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 9, 2012 at 10:15 pm
Graham
Jason finally got his wires removed today but still has his bands on to do some further adjustment with his bite. He’s now trying to adjust to eating again. Do you have suggestions? How long did it take for you to adjust before you actually got your chewing ability back?
August 10, 2012 at 6:57 pm
Hi Joseph,
I remember being excited to eat solid food the moment my splint was removed, but unfortunately it takes time to remember how to chew and to redevelop the strength in your jaws. It took me approximately two weeks before I could chew comfortably again.
I recommend Jason chews gum as often as possible throughout the day. This will both teach him how to chew with his new bite while strengthening his jaws at the same time.
August 1, 2012 at 2:08 pm
Hey graham,
I am currently 49 days into my jaw surgery where my upper jaw was broken once and my lower jaw twice as well as a plate inserted in my chin. I can’t tell you how spot on your blog has been according to my experience through this surgery even though I never had a splint. My question for you has to do with my lips and cheeks.At the point I’m at now, I am able to eat most foods that aren’t too tough to chew that I can fit in my mouth as it doesnt open very wide yet and I still lack feeling in my lower lip and chin. While my bones are all healed according to my surgeon and my mouth/face feels light years better then it did 4 weeks ago, the movement of my lips and cheeks is the most painful part as they feel SO stiff and tight and any stretching movement cause a shooting pain. My surgeon says this is because they have been stagnant for 7 weeks and scar tissue has built up which makes sense, but I wanted to know if this happened to you and what you did about it.
Thanks!
Dean
August 1, 2012 at 5:25 pm
Hi Dean,
I definitely dealt with that awful scar tissue. It shows up in your lips, cheeks, and nose, and it can be quite painful if you’re not gentle with it.
My recommendation is to chew gum all day long and to whistle several times throughout the day. Both of these activities will help break the scar tissue up. Aside from that, eat slowly so you can focus on minimal stretching of your cheeks and lips.
Best of luck, my friend!
July 29, 2012 at 4:05 pm
i had my jaw broken in 2 places about 3 months ago. And have been told by my surgeon that the plates on my left hand side are infected and the bone is Not healing and am going into hospital on Thursday to have another operation and my surgeon says i Will need to get my face cut from my ear to my chin and a bigger plate put in and i am worried that i Will be left with a big scar. Can u tell me more about what Will happen when i get my operation please
August 1, 2012 at 5:18 pm
Julie, I apologize but I’m not sure if you’ll be left with a scar or not because my surgery was completely endoscopic. I would ask your surgeon. I’m sure this isn’t the first time he’s performed a procedure like that. I’m sure everything will be okay once you’re all healed up. =)
July 26, 2012 at 10:48 pm
Jason had his 2 week checkup. Everything looks good. His nose has started bleeding off and on which is normal. His weight has stabilized – lost about 14 lbs. Swelling has gone down, but still a little puffy. Diet is getting better – we have been liquidfying chilli and spaghetti for him. The doctor reminded him not to try chewing so he would not risk popping some screws. Will provide anotther update next week.
July 26, 2012 at 7:57 pm
My doc gave me Ativan. It helps with the spasms but it really spaced me out. Helps with sleep too.
July 26, 2012 at 7:53 pm
how did you guys deal with the nerve pain? my chin in still numb but at night I’ve been getting terrible pins/needles and spasms and it’s more painful than the 1st few days post-op! My surgeon told me to take Motrin but it’s not working and now I can’t sleep again, help!
August 1, 2012 at 3:50 pm
Hi Correne,
Experiencing the “pins and needles” sensation is a good sign because it means your nerves are reawakening. My only suggestion is to try sleeping with a heat pack on your chin to sooth the sensation.
Hope this helps!
July 26, 2012 at 3:30 pm
Hello Graham, this is a very useful site.
I have just (10 days ago) had upper and lower jaw surgery to correct a gummy smile. Prior to surgery my occlusion was near perfect. All they were meant to do is raise it 5mm. However, they raised it 8mm in the first surgery (to perform just upper jaw surgery). I absolutely panicked as my bite was (and is now) terrible. 2 days after the first surgery they redid it (I thought to lower the jaw slightly and realign it as it was off-centre). However, they advanced the lower jaw 3 mm instead.
Almost 2 weeks on the swelling is subsiding but I’m noticing I now have lip incompetence. In fact, my top lip seems to have disappeared.
