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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1740 Comments

  1. Hi Nicola,

    I’m sorry to hear about your rough recovery. I am 24 and experienced some chest and neck pain after my surgery. I felt like muscel soreness for the most part and hurt when I yawned or would breathe really deep. It went away by my 5th week. It wasn’t anything that seriously bothered me but I did notice it. As for the ulcers, when i was younger I had stomatitis in my mouth and throat (which is mini uslers in your cheecks, gums, tougne, and throat) it was incredibly painful and lasted for about a week. I ended up having to have my tonsils removed because of it and have never had another case since.
    If I was you, I would seek medical attention and ask for blood work to be done to rule out anything. I am 8 weeks post surgery and have went every three weeks for blood work, blood pressure checks, and just a general assesment by my GP. I did this because of the liquid diet and I was skinny to begin with. This might be a good idea for you just so that you have some comfort and that you can be monitored a little more regularly and by someone other then your surgeon. I wish you all the best and I hope its all up from here!

  2. Hi Nicola,

    I haven’t the faintest clue why you’re experiencing chest pain. It could be a regular type of infection that your body is currently too weak to fight off (as you suggested), but it shouldn’t be related to jaw surgery in any way. If you start to really have trouble breathing (or the pain becomes a huge thorn in your side), I’d talk to your regular doctor and be forceful. Tell them it’s really affecting you and you need a real response from them.

    As for the ulcers, I never had them in my throat, but my lips and gums were cut up for a good couple of months. There’s not much you can do until your swelling dissipates. I’d use healthy amounts of vaseline on your lips, try your best not to smile too big (for fear of splitting your lips open), and drink lots of water to keep your throat nice and lubricated. If your throat is really cut up, there may be medication for that as well, but since I never experienced it, I haven’t the faintest clue what to pick up.

    My apologies for not having any definite solutions for you!

  3. Thanks for your reply Lyn. It’s good to hear that a youngster like you had a similar recovery to those with less maturity! I had a chest x-ray a while ago but the pain is still there nearly 3 weeks on. The only thing I can think is that it’s a regular chest infection and my body is too weak to fight it – even with antibiotics. I have a sore throat too but have been told that’s due to ulcers all down my throat. I’ve been putting vaseline on my lips as well as Blistex and Sudocrem – nothing seems to work!!

  4. Lyn Merryfeather

    June 5, 2011 at 3:04 pm

    Hi Nicola:

    Sounds like a rough go for you!
    I did not have the sores inside my mouth but my surgeon suggested an oral antacid held in the mouth before swallowing if it happened, so it seems it may be common for some people.

    May I suggest that chest pain should not be expected for this kind of surgery and that you should pursue help for this. At the very least, a chest X-ray to rule out pneumonia or rib fractures. (I am a registered nurse.)

    I am a MUCH older patient (64) and I expected a slower recovery time but then discovered that younger people than me experienced similar things. Of course, we can’t expect to recover like a 20 yr. old, but I don’t think it makes as much difference as we might think.

  5. Oh, I forgot to mention I’m an ‘older’ patient, being 43. Have you found that age affects recovery? (Not that I’m making excuses for myself.)

  6. Hi
    I found your blog last week and commented how useful it was to me – thanks for your kind reply.

    I have a question for you, if you are able to answer. Did you have, or have you heard of anyone else with the following – I’m now on day 31 and am still REALLY suffering with ulcerated and raw lips – both inside and out. They burn all the time and nothing seems to help. I’m getting movement back but it hurts too much to practice!! Also, I have a really painful chest – I’m finding it hard to take a deep breath. My GP has given me a couple of courses of antibiotics but nothing is shifting it. I’m still getting lots of pain in my face, head, ears, mouth and neck – do you think that’s normal? Also, I’m still quite weak – am I just being a bit of a girl?!

