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.
January 27, 2012 at 9:19 pm
The back of my top lip is significantly white and painful. Is this normal ten days post op? And my upper front teeth seem to be biting over top of my botton teeth. This worries me becauae I feel like my teeth should be more lined up? Can you tell me that this is normal please. Haha.
January 26, 2012 at 7:55 pm
It is a small world. I am very pleased with Dr. Lahl. Mark Knueful is my orthodontist as well. I am not sure if I have the spelling of his last name right. I am very impressed with how genuine and pleasent Dr. Lahl is. Having a caring surgeon make this alot easier. Thanks for answering my questions. I had a very good day today with friends and family. The best thing about me is that I really dont care what people think, so I have been out and about which helps the days go quicker.. especially since I’m used to being on the go every day and when I’m not at work I’m training for races.. so the last week has been very hard, very long… but it is all in my head. Alot of self talk and good people make this much much easier than I could ever imagine. I’m sure that I will have more questions for you, so talk soon.
January 26, 2012 at 7:33 pm
Elizabeth, my braces were $7,000, but I guess I received a better deal on the surgery. That sounds expensive!
When I was allowed to start taking the bands off, I found speaking a lot easier. My jaw would still ache at the end of days where I talked often, but if you only speak a modest amount, you’ll be alright. Talking is great exercise for your jaw as well, so it’s all for the better in the long run.
You’ll probably be perfectly fine speaking with patients in your clinic when you return to work in a few weeks. The maximum time I recommend anyone takes off from work is a full month, and you’ll be at 5 weeks post-op by the time you return.
Also, you’re right at the tail end of the worst window during recovery. Just be strong and keep yourself busy these next few days and you’ll notice things become a lot easier very soon! Make sure you’re seeing your friends again at this point. They’ll accept your current situation and it will make you feel loved and happy. I mean that! =)
January 26, 2012 at 7:28 pm
Lori, that’s really cool that we had the same surgeon! It’s a seriously small world!
January 26, 2012 at 12:52 pm
Omg my braces were 6,000 and the surgery itself was a little over 30,000.
I’m two weeks post op today…actually just recovering from an infection I had which is why the right side was much more swollen and painful. I have a drain sewn in the side of my mouth now…hopefully getting that removed tomorrow. I find that even though the days and nights of pain are coming to a halt, I find myself getting depressed. I come from a large Italian family and our lives center around food. I can’t seem to get over the mental weirdness of blending normal food, therefore I don’t have a lot of variation in my diet….broths, juices and smoothies. It’s depressing me to do anything these days. I have 3 more weeks to go until I’m unbanded and can start the soft diet. Once you got the bands off, was speaking easy or painful? I ask because the day after I get my bands off I need to return to the clinical setting (I’m a nursing student) and must be able to converse like I did before the surgery. One more thing….I dropped 10 pounds the first week and have not dropped a single pound during the second week. WHY?! The anticipated weight loss is one of the only things I have keeping a smile on my face these days….
January 26, 2012 at 12:33 pm
He did my surgery last week.
January 26, 2012 at 11:25 am
Hi name is Saranjeev Lalh. You can read about him here: http://home.dent.ualberta.ca/people/lalhs.htm.
January 26, 2012 at 11:17 am
Who was your surgeon?
January 26, 2012 at 11:13 am
The recovery is the most difficult part of the entire ordeal, but you’ll get through it and be smiling before you know it.
My lisp is completely gone and my speech is a lot clearer post-op.
As for monetary issues, I don’t have any dental coverage, so the actual operation on both jaws cost me $5000 here in Edmonton, Alberta. The price is entirely dependent on your location, your surgeon, and your health coverage.
January 26, 2012 at 10:06 am
Oh and… monetary stuff… did your insurance pay for it? I paid 5 grande for my double jaw… turns out its 7500 now!! And I work for the government and not even a grande was covered…
January 26, 2012 at 10:05 am
I had a pretty intense lisp too while I had an open bite and I noticed that you talked about having a lisp… is your lisp still evident?
January 26, 2012 at 9:58 am
It will probably take a year you say… that means a year with braces I suppose hey? I’m happy to hear that you can tell me that my bite will line up, let’s hope that it does. I started all of this with an open bite and the three years that I had braces on prior to surgery has really lessened the size of the gap between my teeth so I’m confident that if it can make that much of a difference, then working with what we have here isn’t going to be that big of an issue. It’s just hard you know? I somewhat just imagined that it was going to all come together once the surgery was complete.. had hope to even take off the braces in 3 months post op… ha. I do enjoy reading your posts, thank you for giving hope. This week will be by far alot better than last as I am not feeling as dizzy as I was before… has alot to do with the lack of nutrients going in my body… that’s something I need to work on is drinking the Ensure stuff that I have. My baba made a delicious soup for me that went down really easy but drinking those sweet drinks is really hard…
January 25, 2012 at 6:41 pm
Lori, you sounds identical to me! I was left with an open bite on both sides and a lack of feeling in half of my bottom lip following surgery.
