Recovery Timeline
Following is a brief timeline of important events regarding recovery from double jaw surgery. If you only had a single jaw operated on, your recovery will be much quicker than this.
Keep in mind that every person recovers at a different pace, and also that every surgeon has their own agenda during the recovery process. This is simply the sequence of important events that took place during my personal recovery.
Day 0 (Surgery)
- You’ll be eating/drinking through a syringe
- You’ll be unable to sleep very much
- You may be freezing all night long due to the ice packs wrapped around your face
- You’ll feel extremely weak
- You won’t be able to talk
- You will drool constantly (but you’ll have the suction tube in the hospital to take care of that)
- Lots of blood will be churning up inside your nose, mouth and throat
- Your jaw will randomly spasm (and it will be painful)
Day 1
- Swelling will begin
Day 3
- Swelling will peak
- Your bowels will start working again around this time
Day 5
- Feeling will begin to return to parts of your face
- Swelling will start to decrease
Day 7 (1 week)
- You’ll be able to move your mouth a bit easier, so your talking will become more understandable
- At your 1-week appointment, you’ll be able to brush your teeth, both inside and out (and it will feel amazing)
Day 10
- Drooling won’t be as rampant any longer
- You’ll regain slight control over your lips
Day 14 (2 weeks)
- Most of the swelling will be gone
- You’ll be able to start drinking from a cup (although it may be messy at first)
- You can probably remove a few of the elastics clamping your teeth together, so talking will become infinitely more simple
- Sleeping through the night should no longer be a problem
Day 15
- Your elastics will start snapping daily, due to your rapid increase in speaking
Day 18
- Your breath will become bearable again, due to the fact that you’ve been eating different foods and brushing more often
Day 21 (3 weeks)
- Your energy will start to come back. Take advantage of it! Go for walks and take your bike out for a spin.
Day 22
- You’ll be receiving substantial feeling back in your upper lip and cheeks. Your nose, lower lip and chin, however, will remain completely numb.
Day 28 (4 weeks)
- Talking will hardly be an issue any longer. If you have a splint/bite plate in, you’ll sound ridiculous, but people will be able to understand you.
- Your desire to be social and spend time with people will return in full force. Make sure you take advantage of it, and remember that your friends are not judging you.
Day 29
- Feeling will begin to return to your lower lip and chin. That feeling will come in the form of pins and needles, but you’ll appreciate it regardless. If no feeling has returned to these parts yet, don’t worry. Surgeons say that it make take up to 90 days for feeling to begin coming back.
Day 31 (1 month)
- If your elastics are off, you’ll be able to speak quite well by now
- You won’t drool or spill any longer while eating
Day 32
- You’ll have most of your normal energy back by now
- You’ll begin to feel like you’re ready to take life on again. Be warned though: you’re not quite there yet. Give it another month before you go crazy.
Day 38
- More patches of feeling will return to your chin and lower lip
- You should no longer have to wear elastics during the day
Day 42 (6 weeks)
- You should be able to drink through a straw quite easily by now
Day 45
- Most of your stitches should have dissolved by now
Day 49 (7 weeks)
- If you had a splint in, it should definitely be removed by now
- Be prepared to readjust back into the world of orthodontics
Day 56 (8 weeks)
- You should be able to eat with a small spoon or fork again
- Licking your lips should be no problem at this point
Day 58
- You’ll most likely be allowed to blow your nose again. Be gentle, though, because you don’t want to pop a blood vessel.
Day 70 (10 weeks)
- If you haven’t been able to eat solid food yet, start now. Even if the task of eating involves mashing soft food up against the roof of your mouth, do it anyway. You’ll never gain your strength back on liquid alone.
Day 84 (12 weeks)
- You should enjoy the freedom of eating just about anything you want by now
- Consider practising whistling in order to break up the scar tissue that’s sure to be keeping your upper lip from enjoying its full range of motion
Day 90 (3 months)
- Your three months have finally come to an end! Enjoy eating, breathing and smiling to their full effect.
- Changes will be fairly slow from this point forward. The results you find yourself with at the 6-month mark will most likely be the results you’ll live with for the rest of your life.
August 17, 2010 at 5:56 pm
It happens more quickly than you think. 😀
August 17, 2010 at 5:46 pm
two months!??! *gasp* i wish you had lied and told me only a week or two more. it would have been better for my morale. 😛
August 17, 2010 at 10:48 am
By about 2 months you’ll be talking and smiling no problem, so long as you have no splint in at that point.
The actual feeling may take a while after that to come back though.
Also, once you can smile, do it. A lot. All the time, in fact. Smiling is beautiful.
