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.
February 8, 2012 at 3:45 pm
Hi, I just had my surgery on Thursday on my upper and lower. I know I have plates and screws in. Is it common feeling like you can’t breathe, or perhaps I have a cold. My bands came off today but I am having difficulty placing the rubber bands in because it is so painful to pull the mouth back, did anyone else experience this? Also, just trying to suck juice in through a straw is difficult, any suggestions? I just can’t wait for this to be behind me. Thanks.
February 8, 2012 at 1:54 pm
CJ, I agree with you when you say that the most difficult part of the recovery is the fact that you’re unable to do much for the first few weeks. This is more of a mental struggle than a physical one.
Your face will be numb for about a month, so you’ll have to put up with your phantom itches for a few more weeks yet.
February 7, 2012 at 9:07 pm
so this is to everyone i had this opperation a week ago in the first with the right medication and a lil streath you can get past the worst of it. i also found that you need to enjoy yourself so get alot of of stuf you want to do. i also fond that after a couple days eating noodles and even french toast is a possible it also give you the feeling on eating real food its great. yet the worst part of this entire ordeal has no been the pain nor the fact that im still not allowed to do much yet as i sit here bored and tired of not being allowed to do all the fun activities i love to do that are just to impratical for me to do for the near future i come to wonder how long the numbness in my face will last, its not merely the drulling or the small lack of facial movement but the sensation i have to scratch my face. so could anyone help me in my search to find an answer.
February 7, 2012 at 1:01 pm
Thanks for getting back to me. I think i was in major meltdown mode when i wrote that previous message….It was all of 4 hours fresh in my mind!! I have shared this website with my husband and i think he will be appreciative of everyones input to help him along the way. There is a lot of information on here for the caretaker- as well as us going thru the healing process. I can not thank you enough for the peace of mind you have provide us, Graham!
I was blessed with the opportunity to acquire this surgery for free thru The Army (i paid for the braces tho) and i think i should not “kick a gift horse in the mouth”. I think we all have doubts going in about what on earth we just signed up for….but all of these people have given me such an amazing sense of relief!!
**more to come this Spring…….
February 7, 2012 at 11:54 am
You’re exactly right, Abby. Recovering from this operation relies on mental stamina a lot more than it relies on physical strength. I think most things in life follow suit as well.
February 7, 2012 at 3:30 am
Thanks for your feedback Graham. Much appreciated 🙂
Yeh I know, I definitely am grateful that I was put on the soft food diet so I could atleast open my mouth. No chewing ofcourse, so I still miss real food so much! haha Another 3 more weeks on this and my surgeon will determine if I still stick to this or if I can move on to chewing. But I know some of you guys were wired shut and had to use syringes etc so I can imagine it would of been harder.
But what Ive learned so far, you have to be mentally strong and stay positive through out the whole thing otherwise you’ll fall apart. I found it so hard the first week, I was like ‘why did I do this, I hate this’ lol But it does slowly get better as the swelling and bruising reduces and you just somehow adjust, so Im just going to try and stay positive and hope for the best.
I hope everyone else who goes through this does the same because it will get better. Its not as bad as you may think 🙂
Ok enough ranting from me! Its so cool having this blog though for other people to share and voice any concerns. I hope you recovered well from your own jaw surgery experience 🙂
February 7, 2012 at 2:02 am
Hi Bree,
It sounds like you have a small mental battle to win during these next couple of months. I highly recommend the surgery if your bite has been bothering you for more than a few years.
Having titanium plates screwed into your bone during the surgery is perfectly normal. In fact, it’s expected. When the surgeon cuts into your jawbone, he uses the tiny little plates to screw the pieces back together so that they’re held in place while your body fuses the bone into a single piece again.
You won’t have any exterior stitches. All of the work takes place inside your mouth.
Looking forward to hearing from you in a couple of months!
February 7, 2012 at 1:59 am
Hello Abby! I apologize for not replying to your previous post. I seem to have missed it somehow.
That’s good to hear that your bleeding has subsided. Blood comes standard following an operation like this.
You’re lucky that you’ve been able to eat soft foods right from the very beginning of your recovery. I hope you appreciate that! =)
The tingling sensations will most definitely go away over the next month or so. It’s similar to what happens when your leg has fallen asleep and is just beginning to regain its feeling. Except that it happens all the time. And you can’t walk it off.
You sound like you’re recovering at a pretty rapid rate. Good luck these next few weeks!
February 6, 2012 at 6:03 pm
I just realised I may have over-reacted in my previous post (on Feb 3 2012) about the mouth bleeding – Just ignore, as the bleeding has gone again. Im now nearly at the 2 week mark and things seem to be going OK at the moment. Im getting used to the soft foods/liquid diet and the annoying upright sleeping positions.
The first week was definitely the hardest, but Im slowly adjusting and recovering. And the swelling and bruising is reducing which is great 🙂
The only thing at the moment is the weird crazy tingling/sensations in my bottom lip. It can get really annoying as sometimes it feels like this stretching and moving feeling is going on in there but I know I just got to give it some time and hopefully it will settle… 🙂
February 6, 2012 at 2:24 pm
I just had my initial appt with the surgeon today. Turns out they have to do the top as well….quite unexpected news!! I have about two months to settle into the idea, but im not sure it has truly hit me yet. The doc said that i will have titanium plates on the upper. Is this norm for everyone? Will there be exterior stitching? I am confident that I have made the right choice in doing this surgery, but one cant help the anxiety of their brain going a million different directions!! I am excited for the most part….I just hope my husband has the same confidence in his care taking abilities. A lot of people I have spoken with say it was harder to be the care taker than the one having the surgery ( I say, let them have the surgery before they go talking! lol.) But, I can sympathize….helping someone who cant talk could be frustrating.
