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.

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1739 Comments

  1. Hey Chloe i was wondering if u could tell me when the swollen lips and cheeks went away, thank you

  2. Chloe Montgomery

    January 18, 2015 at 12:30 am

    (Note: Some of the stories and descriptions I give may be a little disturbing, but remember I’m not telling these things to frighten those who are in need of this surgery! I want to help and give readers an idea of what to expect. Just remember everyone will under go different experiences and these are mine, which means the same might not happen to you! I do not regret having this surgery, I recommend it to anyone who is pursuing of having any form of jaw surgery. I found this surgery to help me in many aspects and I feel blessed I made the choice to have it done! Thanks for reading!)

    Hey everyone! I’m 17 and I had double jaw surgery on October 17, 2014. I’m in my 3rd month of healing and everything went great!! I read the blog before and after my surgery, and it really helped!
    I had a 7 millimeter over bite, an open bite, and on my top jaw one side of my teeth sat higher than the other. The plan in surgery was to move my teeth 7 millimeters foward, close the open bite, remove my bottom wisdom teeth, put a splint in the form of a retainer on my top teeth, and pull down the set of teeth on the top to be in line with the opposite side. My surgery was 8 hours long and they were successful at pretty much achieving everything they were striving for. There were a few problems of course though.. Instead they had to move my jaw 10 millimeters forward (it gave me a chin) and while removing the bottom right wisdom tooth it resulted in fracturing the right side of my jaw bone! So when that happened it resulted in placing a metal plate where the fracture was and having my mouth wired shut for 6 weeks! During surgery I lost half a liter of blood which isn’t really bad, but for a girl that weights 97 pounds at the time of surgery… Let’s just say it takes a toll on your body haha!
    I went in for surgery around 8:30 a.m, didn’t get done till around 4-5 pm, and I woke up probably around 7-8 p.m that night. When I “woke up” in recovery.. I say this because the doctors had me on over 30 meds, so I wasn’t really all that there! I kept waking up and then falling asleep. But in recovery I kept coughing blood which is perfectly normal due to the amount of blood that drains into the back of your throat, I was pale white due to the loss of blood, and as mentioned earlier I was drugged up. I had many people come to visit me and my poor mother was horrified to see the condition I was in! The doctors tried to warn her by telling her that my swelling was the #1 worst they’ve seen on a patient. My lips and face probably tripled in size and they even got bigger the next day. I was in bad shape (but again remember, everyone is different and this doesn’t mean the same could happen to you).
    I didn’t fully come to until 2 am. I remember waking up and begging for food. The nurses were pretty amazed because patients who wake up from surgery aren’t usually hungry due to the anesthesia, but I probably drank about 6 things of boost shakes and orange juice that night haha! I was completely numb from the bottom of my eyes and down to the bottom of my chin. That night I also started experiencing the jaw spasms (which didn’t hurt me at all). This was good, it meant my body was already starting to heal. Even tho I was starting to heal I still had many difficulties to over come and get used to! First of all, I was wired shut and would be for 6 weeks! I couldn’t eat solids and had to drink liquids for a while. Second of all, after my surgery I was very weak and needed assistance while using the bathroom, while walking, and while taking showers. Third of all, I could not talk and had to write stuff down which got very frustrating! Forth of all, I could not breath through my nose because they perforated my sinus cavities and it was difficult to breath through my mouth due to swelling and being wired shut. And lastly, I had to get used to my appearance. The first time I saw myself, I didn’t even recognize it was me due to the swelling and trauma. It also got embarrassing to go out in public for doctor appointments. People would stare at me so I started using medical face mask which worked like a charm! (I would recommend doing this too)
    The next day after surgery, I got my last dose of steroids (helps reduce swelling) and they gave me the choice to stay or go home if everything looked good. I got a CT Scan and the results were good. They advised me to stay in the hospital just one more day to keep eyes on me but they also kindly granted my wishes of going home. Before I left the doctor warned me about the effects of my body coming off of the steroids. They warned you can either get very depressed or very angry. With that in my mind I went home and that evening the effects started to kick in. I was very frustrated with everything that was happening. I was really weak which resulted me in a wheelchair, assistance in the shower/pretty much everything else, and throwing up. (This is just how my body reacts to being weak, so remember this might not be the same for you!) In results to all this I got very angry and took it out on a bed board which gave me a few battle scars and scaring the piss out of my family and boyfriend. I eventually calmed down though.
    I remember having a very hard time breathing! Two days after being let out of the hospital we had to call EMTS to take me back. The swelling in my face started to migrate down into my throat area. My nose was still clogged and I had a hard time breathing through my mouth. In the hospital they took test and gave me morphine to calm me down since I was panicked about the situation. The test said I was breathing at 100% which meant I was getting the air flow I needed. They sent me back home later that night and gave me more meds to take. They told me since I was sleeping upright/propped up it caused the swelling to migrate down in my throat area, which was completely normal and would effect you in anyway (you have to sleep like this for a while for the swelling and to make sure you don’t apply pressure to your face) For about 2 weeks my mom had slept with me just to make sure I didn’t sleep on my face at night and to make sure I was breathing alright.
    My swelling peaked probably 2-3 days after my surgery and went down from there. My lips were also pretty big and started forming ulcers and puss pockets due to the trauma they went through. They also started peeling real bad but the doctor cleaned them up pretty good and they remained that way. Shortly after, the swelling started to decrease in my lips too and I got used to eating out of syringes but didn’t like eating 7-8 boost shakes a day. I had to eat all day to intake the normal amount of calories I needed. After a while drinking the same thing makes you sick and you start to miss actual food. Somedays I wouldn’t eat at all because I didn’t feel hungry or I got sick. This resulted In me going from 97 ibs to 82 ibs! That’s the one thing I do regret the most but now I’m back up to 95! (Make sure you eat and intake as many calories as you can! Get creative!)
    Things got much better from there though! Days would go by and the swelling would rapidly go down. 2 week later on Halloween I actually looked a little normal, but I still had puffy cheeks . I was able to mumble some words, I started getting a little feeling in my face, and I got stronger everyday!
    On week 4 I was told I could go back to school (I was still wired). On week 6, 3 days before thanksgiving I got my wires and splint finally removed! I was able to talk and move my mouth which felt amazing! The doctor warned me I would only be able to open my mouth about a centimeter since my jaw hasn’t moved in a while and I would be very sore. He gave me removable bands to wear 24/7 unless I’m eating. I also had to eat soft foods for a while just to be safe. After that appointment I treated myself to some Chic Fil La! I had a craving for protein and I made sure to be very slow when I ate. That night I sent my doctor a picture of me opening my mouth and inch and a half with no pain! He was very amazed and told me I was the 1st patient to do this. (I’m a little younger too so I probably healed quicker!)
    Around this time I also had most of my feeling back. My sinus cavities were still sensitive but I could fully breath (this happened around 1-2 weeks after surgery). Now It’s 3 months after my surgery! My swelling is completely gone, I have full feeling on my top/bottom jaw, my bite is perfect, I’m eating like 6 meals a day haha, I’m experiencing some stiffness/soreness in my jaw especially In the mornings but jaw exercises help, and I have a few changes in my face. The surgery brought my reset chin forward, my nose is more up pointed/straight, my profile is a little different.. Some people notice it, some people don’t.
    It’s 3 months after and I’m still having my lips peel from when they were stretched during the surgery though! They are normal size now but still peeling. (If you experience lip peeling during your surgery I recommend Vicks Lip Therapy. It works great!)
    This surgery honestly wasn’t bad and I highly recommend it to anyone who needs it! I am so happy with the results and I would go through this again if I had to! There will be a few ups and downs but I promise it’s worth it! Just remember everyone heals different and everyone has their own experiences. Thank you for reading and good luck to anyone who is having jaw surgery! 🙂