My feeling will probably never return, but my bite has closed up on both sides. I’m confident you teeth will come back together as well. It will probably take a year or so, but it will happen. =)
January 25, 2012 at 5:23 pm
Today was my first post op appointment and Im not going to lie, as nice as it was to brush without elastics I was so sad because I feel like I have an open bite and my teeth do not linr up. Also my left nerve was punctured so chances of getting feeling back in my bottom lip and left cheek are super slim if next to none. Did your teeth line up right off the bat?
January 23, 2012 at 4:41 pm
Hi Eileen!
That’s crazy that you had your wisdom teeth extracted during your jaw surgery! Your body must have not even known which end was up for the first few days following that operation!
As for your questions…
1. Your swelling won’t affect your ability to perform well in school. By the third or fourth week, you should have a considerable amount of energy back and be able to think straight with no problems.
2. I used heat packs on my face because that’s what my surgeon told me to do. I found they increased my comfort level a lot. I have no experience with ice packs.
3. I found blended foods too thick to eat at first, so I stuck with tomato soup and Ensure. Once I was able to drink from a cup, I started blending Chunky soups for added flavor.
4. The shape of your face will certainly change, but people will still recognize you perfectly alright. You’ll adjust to your new look within a few months of your surgery, so don’t let it bother you at first. Also, swelling will keep you from seeing your true face for another 2-3 months, so don’t pass any judgements on yourself until that time.
Good luck as you move into your second week of recovery!
January 22, 2012 at 11:25 pm
Oh I forgot to mention, in my surgery I also got my 4 wisdom teeth taken out. So that means I don’t ahve to do the operation twice!
Eileen
January 22, 2012 at 11:20 pm
Hey Graham,
I’ve just had double jaw surgery 5 days ago, like you I had a severe underbite, but I also have a cleft palate (you can search it up on google but the images aren’t very pleasant =/), so I was probably operated a little differently than you.
By the way I’m 17 years old, and 2012 is my year where I take my final secondary school exam into university. I’m worried that the recovery time may affect my performance.
I’m going back to school in about 2 weeks, which means I miss 1.5 weeks of school, and I’m kind of worried that my current swelling might impact.. =(
My swelling hasn’t calmed down much, I think it was because on the first 2 days I didn’t apply ice much because the hospital required me to hang an icepack around my jaws, but the ice was very heavy which resulted for me, neck pains.
I stayed in hospital for 3 nights. The first night I was feeling really nauseous and only slept for 3hrs after vomiting really heavily during the night. It was really bad experience. Second day, swelling increased dramatically. Now it has calmed down a bit, and I’m currently putting ice as much as possible. But when I searched on the web, I found some people saying that ice helps, others saying that moist heat helps. I don’t know who to trust. What helped you the most?
Also, my teeth tied shut with elastics and I can barely open my mouth, but I am having my 1 week checkup tomorrow, and having the elastics removed, so that’s good. But, so far the foods I have been eating were just my normal foods blended together, like beef. It was really thick and hard to suck on.. what do you recommend me eat?
Also, I’ve read that the operation impacts on the appearance of your nose and cheeks etc. How much does it change? My cleft palate has already impacted on my nose (it has lost a bone and considerably flat), but I like my face shape atm. =( I hope it won’t change much!
Anyway, your blog has been really inspiring for me and if you could give reply and answer my questions or give me any tips I would be so grateful!! =D
Thanks,
Eileen
January 21, 2012 at 11:14 am
It’s great to hear that you’re feeling good now, Randy! I also appreciate that you’re excited about the final results that are quickly becoming a reality. It’s nice when people accept that everything is going to work out alright. =)
Keep with it for another month or two and you’ll be in tip-top shape, my friend!
January 21, 2012 at 12:55 am
Hey Graham,
I had upper and lower surgery as well. I am 20 years older than you, which might explain some of the differences in recovery than you have writen about. However, there were many similarities too.
I read your blog before and after going in for my surgery and I found it to be very entertaining as well as informative. You are a very cleaver writer. Anyway…one of the things that struck me was the fact that you were even able to think straight and write about it from the first day. My experience was complete hell for the first week or two. I was in a lot of pain, in a medicated fog, and the only thing I could think about was all the regret of doing the surgery. I don’t remember being in a state of mind clear enough to keep a blog going. So, kudos to you for doing it. This may be an age thing. At 46, we don’t bounce back as quickly as when we were 20 something.
Now, I am six weeks post-op and feeling pretty good now. I want to state or restate my appreciation for your blog. It really is helpful for people going through this at any age.
Bye the way.. My regrets have faded and my final product is more in focus now and it looks pretty good!!
Thanks a lot,
Randy
January 20, 2012 at 1:14 pm
Nice to meet you, Thej!
The first couple of weeks are most certainly a depressing time for anybody. You need to understand that you’re currently in the most difficult part of the entire recovery.
I promise you that in two weeks’ time, you’ll be feeling a lot more positive and have regained a substantial amount of energy.
Just continue to appreciate your parents’ care and go for a walk a few times each day. Find a TV series that you can pass the time with as well. Soon, you’ll be a few weeks into recovery and you’ll be feeling a lot better!