Does anyone else have this problem after surgery? I can’t understand why the top lip has now shrunk away. Side profile is now pretty poor with a Bubba Gump type bottom lip(alright, slight exaggeration but you get the picture).
I keep being told the swelling will go down but I don’t think that’s the issue, am concerned.
Any suggestions?
Many thanks
August 1, 2012 at 10:47 am
Hi Toofypegs,
Everybody frets about their appearance for the first few months of recovery. My lips were also huge and misaligned, my bite was open, and my side profile made me gasp.
However, as the swelling goes away (and this takes at least a couple of months), your lips should reappear and look proper.
My advice is to trust your surgeon and wait for another 5—6 weeks until the swelling has dissipated a bit. It’s difficult to know what you’ll actually look like until that point.
Best of luck!
July 23, 2012 at 6:00 pm
I had lower jaw surgery on 7/11/12 to correct my underbite. At my 1st post-op appointment my surgeron had to push my lower jaw back and reband me because he said that my bite was not settling properly due to the swelling in the joints and that once the swelling goes down my jaw should be where it’s supposed to be. But now I’m concerned because I can tell my bite is still not right and I have to go back to see him on Friday. When he pushed on my jaw it was VERY painful and brought tears to my eyes, I really don’t want to have to go through that again. Has anyone else had this happen?
July 25, 2012 at 1:07 pm
Correne, my jaws seemed misaligned for the first month or so as well. As your surgeon told you, once the swelling recedes a bit, your jaws will “slip” into place. Time and patience are key in your recovery. Good luck!
July 19, 2012 at 9:06 pm
Hi im abby and I only had lower jaw surgery. My lower lip is turning a dark purple almost red color. Is that normal?
July 21, 2012 at 4:23 pm
Abby, my lips turned some interesting shades of red due to swelling and lack of circulation, but they never turned purple. If you are experiencing pain in your lips or the dark color persists for more than a day or two, I would give your surgeon a call and ask them. If anyone has seen something like that, your surgeon probably has. Good luck! =)
July 18, 2012 at 10:53 pm
Hey,
So all the comments and stuff have been really helpful in making me feel more comfortable about whats going on with my face. Just crossed the 2 week mark after a double jaw surgery and it has gotten much easier to deal with.
Thought I would add something that helped me. So, I’m fully wired and still have a lot of stitches in my mouth and they were giving me a lot of trouble when I was trying to clean out my mouth initially. I used the kids toothbrush with the basic tooth paste and tried the mouthwash the doctor gave me but everything really irritated the incision points. One of my relatives works at a skilled nursing home and deals with things like this a lot and she suggested “irrigating” with salt water. So I got a small oral medicine syringe and mixed up salt water and lightly squirted the salt water along the incision lines. It both soothed the irritation and, according to my surgeon, has maintained better oral hygiene than the majority of cases he has handled.
Just a suggestion.
July 18, 2012 at 8:41 pm
I really appreciate the upbeat tone of most of the posts on this site. I have, however, a cautionary tale that I think you should hear.
I had my surgery 15 months ago. I was told that I might have permanent numbness of my chin. That was all. What has actually transpired is significant paresthesia of my palate, my top teeth and gums, my lower left teeth and gums, and from the midline of my lower lip to just past the lip on the left. I was not warned of this possibility. Eating is not fun, things don’t taste like they used to, chewing is weird, I still can’t chew hard things like carrots, and my top teeth feel like they don’t belong in my mouth and I am conscious of them all the time.
I think it is important for you all to know that some of you are very lucky, but for others, the outcome is not as happy. I regret having the surgery and would warn anyone away from doing it.
Sorry to be the bearer of news you would rather not hear, but somebody has to say it.
July 21, 2012 at 4:07 pm
Lyn, I appreciate you sharing your story (and being completely honest about it). As with all surgeries, there are rare cases where the outcome is not optimal, and I’m sad to hear that you’ve been dealt one of those hands.
I hope you’ve found, or will find, ways to cope with the results you’ve been left with. I feel for you.
Once again, thanks for sharing.
July 18, 2012 at 7:16 pm
Damn I got my hopes up too high. I was excited to get my jaw unwired by week 2 but sadly my jaw was a class 5 so I have the full 8 weeks of being wired shut… But I still love to visit your guide anyways to remind myself constantly that this won’t last forever.
July 21, 2012 at 3:51 pm
Ian, you’re the first person I’ve met who will also have to deal with being wired shut for more than a few weeks. Just remember that, in a few short months, this will all be over and you’ll be smiling 24/7!