  3. Chloe Montgomery

    January 17, 2015 at 10:32 pm

    Hey everyone! I’m 17 and I had double jaw surgery on October 17, 2014. I’m in my 3rd month of healing and everything went great!! I read the blog before and after my surgery, and it really helped!
    I had a 7 millimeter over bite, an open bite, and on my top jaw one side of my teeth sat higher than the other. The plan in surgery was to move my teeth 7 millimeters foward, close the open bite, remove wisdom teeth, and to pull down the set of teeth on the top to be in line with the opposite side. My surgery was 8 hours long and they were suessesfull at pretty much achieving everything they were striving for. There were a few problems of course though.. Instead they had to move my jaw 10 millimeters foward and while removing the bottom right wisdom tooth it resulted in fracturing my jaw bone! So when that happened it resulted in placing metal plate

  4. Hey everyone im 3 weeks after the surgery and i have to go to school in a week and im still swollen. My lips, nose and cheeks around my nose look weird and puffy, when will the swollenness go away, i had upper surgery btw, thanks(:

  5. Hi everyone, I had double jaw surgery on the 1st dec 2014. I have enjoyed reading this blog and has been good to compare. My swelling is still visible and I am struggling to chew as my teeth are in completely different place. I have been chewing gum to try and get use to this but it is really weird. I have had a few regrets on having the surgery done and just hope it will be worth it in the long run. Nice to no I’m not alone .

