Recovery Tips
Following is a summary of the most important things I learned during my recovery from double jaw surgery.
- Drink lots of prune juice and water. Your toilet time will be far from enjoyable for the first couple of weeks because you’re likely to be severely dehydrated. The prune juice will provide your body with the fiber it needs to work those bowels properly, but fiber is useless without water because it won’t dissolve in your body. I recommend a bare minimum of 1 L of water per day. Drink 2 L per day as soon as you can.
- Before you attempt to pull any dead skin off of your lips, be absolutely certain that it’s not a stitch. I learned this the hard way.
- Start using medicated lip balm immediately following your return to your own home. If you don’t, you’ll end up with flaps of dead skin that are half an inch in diameter, and I promise you they won’t feel good when they catch on your braces.
- Apply heat to your face 3-4 times per day for the first 5-6 weeks to help with the swelling. The heat will also help you fall asleep.
- Begin each day at a decent time. If you sleep most of the day, you won’t be able to sleep at night, and you’ll hate yourself for it. Get out of bed, shower, eat some breakfast and brush your teeth and you’ll enjoy each day a lot more. (This is good advice for any day of your life, but it especially applies when you’re on the verge of depression from having jaw surgery.)
- Go to bed on time. Yawning will cause you quite a bit of pain, so prevent it by getting the right amount of sleep during the proper hours.
- As soon as you’re able to talk clearly enough for friends and family to understand you, call people and be social. Go outside and enjoy nature. Whatever you do, ensure you don’t fall into a trap of loneliness and self-pity.
- Start drinking from a cup as soon as you’re physically able to. Your upwards trek back to having full energy begins the day you can throw your syringes in the garbage.
- Eat solid food as soon as your surgeon gives you the go-ahead. It’ll be a slow, tedious and frustrating process, but you need to go through with it in order to build your jaw muscles back up and learn how to chew properly once again.
- It may take some time to get used to your new smile and your newly structured face. Don’t be ashamed of yourself. You don’t look funny at all. You’re simply not used to looking like you’re supposed to.
- And lastly, don’t worry about your looks, bite or facial feeling for at least 6 months. You may have an open bite, but you’ll wake up one morning and your teeth will have migrated back together. You may be completely numb, but feeling will return almost overnight.
If you have any questions about the recovery process, or perhaps have other pointers to share with upcoming jaw surgery patients, feel free to jot them down in the comments.
September 19, 2015 at 6:50 am
I am truley frightened about the awkward feeling I have in my lower jaw after surgery. If you read this, and you have a option on surgery or being wired shut really consider the numbness and scars in the mouth.. if it is a simple break get the wires
August 16, 2015 at 6:16 pm
Hi graham, I’m on day 25 with a double jaw surgery. I love this blog, but had only seen one note on cavities. I have he splint and it’s suppose to come out soon, but I used a mirror and my four front teeth are kinda sad and by looking though the splint I see two dark spots. I worried there cavities and want to get this splint out earlier, I don’t want a black hole in my teeth any suggestions?
The splint blocks my tooth brush from reaching my front teeth, so there not getting cleaned, do the surgeon put something. I he splint or on the teeth to stop cavities as I have had food get stuck at times. Thanks
May 7, 2015 at 9:09 am
OZZIE,
YOU WILL NEED SOMEONE AFTER THE SURGERY. I WOULD SUGGEST A FRIEND OR ASK THE CHURCH TO ASSIST YOU FOR ABOUT 5 DAYS. YES, YOU’LL BE SLEEPING QUITE A BIT, BUT YOU WILL NEED SOMEONE TO REMIND YOU TO TAKE MEDICATIONS AND TO EAT AND DRINK. TOO, YOU’LL NEED SOMEONE TO HELP YOU WITH GETTING TO THE BATHROOM OR DOWNSTAIRS, ETC. IF YOU HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS ABOUT JAW SURGERY feel free to contact me at janetgirlie@yahoo.com
May 7, 2015 at 8:46 am
well mandy, that was a very comforting blog…not. im about to get my braces on for the first time im not even close to all of yours situation right now. im in the military, i will be alone with no family after this surgery. Do you think i will be alright to do this on my own? doubt anyone is still on this site since people have been blogging since 2010, but its worth a shot. im just worried about taking care of myself after this surgery. thanks
April 22, 2015 at 9:33 am
I don’t know if people still respond on here but I thought I would give it a try anyway. I was told to make sure my face was not hit after surgery (makes sense) however, my 19 month old son bumped my face a couple of times. it didn’t hurt but I’m wondering if anyone else has had this happen? What did you do? Did you have any complications? I’ve taken a step back from changing his diaper and only hold him if he’s lying perfectly still so it doesn’t happen again but I’m super paranoid regarding if damage could already be done. I’m in my third week post op.