August 17, 2010 at 9:21 am
I’m at the 2 week mark… i have complete feeling in my upper lip and cheeks but my lower lip, chin and most of my nose are still numb… Now, I know that its going to take weeks and months to get some feeling back…. But when will it be back enough so i can talk normally or smile??
August 6, 2010 at 1:55 pm
Hi James,
Swelling will be gone in the next month or so. You don’t have to worry about swelling because it will naturally dissipate eventually.
Feeling, on the other hand, could take up to a year to come back. Parts of my lip and chin are still numb, and I’m almost 5 months down the road already.
I’ve already learned to live with it though, and I’d do it all over again. I wouldn’t worry about feeling at all until the 6-month mark.
August 6, 2010 at 12:34 pm
It’s been 2 months since my upper and lower jaw surgery and my chin is still numb and my gums are still almost completely numb. There is still minor swelling. When will this go away?!
July 26, 2010 at 11:25 am
The funny thing is that I’ve never enjoyed writing all that much. But I do like sharing experiences, and since I can’t meet you all face-to-face, writing will have to do.
Keep me posted as to your headaches. I’d like to know when they go away!
July 26, 2010 at 1:19 am
Thanks Graham.
I think I am more addicted to your blog and writing now, not the morphine ;o)
Seriously, I have no idea what line of work you are looking to pursue or your current studies, I simply have to say you are a great writer and I thoroughly have enjoyed every update. Thanks for sharing your story and venture with “us” the readers. Your humour and wit have made it more bearable and sharing compassion with everyone has made such a difference.
Krista
July 25, 2010 at 12:36 pm
Krista, I had a lot of headaches, but no pain in my ears. That sounds like a brutal experience!
9 times out of 10, you can assume the pain isn’t actually damaging you–it’s just really inconvenient and uncomfortable. The elastics gave me a lot of sleepless nights as well, but nothing compared to what you’re talking about.
Morphine is definitely addictive. I was on it after a surgery I had on my broken foot years ago and I was craving it when my prescription was all done. So be careful!
I haven’t heard of anyone with pain quite as bad as you, so hopefully the looser elastics help a lot. My only advice is to bear through it because once you’re healed, it will all seem like it flew by.
I feel for ya!
July 25, 2010 at 8:43 am
Hi Graham.
Thanks very much for your reply regarding my gums. I did speak with my surgeon and he said very quickly “don’t worry…any other questions”… yesh, they move so quickly from patient to patient…I feel so rushed every follow up appointment.
One thing that has been really bothersome and I haven’t seen much written about it are nerve problems and pain. When my cheeks started to ünfreeze” I started to experience nerve spasms in my face that were like someone was plugging my fingers into an electrical outlet and it was causing my facial nerves to go bazerko!! Sometimes it would last a couple of seconds and other times it would last a couple of minutes. It was so awful that I sometimes could do nothing but scream or cry as it happened (I’m certain my face looked like I was having a seizure) and then I would be so exhausted afterwards that I’d have to lay down. Thank goodness this only went on for less than a week, but then it moved on to something more intense.
From the moment I awoke after surgery, I had pain predominantly on my right side of my face and into my ear canal. I also never suffer from headaches, (or very rarely), but I had a week of hell with migraines that week. The pain in my ear canal was tolerable with the meds that were prescribed for anti-inflammatory and pain, but after those pills were done and the elastics replaced the wires… my ear and jawline on that side was the area that started to get progressively worse. I mentioned this to my surgeon at each visit as it concerned me that it was seemingly getting more painful each few days, but he kept assuring me it would pass. Well, long story short, I had to call his office last Thurs. and spoke with the nurse about the growing pain! She said that even though I had already taken 800 mg of ibuprofen, that I could take Tylenol 3’s, some of the codeine that had been prescribed and if that didn’t help, I could then take a demerol (not all at once, but within that afternoon/evening). I ended up taking all of those things, and then some. I felt like my ear canal was going to explode and that I would lose my hearing and trying to sleep that night was vertually impossible. The few hours I did sleep were interrupted by severe pain, that I would literally grab the liquid codene that I had and gulp sips hoping the pain would subside. At some point I did think, I might overdose here …
I woke again at 4:30 am and was out of my mind with pain. My ear canal was throbbing and I couldn’t walk straight or think straight. I changed into clothes and called 911 begging for an ambulance to get me to take me to emerg.
They did, and the dr. on staff said only morphene works for nerve pain, nothing else works. He didn’t seem phased at all by the amount of medication I’d taken over a 12 hour period, he gave me a shot of morphine, (which worked thank goodness) and discharged me with a prescription for morphine for a few days (this was Friday) enough to get me through the weekend until I could see my surgeon again.
Sorry for the novel…I got carried away.