  6. I had double jaw surgery on December 11th, so just over a week ago. The first couple days were such hell, I was scared it wouldn’t get better at all. I’m doing so much better though. My energy is the worst thing because I’ve lost over 10 pounds in the past week. But honestly, just wait it out. I can’t wait to get some solids into me. One problem I have is that I dream of eating food and I’ll wake myself up by trying to open my jaw. I’m just praying that the feeling comes back in my top lip, nose and cheek. The surgeon said its often least likely to come back in the lower lip but I got that back within the first couple days. I’m stating hopeful. I also can’t wait to five my teeth a good brushing.
    Side note: I don’t think I’ll be a vegetarian anymore because I’m craving meat like crazy!
    Good luck to anyone getting it done soon. Its worth it. Keep telling yourself that. Its what kept me going.

  7. Hi Kealan, Sorry to hear that your lower lip is still numb. I had the exact same surgery as you, upper and lower jaw moved forward with genioplasty(chin) on May 9 this year. I started getting some feeling back around the 30 day mark and now I think I have about 80% back. I have had some tightness in the mental area ( chin muscle that moves the lower lip) and hence I have had trouble enunciating with V and F sounds. How is your speech?

  8. Alright, so I’m posting again as a comment, haven’t posted in months, and I am now 6 months post surgery, and here are my results thus far:

    I had double jaw surgery with chin augmentation, to pull the bottom and top jaw forward, and slide the chin up/forward.

    1 – My bottom lip and chin are still totally numb (It REALLY REALLY SUCKS)

    2 – I can open my mouth almost as wide as I could pre-surgery, so eating isn’t much of an issue, except now I have to constantly be aware to not bite my bottom lip, which I still can’t really feel.

    that’s pretty much it, aside from a suture on my bottom gumline being a tad tight, rather the healed tissue from the previous stitching (it creates a fin-like form when pulled, my bottom lip can’t be stretched as much as before) But yeah, so still got my braces for now, but other than that it went well. The numbness is super annoying, and I’m actually just super pissed every day, but hopefully it will come back, I was told it would, still waiting on that to happen >.>

  9. Hey I am 51/2 weeks post op and my surgery was wonderful I only stayed one night in the hospital I had both upper and lower surgery class 5 under bite I also have the splint which should be removed friday everything went great the first day afor surgery I drank the apole juice from the cup and my setting is 3/4 gone also almost all of my feeling has returNed even though they cut all the way up to my sinus cavaties I went back to work after 2 weeks and you can train your self to talk pretty clearly after about 2 weeks as long as you brush and swishe mouthwash after eating also I found the little placket brushes to be quite helpful also I constantly used ice as often as possible all night when I slept .and a steasy shower helps relieve any headache also I never got bruising I used arnica gel constantly and cocoa butter on my lips also to help with acne use alcohol wipes to clean your face evera time before applying anything and every morning and night wash your face with soap also to keep from catching anything drink 2 Oz of ninxia red drink from young living it really helps also push liquid’s and fluids or you will get dehydrated and don’t listen if they tell you c a clear died for the first few days go home and blend some soup trust me y I u r body needs it also Gatorade and chocolate Pedia sure will be your best friend if your like me don’t bother with the other health shakes they taste like chalk or have gritty textures Pedia sure tastes lIke chocolate pudding or the Kroger chocolate nutration drink those are the best use chapstic constantly and drink slightly warm fluids against your lips it helps bring back feeling I had the nerve spasms and pain for about a week and I applied heat or ice right on my lip and it really helped the only problem I had is the first night at the hospital I had nose bleeds but when you get up to go to the bathroom tilt your head up and squeeze your nose with a tissueven it helps and with all the liquid they give you you will pee alot!!! Also try not to sleep with a piece of ice poking where your jaw was broken I did that and it slid my jaw a little it was an easy fix though also to help save your gums drink things without ice and warm not hot otherwise your gums will get sore also brushave as soon as possible as far back as possible to remove foods and dead skin it keeps the infections out as for the horrible bad breath use mout wash after anything with a dairy product if anyone has questions let me know and I would definitely do it again!!!

  10. Hi Jeane. I don’t think Graham posts on here anymore but there are a few who keep an eye on this site. I recently had the double op but had braces for 3and a half years and then again for another year.I have to wear retainers constantly for another few months and then it will be just nights. I tell you this as I have very movable teeth and am at risk of losing them because of this and I am 43. I found the 3 biggest contributors are, touching my teeth all the time with my tongue…I have to remind myself 100x a day or more not to touch my teeth. Smoking, when I gave up my gums became much healthier and my teeth settled more. Stress, when I get upset I hold my mouth, teeth, jaw differently and it puts a lot of stress on your teeth, so I avoid news/films media that make me cry/angry etc. It sounds silly but these things make a big difference. Oh and drink loads of milk/dairy get your calcium in! Hope in someway it helps x

  11. Hi Graham, I am so glad I found this site. My surgery was on September 17/2014 and I have not totally recovered. I am very concerned about the future of my teeth. I had the upper jaw expansion surgery. The plan was use braces after the surgery, I have the palate expander and I am 43 years old. After one month of the surgery I started to have sensitivity in almost all my upper teeth and now I have my 2 front teeth loose. The surgeon said that if they don’t get tide again they will have to be extracted. They put the braces to see if the teeth go back tide, but I continue feeling them loose and a big pain in my front teeth.
    The doctor said that will give me 6 weeks to see. I am desperate because My teeth does not have cavity they are physically good. I regret because my life style have changed. I can not bite only soft food and I have lost 20 pounds in 3 months.