February 3, 2012 at 12:13 am
Hi there, firstly this is a great website and I wish I had come across before my surgery to prepare, but all good I guess!
I had jaw surgery last Wednesday to correct my underbite (single jaw surgery) and I also had my 4 wisdoms removed at the same time! Crazy I know but It wasnt as bad as I thought…
They didnt need to wire my jaws shut or anything like that so Im able to eat soft foods – mainly just soups, yoghurt, icecream, oats etc and Im luckily able to talk – not properly ofcourse but i think at least enough to be understood lol
I did feel very weak and just down the first week but slowly getting better.
I was pretty swollen the first week, especially on the right side of my face and it turns out its because most of the work was done on that side but the swelling is slowly going away which is nice! Still numb around the lower mouth/chin area but that needs time I heard to go away…
The sucky thing is that I still have noticeable bruising especially under my chin which started as a dark purple colour – my suregon said its normal but I was worried it wouldnt go away…Ive noticed its kinda fading which is good but it did worry me…
And also, I luckily didnt experience much bleeding post surgery, just the first couple of days, but I noticed last night and this morning, when brushing my teeth and using my mouth wash that I was bleeding – but it wasnt the red blood colour, it was like a watery blood..I dont know if that makes sense? lol But i just wanted to check if that was normal?
Sorry if I dragged this on…but your assistance is appreciated 🙂
February 2, 2012 at 10:36 am
Hi Jason,
I wouldn’t pass any judgements on your appearance if you’re only 2 weeks into your recovery. Your face is going to look disproportionate and out of line for another month or two still.
Even though it seems like most of your swelling is gone, I assure you it is not. Swelling will stick around until about the 3-month mark.
Just be patient and your face will return to normal over the next couple of months. The shape of your face will be a little bit different, but you’ll adjust and grow to appreciate it. Trust me!
Patience, my friend!
February 1, 2012 at 11:23 pm
Hey Graham,
I’ve had my jaw surgery about 2 weeks ago and my swelling has died down quite alot from before. But my face is still really chubby, and still not the original size; my face was really slim before. Does the surgery widen your face? And my nose is widened and really turned up and I look like a pig 🙁 I’m asian so it was wide and pretty turned up before. It’s really turned up that there’s a pretty wide gap between my upper lip and the tip of my nose; it looks really bad. Will it come back down? Another thing, my mouth appears smaller… and the corners of my mouth have black scars, from the operation. Will that eventually go away? Other than that, I’m eating fine and wearing elastics.
Thanks!
February 1, 2012 at 1:56 pm
Hi Elizabeth!
That’s interesting that you’re experiencing pain an entire year later. The only thing I can think of that would cause swelling at this point would be a reaction to one of the brackets, but it sounds like your surgeon ruled this out already. I wonder if your jaw was set in a manner that puts a bit of torque on the bone. That would be unfortunate, but might also explain your pain.
In my opinion, it is your surgeon’s responsibility to ensure you can live comfortably following this operation. I would go see them again and be persistent that you’d like to have this fixed.
If you figure anything out, please let me know. It’d be good knowledge to have should anyone else experience pain this late in the recovery.
Sorry I’m unable to shed more light on your situation. Best of luck in figuring out what’s causing this discomfort.
February 1, 2012 at 10:24 am
Heya
I wish I had seen this site before my op!
I am now over a year since my op and i had upper and lower jaws done, with some slight work done to my nose. I have been reading past comments from yourself and other people and was wondering if you have had any problems with your jaw since. As i said it has now been over a year since i had surgery and i keep having a few problems, the lower left hand side keeps swelling up at various times during the day and it is still quite painful even to touch. I can’t sleep on it very well so it’s still quite awkward to sleep at night. My upper gums are still slightly numb and still quite painful to brush. I only had my braces on for 5months after surgery and was off work for a total of 2months as i work in an airport and have to interact with passengers all the time. I was mainly wondering if you had experienced any of these problems so long after having your surgery done. I have recently been to see my surgeon and he took x-rays and had a look inside my mouth, touching my gums and said although it is still quite sore there are no problems with any of my brackets on my jaw and no sign of infection. He said the only solution he can come up with is muscle spasms, but i don’t feel like this has helped me in anyway and i am desparate for an answer. I would be happy if you can relate to this and maybe shine some light on my situation. Thankyou
January 31, 2012 at 10:43 pm
Leading up to the operation, your orthodontist will create small gaps between certain teeth so the surgeon has room to cut into the bone.
When the surgery is complete, you must wear braces for another 6 – 12 months to close those gaps and ensure your teeth are in the correct position with regards to the new placement of your jaw.
It’s frustrating, but it will be worthwhile when it’s all over. You have my word. =)
January 31, 2012 at 8:49 pm
Why such a length of time? Just looking forward to this part of my life being over.
January 30, 2012 at 10:47 pm
I wore my braces for 9 months following the operation. Most orthodontists encourage patients to stick with their braces for 6 – 12 months post-op.
January 30, 2012 at 5:31 pm
Hi, just wondering how long you had your braces on after the surgery?
January 28, 2012 at 6:37 pm
Your teeth are in the correct position. Your jaws will seem a bit out of place until your swelling goes away, so don’t worry about anything for the first two months.
Your lip is likely painful due to the stitches ripping open once in a while. Do your best to keep your lips moist with lip balm and try not to laugh or smile for a few more days so they aren’t stretched.
You’re almost at the point where life becomes easy again. Hang in there for a few more days, Lori!