Have you/had you or has anyone else corresponding here had any similar experience?
I’ve since seen my surgeon again and he changed the elastics to lower pressure and put me back on a prescription of those anti-inflammatory pills and repeated the morphine prescription to take when the pain is excruciating again, (which thank goodness, I’ve only had to use a few here and there as I have heard morphine is very addictive and that is the last thing I need to deal with, so I am very conscientious when I take them).
Any comments?
Thank you.
Krista
July 14, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Haha, I felt the same way, and still do to a certain degree. I feel like I have a minor overbite now, but I think it’s just because we’re not used to how our bite is supposed to look.
Like you, I was also happy with how I looked before, but I wanted to be able to chew properly, so that’s the primary reason I chose to have the surgery performed.
Now my face looks different, my nose is a bit crooked and I’m still trying to adjust to the changes.
I was told not to worry about what I looked like for at least 6 months post op because your swelling is still dropping and your face is still shifting until that point.
July 14, 2010 at 2:13 pm
Wow, thanks for your reply Graham… that really gave me some courage back! And that is what I need right now
Just another question… were you ever worried about the result? I did not look bad pre-op and was happy with how my face looked, but I desperately wanted to remove my underbite even if it was minimal. Now that I did the op, my underbite is obviously corrected but I look so funny and different… I almost look with an overjet problem. After all this inconvenience and money, I may have ruined my face after all. I know its too early too speak about the result but its getting me so stressed out so I appreciate if you could share with me how you felt
July 14, 2010 at 8:21 am
Hi Adrian,
My gums were numb at first as well due to the nerves they move around during the surgery. I didn’t get any feeling back for over a week, and I honestly wouldn’t start worrying about it until at least a month.
On Day 4, you’ll still be very swollen, very numb, very immobile and everything will seem really bad. But I assure you it’s only temporary!
July 14, 2010 at 1:12 am
Hello
I am day 4 post op double jaw surgery.
Just want to ask you if you had any gum numbness after the surgery and if you still do now that you are so much post op? The surgeon only told me that the permanent numbness risk is in lower lip and chin, which I think I can live with…. but the gums… that is another story and it is getting me really worried as without sensation in the gums it would be difficult to eat for the rest of my life.
Regards,
Adrian
July 13, 2010 at 12:24 am
Hey Krista, congrats on making it to your third week.
As far as your gums are concerned, it’s only a problem if they’re infected. You’re still seeing your surgeon on a weekly basis, right? They’ll be able to tell you if you actually have a problem or not. My gums were pretty numb for well over a month, and they definitely didn’t look pretty.
Unless you’re having excruciating pain, I’d say you’re still doing alright.
Better check with your surgeon at your next appointment though (if you can wait that long).
July 13, 2010 at 12:15 am
Thanks for all the info. I had both upper and lower jaw surgery with genioplasty (chin)too. I am almost at week 3. I was not told anything about heat applied to my face and a few other tips shared here. It has been a huge ordeal for me getting to this point, (it is a story from hell), but the comments here have allowed me to relax a little more and not panic about the numbness from my eye sockets down to my chin. I absolutely cannot wait until that “freezing” is gone. People tell me I look ok, but I still feel like a freak to a slight degree not able to make the right facial movements/expressions.
One question, my gums are really swollen. Is that normal? This is the first day that I was actually able to feel them and I peeled back my upper lip and see that they are very swollen and they are very sensitive and sore.
Thanks everyone.
July 12, 2010 at 11:39 am
Haha, trust me, it wasn’t easy! That’s great that you’re able to eat again.
Just wait until the swelling is gone–it’s incredible!
July 12, 2010 at 11:27 am
I’m actually recovering surprisingly fast. I keep saying I wish my face would catch up with the rest of me. I had upper and lower jaw, as well as genioplasty (chin). On my 12 day visit to my surgeon he said I could have the bands off during the day and start eating soft food like mashed potatoes and such. Whoo Hoo! I started eating split pea soup with bacon, carrots, and celery (just minced everything), and even ate egg salad by also mincing everything. At two weeks I was given the green light to eat soft pasta and so now I eat everything that I can gently chew. I even had a big mac last night!!! Yum!!! Anyway, I don’t know how you went so long on liquid. I would have been dead. I will make 6 weeks in two days and I’m so grateful for every day that brings me closer to recovery. Thanks for sharing your journey with the us. You’ve helped make this journey so much easier for me. It’s great to know you’re not alone.
June 29, 2010 at 1:17 pm
I hope it’s proving to be somewhat accurate. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re recovering much more quickly than this timeline suggests–I was slow at it. =)
June 29, 2010 at 1:09 pm
I probably refer to this about once per week.