    Graham I need your advice.

    Thanks in advance for your help,
    Jeane

  12. I get my surgery in one month. I’m 19 years old and have known I have to get it since I was 9. I’m very anxious but very excited. These stories have really helped me and just wanted to say thank you!

  13. My surgery officially has a date, so now I’m fretting about it all over again and prepping with some milkshake/smoothie recipes, including some that might take the edge off the holiday dinners I’ll be missing out on.

    I wonder how well you can taste in the first couple of weeks? When I got my wisdom teeth out, I remember not being able to taste anything (everything felt ‘warm’ on my tongue but otherwise I had very little sensation and couldn’t taste a thing). Maybe that was simply due to the Novocain and won’t be an issue with the surgery itself, but I figured I would check before I plan on indulging in the wonderful sounding apple pie smoothie recipe I found… (assuming of course that I can get any of it to stay in my mouth; Thanksgiving is going to be day 9 post-op for me so I just hope my mom isn’t going to expect me to want to go to any big family dinners :p )

  14. Hi everyone!
    I am currently at day 2 and still holding on, so that’s something, right? Haha anyways I’ve been having a lot of trouble breathing due to having a deviated septum on one side of my nose, however, like I said, I am holding on. I’m so jealous of everyone that is further along than me and hope everyone is doing well. A little crazy of me but I’m only taking a week off from school to recover (do not want to miss too much of college) and I feel that is definitely too early but hey, what can I do? I live in Illinois but go to school in North Carolina, and I’ve been healing pretty well and think I will be okay. Good luck to everyone else on the same journey!

  15. Hey graham..i have d same prbm ..bt m vry much tensed if I would have some prblm,related to breaking of the titanium plate that connects the jaw bone , in any case then what will I do..Do u still have any prblm like chewing,laughing??

  16. Hi Max, I have had problems with B’s. P’s, V’s, F’s and also I can’t put my lips together and puff out my cheeks (one of the things they get you to do and my right eyebrow is hardly functioning). My letters have improved and when no-one is around I practice those letters. It seems the surgeons are happy if you have a little movement as it will improve with time. It seems if you have no movement at all then it is a problem.

  17. Hi Graham,
    I have been reading your blog for the past 6 months and have it found it very useful. I had double jaw surgery (advancement of both upper and lower jaw) with genioplasty for Sleep Apnea on May 9 and recovered pretty quickly except for the fact that I have had tighness in the chin area which has affected my movement of the lower lip and hence speech. I have some trouble enunciating sounds that involve F and V especially and it does not seem to get better. My surgeon has assured me it is normal part of healing but I have not read about this as a complication with this kind of surgery anywhere. It is worse in the mornings and it gets better as the day progresses. I was wondering if you or anyone you know has experienced something like this?

  18. Hello Graham and everyone. I am day 6 of Tmjr. I had 6 previous jaw surgeries and each time something went wrong.for eg: after breaking my bottom jaw underneath the teeth and moving it forward, he forgot to put screws in bottom of both plates so everyday I would wake up with my chin in a slightly different position. Anyway, got myself refered to a facial reconstruction surgeon. This op had to be done as the right hand side of my face was collapsing. Day 6, been really rough today been sick multiple times. Looking forward to some light at the end…came across this site. thanks everyone for sharing your experiences x

  19. Tiz Kealan again.

    Little update, just after 2 months, still totally numb in the chin bottom lip n bottom gums.

    But i am feeling a little better about my profile, i’m told it will slowly change over the course of a year, so i’m not going to be super disappointed until then i imagine.

    Still can’t eat food well because of how wide my mouth opens still, and my back teeth still don’t touch completely

  20. Hello,
    I am 3 day post op and I have a question that a little crude but since the day I came out of surgery I’ve had terrible diarrhea. The doctor says it could be because of the antibiotics I’m taking but it’s becoming very frustrating because I constantly need to go and I can’t sleep. I don’t know if this was a problem for many of you guys but it’s really affecting me recover because my doctor won’t let me go home.
    I’m sorry of this is disgusting but I’m really scared right now.

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