July 16, 2012 at 10:46 pm
Day 4
Although improved, Jason’s eating is still problematic. The only thing he’ll take are smoothies and water. Tried giving him a little chicken broth but he spit it out. The guy wants texture in his food, so he’s not a happy camper. Any advice?
July 21, 2012 at 3:24 pm
Jason, I must apologize for my tardy response. I’ve been traveling across Argentina for the past 5 days and haven’t had a chance to respond.
When I was trudging through my first week, I found that Campbell’s tomato soup w/ rice—blended, of course—was a nice, salty meal with a bit of texture.
If his eating is still an issue, try serving him that and see how it goes. Best of luck. =)
July 15, 2012 at 10:39 pm
Day 3
Jason’s eating has increased a little but not by much. Takes to Jamba Juice (orange dream machine) more than the ensure. already lost 10 lbs in 4 days, so he’s down to 165. Still no pain and no further swelling. Graham, we really appreciate your advice because we see a lot of similarities with what you went through and helps us a lot.
July 14, 2012 at 11:41 pm
Day 2
His face has swelled more. His appetite is better -had 6 oz of ensure. The pain is minor.
will keep you updated.
July 15, 2012 at 8:53 am
Minor pain and eating Ensure are both things I like to hear! His swelling will continue for another day or two until it peaks. Remember: Ensure, prune juice, tomato soup, and walks outside are the key to success at this point.
July 13, 2012 at 9:57 pm
Jason is home today! It’s been 30 hours since he had left for the hospital. It was a 4 hour surgery and so far he has no pain – amazing! The aquaduct has helped him alot to relieve pain. Still slowly learning how to eat – we are using a medicine dropper to feed him – just like a bird. Will keep you updated tomorrow.
July 13, 2012 at 1:28 am
Jason the first couple of days will be the hardest however they will get by so quick. The swelling is probly more than average due to the amount of mm the jaws were moved, my bottom jaw was supposedly moved 5mm back and the top 5mm forward and my face was swelled up alot i can imagine the swelling at 9mm but not to worry im sure everything will start to settle well in a week time.
July 12, 2012 at 9:07 pm
The surgery was a success. They moved Jason’s lower jaw 9mm back and move his upper jaw 6mm forward. Due to swelling, they decided to keep the breathing tube on Jason overnight. We will be spending the night at the hospital.
July 13, 2012 at 12:18 pm
That’s great to hear that the surgery proceeded without hitch. I look forward to your son recovering and enjoying his new smile. He’s going to heal up perfectly!
July 12, 2012 at 8:08 am
Today is the BIG day. 5 hours away from the double jaw surgery for my son. Thanks for all the support.
Will keep you updated.
July 12, 2012 at 4:38 am
I’m at day 36 after having double jaw surgery and deviated septum repair on June 4th. Surgery was to primarily to remedy a bad case of sleep apnea. Doc said the deviated septum repair would be much easier during this procedure as they would have clear access to my sinus cavity through the roof of my mouth. Heard war stories from others that had surgery for only the deviated septum issue. All has gone very well for me. First few days were tough, but I was back to working half days after two weeks, and full time after three. Was able to eat soft foods at about 3 weeks. Still haven’t tried to blow nose and won’t for a couple more week. Guess I may have had easier time than others as orthodontist is taking hooks for elastics off my teeth today. I’ve had minimal pain and stopped using pain killers after week 3, and breathing has gotten much, much better. Finally feeling like my old self with more energy! Wife even had to check on me the night after I got home to make sure I was breathing as she was so used to my snoring. Only frustration at this point is the numb chin, which the doc said won’t go away for a couple months at least. Starting to feel tingling in the chin area though, which I’m happy about. Folks ask if I would do it again and I reply…. “In a heartbeat!” The most critical part for me….spoke with 4 surgeons before I found one I was extremely comfortable with and confident in. I was very hesitant to have the surgery until I met the doc that did the work. He even made sure that I spoke with three of his patients before he would let me have the surgery! After that it was full steam ahead. Best wishes for a speedy recovery to everyone, and a big kudos to Graham for his blog posts.
July 13, 2012 at 9:46 am
Hi Scott,
I think you’re smart for meeting with different surgeons to find one you felt comfortable with. I lucked out and felt confident in my first surgeon, but I certainly would have shopped around had I not.
It sounds like you enjoyed a quicker recovery than most. You certainly can’t complain about minimal pain and the ability to eat after only 3 weeks!
Take care and enjoy the next few months!