April 12, 2015 at 1:19 pm
Day 4
This is my first day typing because this is the first time i have honestly been awake enough to type. As I’m writing this, my dad is helping me wipe spit off my face (sexy). This recovery kind of sucks. Ill just come out and say it. (By the way, pardon the typos, as it is very difficult to see over my massive chin.) The first day, I remember. Everyone says you don’t but I do. I remember getting rolled into the room with the big scary lights and the anesthesiologist telling me I was about to fall asleep. I spent days 1 and 2 in the hospital completely. I came home on Saturday, day 3 around noon I think. I have now been “enjoying” my fist full day at home. It’s not fun. Eating isn’t fun. It’s painful and irritating. Sleeping isn’t fun. Waking up isn’t fun. Nothing is fun or even, truthfully, mildly pleasant. Like I said, this recovery sucks majorly. As I typed that last sentence I spewed saliva all over my laptop screen and am now, to no avail, trying to clean that up.
The medicine tastes like death and so does basically all the food you used to love. Either the doctors don’t realize this or they do not want to tell us but if you have ever seen the anatomy of the tongue, the bitter senses are in the back… that’s where all your food goes. Delicious. You have no clue how helpless you feel when you can’t drink out of normal water bottlelike a normal person. I swear, if I ever see a syringe come near my face again, I’m bolting. Excuse me while I eat a lovely syringe of coffee protein right now. I think I may kill myself soon.
If I had a dollar for every time I have said that I wanted to give up or die, I would be a very very very rich woman. This is not a wisdom tooth removal. You don’t get to wake up and use a spoon. You don’t get to feel like a normal home. I feel like I have some sort of mental retardation. I am (almost) completely helpless and I can’t explain how I feel to anyone. I can talk a little bit now but it’s hard for my parents to understand me since I still don’t know where exactly my mouth is located.
Numbness: it’s not the worst part. But it sucks. It helps you not notice ALL of the pain. This is a beautiful thing. Love it. Treasure it. I can’t feel my throat, which makes it very difficult and time consuming to swallow anything. I can’t feel anything below my top lip so I kind of just sit here looking like I’m in awe of everything with my jaw dropped below where it should be. “You’ll catch flies”. This also leads to A LOT of drool. Please, if you only read this, read: DROOL. My mom nicknamed me sally saliva. It never stops. Never. Get over it. Its painless but it will make you want to die because you don’t know where its coming from or why its there or if its there or how to make it stop. Just try to survive through it.
Pain: my major pain is mainly in my chin area and on the sides of my jaw. Not so much in my nose or lips. They just feel weird. I will tell you however that, if you are a stressor, like me, you will have muscle aches wherever it is that you carry that stress. And honestly, that’s probably my worst pain right now. Because its unexpected and I cant control it. The pain is bad. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a dirty liar and should be punished because everything hurts like hell. Trust me.
Eating: is hard. And difficult and it makes me want to jump off a cliff. I want to drink a water bottle and eat a potato chip so badly that I may go into cardiac arrest soon. I hate not being normal and being able to do the most basic normal things, like eating. You kind of get used to it but don’t forget, nothing tastes like it should. It all tastes bitter and weird and sour. You will not taste sweet again until you can use your entire mouth to eat because your sweet senses don’t get grazed even by the syringes and you don’t wan them to at the beginning because that means you would have to swallow normally, which is not a thing on day 4. You will try to, I have, and all you will get is a lapful of whatever you were trying to consume. Not wroth it.
Misc.: clean your dace, and tour teeth and anything you can. It will make you feel slightly more like a human and anything you can do to have that is very worth it. Don that.
Praying for all of yall going through this and hope you will pray back.