    Sorry, just read that back and I’m moaning so much. I hasten to add I am SLOWLY recovering – but, as I mentioned, I was totally naive and thought I’d be ‘right as rain’ or ‘fit as a fiddle’ within a few weeks. How deluded was I!!

    I’d really appreciate a reply when you get a chance. Thank you.

  7. But only do those exercises 3 to 4 times a day.. 10 reps for 10 seconds..if anyone wants to do that..and also massage your jaw area for a good bit afterwards..

  8. My surgeon told me to pratice opening ur mouth wide as you can and holding it wide for like 10 seconds because the scars in ur cheeks will heal up and you wont be able to open ur mouth really wide like you use too. He said doing those exercises prevents your jaw locking up and the scar compeletely healing to where you cant open your mouth really wide. Idk he told me that..every surgeon is different. I have an appointment this monday and he has another techinque for me that he wants me to do..

  9. Howdy Krissy!

    I wasn’t able to open my mouth comfortably until the 3-month mark. Your scar tissue will hang around for a few months beyond that as well.

    I didn’t do any jaw exercises, but I was told whistling is a fantastic way to break up the scar tissue around your lips and cheeks. Your movement will return naturally just from talking and attempting to eat, though.

    You should have your full range of motion back by around the 4-5 month mark. 3 months just marks when the actual bone is completely healed.

    Stay happy, my friend!

  10. Hi Graham,

    I’m 8 weeks post surgery now (whoo hoo). and am having a hard time opening my jaw. It is very stiff and I find it opens wider on one side. I also have some scar tissue in my cheeks that seems to be preventing me from opening it wider. Did you have any of these issue? Was there any exercises you did to get your jaw back to full opening? How long was it until you could open up normally?

  11. I remember that feeling as well. It’s almost like a subtle swallowing reflex that never activates. You constantly want to scratch the food away when in reality, there’s none present.

    It will go away once feeling begins to return. Have you ever heard of “phantom limbs”? This is similar, but it’s “phantom food!”

  12. Yeah it just feels funny and its annoying me..feels like I have something stuck in my palate like its food and it feels weird when I touch it with my tongue..just wondering if anyone had it.

  13. Lyn Merryfeather

    May 29, 2011 at 8:04 pm

    That’s what I meant when I said my palate is numb. It feels like I have something caught at the back of my tongue. I am pretty sure I have all the feeling in my tongue, so it must be the roof of my mouth. I am assuming it is normal and will “thaw” eventually, but I have not heard anyone else talk about it so far. My lower teeth are waking up with what feels like toothache, but my top teeth are so numb they don’t feel like my own.

  14. Did the roof of your mouth feel funny? It feels like I have food in the roof of my mouth. I been having that feeling for a couple days now and Im wondering if that is part of the process of healing and if you went through that as well?

  15. The glass is half full, Lyn!

  16. Lyn Merryfeather

    May 26, 2011 at 2:25 pm

    Thanks Graham. Here’s a side benefit to the numbness. Usually I have freezing to clean my teeth due to sensitivity. It occurred to me that this would be the ideal time for that sans freezing and I was right. No feeling, no problem. And the only being able to open 20mm was not a problem either.
    I am, however, really looking forward to having feeling back. Half way there to the 3 month mark.

  17. Dustin, I was a bad student. I didn’t really practice any jaw exercises. I just talked as much as I could when I was around people and that alone brought all of my movement back.

  18. Lyn, numbness usually hangs around for anywhere up to 6 months, but you should have most of your feeling back by about the 3-month mark. It’s really nice when it returns!

  19. I’m at 7 weeks and haven’t been given any excercise either! I can’t even open my mouth wide enough to fit my thumb into it. What exercises are you guys doing? I’ve only been without a splint for a week. Can you open pretty wide yet?

  20. Lyn Merryfeather

    May 24, 2011 at 1:50 pm

    No one told me about jaw exercises. I will start that right away. I met another post op today, same surgeon, and he told her to pry with tongue depressors. I am not into that! I will follow your suggestion. Thanks.

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