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.
May 24, 2011 at 9:04 am
I have a quick question..when did you start practicing opening your mouth really wide? You know doing all that exercising techinques with your mouth? Because my surgeon said I can start practing opening my mouth wide as I can and holding it for about ten seconds and all that good stuff..just wondering when you started with these exercises?
May 23, 2011 at 2:36 pm
Hi Graham and everyone:
I am very happy I just found your blog. It would have helped to know about it earlier, but I do feel reassured by the conversations.
I found the first 10 days the most challenging but after that it gets better daily. I was wired shut for 26 days.
I had my surgery (top and bottom) April 14. I am still numb (at 5 1/2 weeks) in many places and my teeth don’t feel like my own so chewing is weird.
My question is about numbness of the palate. I don’t see that anyone has mentioned that. How long does this last? It really affects my swallowing. I am still eating mushed up food.
May 22, 2011 at 6:30 am
14 months later, a quarter of my bottom lip and chin are still numb as well. Surgeons usually warn you that there’s a chance you may not regain all of your feeling back.
You’ll get used to it, though. My numbness doesn’t affect me at all anymore. In fact, the only time I even notice it is when someone asks about it.
May 22, 2011 at 12:43 am
I’ve had double jaw surgery 6 months ago, half of my bottom lip and chin are still numb and tingly when I rub it =( I don’t think I’ll ever get my feelings back.
May 20, 2011 at 9:55 am
The point of the elastics are to hold your jaw in place in case it spasms. It’s kind of like comfort by boundaries.
You’ll be perfectly fine without them. Just make sure you don’t jar your jaw at all until you meet with your surgeon again.
A good rule of thumb is that your surgeon’s advice is always better than my advice. 🙂
May 20, 2011 at 9:49 am
My gums are irriated and my surgeon told me not to wear my elastics till I see him again..and the appoitment is till monday..just wondering if you went through a couple days without wearing ur elastics? im kinda paranoid not wearing them because I dont want anything bad to happen.
May 19, 2011 at 9:18 am
Krissy, I think my swelling increased a little bit after having my splint removed because I started talking and eating a lot more.
My swelling was mostly gone around the 2.5 month mark, but it wasn’t completely gone until 3-4 months post-op.
As for lack of movement (or that “tight” feeling in your face), you just need to talk, sing, eat, move your face around and wait it out. You haven’t used several muscles in your face for quite some time, so it’ll take a few weeks or months for them to stretch out again.
You’re almost there!
May 19, 2011 at 9:03 am
Hi Graham,
I’m at 42 days today! I had my splint removed 2 days ago and am finding that my swelling has increased. Was this the case with you? I’m wondering how long it was until you were completely swelling free… I’m getting fusterated!
Also, I can’t open my mouth very wide and my checks and face muscels are pretty sore. Was this the case with you? Any tips?
I appreciate it!
May 18, 2011 at 1:14 pm
Sarah, I had full braces on (both sets of teeth) for just over 2 years before I went in for surgery. They usually create gaps in them prior to the operation so they have room to cut up in between your teeth.
I also wore braces for 9 months following surgery. It was a long haul!
May 18, 2011 at 10:17 am
Hey Graham, loving reading through your blog its such a great help. A quick question though how long til after your braces did your surgery date come around? because I have had my top braces since last august and I just got my lower braces in february and Im getting so frustrated not knowing when my surgery is going to be 🙁
May 18, 2011 at 9:23 am
Dustin, I believe this is normal, yes. Your nose won’t be all healed up for quite a few weeks yet.
Make sure you don’t blow your nose or rub it. Try your best to just leave it alone for now (as frustrating as that may be).
May 18, 2011 at 8:25 am
Hey man im just wondering I had jaw surgery on may 10th and I still have a little leakage of blood come out of my nose every once and awhile..just wondering if this is normal? I really appreciate ur site..it helps so much.
May 11, 2011 at 8:03 am
I took 2 weeks off of work, but that’s the absolute shortest leave you should consider. I’d recommend 3-4 weeks if you have to talk to people for your job.
I’m a programmer, so I didn’t have to speak too much when I first returned to my job.
May 10, 2011 at 8:59 pm
Hey – this is a great website and very helpful as I will be getting surgery on my upper jaw next year. I have an underbite as well. Just wondering from your experience – how long would you say is the appropriate amount of time to stay home from work? (taking into consideration swelling, pain, eating, ability to talk/function normally, etc.)
May 3, 2011 at 6:13 am
Joscelyne,
They loosened my bands after the first 2 weeks so that I could start drinking some thicker foods. I wore elastics as often as possible right up until my braces came off at 9 months post-op, but that’s only because I had an open bite. Most people graduate to only being required to wear bands at night after about 6 weeks.
I had my splint taken out on Day 50 (you can read about that here), but I haven’t heard of anyone else being that late with it. Most people lose the splint about a month in.
Have they given you any proposed dates for these events?
May 2, 2011 at 10:38 pm
Please tell me the exact amount of days of when they put lighter rubber bands in and when they took out your splint ? Please I am going crazy being rubbered band shut, its going on day 19. Thank you so much and i love your results you look fantastic 😉
April 24, 2011 at 8:39 am
No worries, Narda! Good luck with your insurance–they sure can be a pain sometimes, can’t they?
April 24, 2011 at 1:44 am
hi graham,
your blog is very inspiring and helpful im planning to have this surgery this year i hope that the insurance will let me..
god bless and thanks for helping others keep it up!!!
April 23, 2011 at 7:56 pm
Thanks for the quick response – that’s good advice. I think the surgeon also factors in how well the surgery itself went (precision of bone incisions, positions of jaws afterwards etc.) into how quickly the recovery should go.
Great blog – take care.
April 23, 2011 at 7:45 pm
I’d trust your surgeon’s word, Ian. I had a friend who had a similar surgery (though he only had his upper jaw operated on) and he was freed from the splint and allowed to starting eating at the two week mark as well.
Every patient is different. Every surgeon is also different. As long as you follow your surgeon’s orders, you’ll be in good shape.
P.S. I’m jealous of your rapid road to soft foods.