-Mandy
November 15, 2015 at 9:38 am
U explained everything im feeling right now im on week 3 from my op and I feel like crap and wondering when its all gonna get better 🙁 I wanna eat have a good laugh with friends and go out and get drunk 😵 but instead I gotta put up with the agonizing pain from elastics pulling my jaws together … Please tell me it gets easier 🙁
November 15, 2015 at 6:10 pm
Wow Mandy, this is one of the most honest accounts of recovery I’ve heard so far. By now, I imagine you’re completely back to your regular life, so props for powering through! 😀
Natalie, it’s certainly tough to stay positive during the first month or so, but I encourage you to hang in there. Boredom, discomfort, and hunger can start to drive a person a bit mad (hehe), but I promise it will get better soon. It shouldn’t be long before you’re able to talk at a normal pace, eat soft food, and start to smile and laugh without lip-cracking pain.
If you need to share the details of how you’re feeling, feel free to do so. Sometimes writing about it can really help. Heck, that’s why I started this blog!
November 16, 2015 at 9:53 pm
I am on week 3…you have described all of this so well…I am going crazy….I coughed alot the other night and feel like I really loosened my wires. I have a doctors appointment tomorrow maybe he will tighten them. There is still so much pain I am hoping he will write another prescription for pain meds…he said I will be wired for 2 to 5 months. Uggggg
Shelley
April 2, 2015 at 6:34 am
used amica tablets to assist with bruising. worked great!
January 22, 2015 at 4:20 pm
Good luck to all getting ready for their surgeries, and those recovering !!! I’m scheduled for the LeForte and Bilateral Sagital split in addition to septoplasty on the 27th of January… just a few days away now!!
I must say reading this and other blogs, has helped me feel somewhat prepared. I’m guessing there’s really no way to actually prepare for everything this surgery will encounter, but I am hopeful that at least I have things ready to ease some of the discomfort where I can.
I’m most worried about just breathing the first few days/weeks. The surgeon is concerned about my lack of bone and possibly thin bone, which could cause trouble. Hopefully the quality supplements I’ve been taking for the past 6 months will have helped some, and hopefully I will find a way to push through everything and enjoy life without sleep apnea after dealing with it my entire life! I’m 48 years old and consider myself in good health, barring the sleep apnea.
Has anyone used arnica pellets before their surgery? Did it help ?? Any other tips for breathing the first few nights??
January 16, 2015 at 1:17 am
i went through a jaw surgery , below my right jaw i had couple of stitches the doc took out few of it for a day or two it was ok then all of a sudden water started coming out from that fine area not to be seen it starts it stops i am fed up with it is there a way to stop this water coming out from this small tiny hole which is not healed up stitches.
November 24, 2014 at 2:42 pm
Thanks for sharing these tips. I had double jaw surgery 3 weeks ago. What I’m going through now is in a way worse than the initial recovery– the numbness and not being able to talk well at all. It’s completely scary and frustrating. Some days I think I wouldn’t have had the surgery had I known about this awkward phase. I do have minimal pain and I’m happy with the way the swelling has gone down as well as the way my bite is lining up. So those are all good things. But one of the main reasons for getting the surgery was the improve my speech and I can’t help thinking maybe I’ve wrecked it for good…. Just frustrated with slow progress.
September 1, 2014 at 9:07 pm
I had lower jaw fractured in two places one is middle area and another is under the wisdom tooth in the right side .i had two time surgery durung two months and last surgery was 3 weeks ago .after first surgery doc did another caz of bone displaced. in the case now i am feeling numbness in my tooth and lower lips but i have feeling in the right side face skin .Doc said since i have feeling in face it will recover itself during the time but am worried about it .i am looking for suggestion .
August 29, 2014 at 4:58 pm
if am day 3 post op and if seriously have questioned the whole thing. my kids are afraid of me cuz the swelling is so gross. is the swelling significantly better after 2 weeks. I am also so hungry that I feel very dizzy- my surgeon told me to swallow whatever I could even if its noodles but I can’t even open my mouth.
August 11, 2014 at 5:43 pm
Hi guys I’m from the uk and have double jaw surgery .
I’m now 3 weeks and 5 days pre -opp and am happy to answer any questions .cheers guys
November 16, 2015 at 9:58 pm
I am on week three and will still be wired for several months. My face is still very swollen , when will this get better…also there is nerve damage on my left side of my face like it is paralyzed..we are hoping this is temporary. Did you have any of this? I am so worried.
November 18, 2015 at 3:59 am
Shelley, it’s common to still be quite swollen after 3 weeks of recovery. Most of your swelling should be gone by the 2-month mark, but residual swelling may take up to 4 months to disappear completely.
