surgery July 11th. I’m so much better now, I go back to work next week. The first few days were really rough! I think 4 – 6 were probably the roughest for me with the swelling peaking during that time frame. Also, I lost 17 pounds in 2 weeks because I couldn’t really tolerate anything other than Ensure and Gatorade. I forced myself to start eating applesauce and runny oatmeal, yogurt things like that and it helped. Also use a baby spoon. They are smaller and easier to get into your mouth even with the elastics. I would push the food through the elastics. Make sure you have a really good water pick! Good luck!
August 19, 2011 at 5:52 pm
One more thing Tatyanna or anyone, how do you eat these first few days? If this is horrible don’t tell me, but day 3 was today and all I ate was about 1/2 a chocolate and 1/2 a vanilla ensure and a few sips of juice here and there. Tonight I had 1/2 a Carnation Instant Breakfast…it’s so hard to eat! I take my meds and then I can almost talk ( so people can just barely understood some of my words) and it’s awesome, then 3 hours later it wears off and I feel sewed, (I’m only wearing bands) so not really wired shut. Any advice, please, thanks….
August 19, 2011 at 5:40 pm
Tatyanna, hello! I feel like I am getting bigger in my face, and my surgery was only on Wednesday. I feel huge. Just got home a little while ago and that’s a plus for sure 🙂 You are so optimistic! I’m going to find some good movies, thank you and best of luck to you 🙂
August 19, 2011 at 1:15 pm
Hi EmilyB! Hope you are feeling a little bit better than yesterday. I am on day 8th now and feeling great, but I, just like you, had a very rought time the first 4 days – couldn’t hold anything in my stomach, had a headache and was stuffed up like never before. Take it in small steps – don’t force it, all you need now is rest. Good old movie is a good solution too, something that can take you mind off of your current condition. Remember to sleep with your head elevated, it helped me to keep my swelling down. And of course, listen and do everything your doctor says. Get feeling better soon!
August 18, 2011 at 2:35 pm
Well Graham I’m in day 1 of recovery, staying a second night tonight. Doc just cleaned out my nostrils full of tons of gunk…that is what kept me up all night last night. So stuffed up still. A little worried to eat since I haven’t had anything beside water yet….and I’m going to the bathroom more than I would like to, doc said he’d lower the number of intravenous liquids, one thing is for sure catheters are convenient!! Got mine out this morning, I’m exhausted yet bored and yes my bum hurts too, ( I believe it was you who mentioned that), well I’ll be blogging too if I don’t fall asleep, thanks for your website definitely gave me a source of courage
August 18, 2011 at 1:37 pm
Fionn, the first two weeks are the most difficult by a long shot. If you can manage to survive for another 10-12 days, I assure you life will become a lot easier for you!
Try to get outside, go for walks, breathe some fresh air, and find some movies or books to keep yourself entertained.
August 18, 2011 at 1:34 pm
Hi Fionn!
I just had mine on the 11th and I felt awful for the first 4 days. Hang in there – it will get better – I promisse! Good luck on your appointment and congrads on the surgery!! I have my one week appointment tomoorrow.
August 18, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Hi! I had my surgery on the 16th and it’s now the 18th and it is alot different to what I expected. But I feel that it will be worth it in the end.
My teeth aren’t wired together which I found quite weird but my surgeon said that everything looks perfect and my x-rays look great and I have a follow up appointment next wednesday so I’m looking forward with the recovery til then because I feel pretty awful right now.
Thanks.
August 18, 2011 at 8:15 am
Peter, that first meal is a pretty excellent experience, isn’t it? I remember my first few meals as well (along with not being able to chew any part of them).
Good luck in university this semester, brother!
August 17, 2011 at 9:25 pm
Hey
I finally got my heavy elastics off a few days early of the 4 week mark. The first day I stuck to my blended diet but by day 2 I had my first “real” meal. I had French fries and chicken cut in small enough pieces that I could swallow them. Even though I never really chewed the fact that I had real food felt so good. I’m heading off to university soon so I want to be at least able to eat semi-normally by the time I leave.
Thanks for having this blog (and still checking it), it has been very good to read and find out about others people’s experience through jaw surgery and helped me through the process.
Cheers,
Peter
August 10, 2011 at 11:08 am
Hahahah I wish I was some sort of a super human right about now. Well anyway, my new motto is “stay positive”. Thanks for your help!!
-Alexa
August 10, 2011 at 8:33 am
There’s no way you could recover in one month if you had both jaws operated on (unless, of course, you’re some kind of super human, which is a pretty cool thought). If you only had a single jaw moved, you’ll recover a lot more quickly, but the swelling will still be around for a couple of months.
I’m guessing you’re starting college in early September. You should be good to go by then. You won’t be perfectly recovered, but you’ll be speaking and you’ll have your energy back.
You’ll be back to normal soon, Alexa!
August 9, 2011 at 9:02 pm
Hey Graham,
Thanks for responding so quickly. Wow Im in shock it takes so long because my doctors said that recovery would take up to a month but what you said must be true because the rest of the comments on this site say their experience was about the same.
Well hopefully I fully recover faster because I’m starting college soon and I’m moving away from home so thats already gonna be a frustrating change.
Thanks again though,
Alexa
August 9, 2011 at 7:37 am
Hi Alexa,
You’ll be numb for another few months yet. Most of your feeling should be back by the 2-month mark, but it may take up to 6 months for any residual feeling to return.
As for swelling, most of that should be gone between 6-8 weeks post-surgery, but it may take up to 3 months for it to completely dissipate.
You’ve got nothing to worry about though! You’re already approaching the 2-week mark, and everything moves uphill very quickly after that! Be cheerful, my friend!