I was left with permanent numb patches in parts of my chin, but I assure you that you’ll quickly get used to this. It’s quite amazing how our bodies adapt to this new lack of feeling.
As for being wired shut for several months, that sounds quite long. I haven’t met anyone who was wired shut for more than 7 weeks yet, so you may want to ask your surgeon what his reasoning for suggesting you need to be wired shut for so long. Best of luck!
July 29, 2014 at 1:51 pm
Graham,
I wrote in before about my upcoming surgical consult in Sept.
However, my jaw dislocated 2 weeks ago today. So now I am seeing a TMJ specialist too. Jaw is back in place, but the cartilage disc is a mess. I was just eating my lunch. Nothing chewy or crunchy.
I still have my surgical consult scheduled and am seeing the TMJ specialist again next month.
IDK what is going to happen now.
Keep up the good work!
July 24, 2014 at 3:45 pm
Graham, first, thank you for the blog. Amazed you keep responding years after your surgery, but I think everyone appreciates it. I had upper jaw surgery to close my open bite about 5 weeks ago, and think around week 6 I’ll be able to eat solid food again, but partly thanks to you, I know to take it easy. I have noticed that a few things taste funny to me, namely coffee and whiskey, which I attribute to my upper jaw still very numb. I have almost no feeling in my upper gums. Did you notice any loss of taste?
July 24, 2014 at 3:15 pm
So I am going in to set up my surgery date now. I am absolutely TERRIFIED about this surgery!!! I’m excited about this blog and being able to read what everyone has been through. I swear I keep picturing like the worst possible things for after surgery! So ready to be over it!
July 22, 2014 at 8:54 am
okay i had my surgery for both jaws and wisdom teeth on july 15th, these comments have been helping me but i am still worried about the sweling never going away. and im a little worried abot the amount of bleeding, after my surgery i thew up a huge amount of blood and i still get a frequent amount of nose bleeds…? is that normal?
i have a hard time with this, its very frustrating… i’d like to know your opinion. thanks 🙂
July 19, 2014 at 10:09 am
Hey I had an appointment with my surgeon today …. He told I don’t have infection anywhere so the pain is not due to infection….. He removed my sutures and elastics ….. According to him elastics caused those pains… But the worst thing is he is not at all gentle while handling my mouth…. He hurts a lot….and has lot of attitude…. Because of it I don’t feel like speaking i just can’t speak… I won’t get any words…I just end up crying all the time …. He has prescribed one medicine … But it didn’t help me with my pain … And he has told keeping heat pack might increase the swelling… 🙁 what to do ?..
July 20, 2014 at 1:14 pm
Sinchana, if your surgeon did not find any infections, the pain may be related to swelling, in which case patience and rest will make it go away in due time. That’s too bad to hear that your surgeon is not a kind, gentle person. I encourage you to maintain positive thoughts and have patience as your swelling goes down.
July 18, 2014 at 10:00 am
Hey graham… I’m Sinchana from India… I had my double jaw surgery on 30th June 2014 …….my doc told I should stop taking pain killers( pain killers didn’t used to help me much) it’s hurting a lot… I didn’t have my mouth wired shut but just have elastics on right n left side canines (I guess) ….. I started eating ( just swallowing it ) soft foods like overlooked rice on 10 th day itself… May b because of that I have pain ?.. Due to movement of jaw? I’m so scared plz help
July 18, 2014 at 2:05 pm
Sinchana, if you’re experiencing pain, I suggest you start sleeping with a heat pack on your face at night. It will sooth your swelling and help you rest a little more easily. If you think you have an infection, you’ll have to visit your surgeon and ask for a prescription. I hope this helps. =)
July 14, 2014 at 9:26 pm
Hey man I appreciate that you took the time to make this entire blog. i just had surgery on the 9th but had a burst blood vessel under my left eye so they had to operate again the next morning. I’m pretty much addicted to this blog now, trying to figure when things will stop hurting, when I’ll stop drooling over etc. All in all thank you. It’s encouraging to see that you made it to the end, even though I feel like I’m going to close my eyes and not wake up every time I try to relax. It’s mostly the excess drool and stuffy nose, but i guess we’ll have to see.
July 16, 2014 at 9:58 am
Jose, follow-up surgeries are always frustrating, but I suppose it’s comforting to know that it’s all being taken care of at the same time. Good luck with your recovery!