After Jaw Surgery

Prior to your jaw surger, you will visit your surgeon to have molds and records taken. This office appintment can verey between 1 to 2 hours in length. It will consist of taking x-rays, molds and photographs and is an opportunity for you to have all your remaining questions answered. It’s also an opportune time for any family member(s) that maybe with you to also discuss with your surgeon the period following surgery.

Prior to yur surgery, it is imprative that you have seen the orthodontist for placement of surgical hooks and your family dentist for a generalized cleaning since oral hygiene will be a little ddifficult for the first 2 weeks. Also, you should enjoy a normal routine and savor your favorite meals, since these will be curtailed for a least 1 month after surgery.

The day and morining before your surgery, it is important that you thoroughly brush all your teeth and appliances.

The day of your surgery, you will first meet the anesthetist who will bring you to the operating room and guide you through the process over the next few hours. Depending on the number of jaws that you will have surgery on, the length of the surgery will vary between 1-3 hours. This is different for all patients and this will be explained to you.

When you wake up from your surgery, your teeth will be held together with small elastics, just to help you guide into your new occlusion. these elastics, if present, will be changed after the first week.

You will be completely numb on the jaw that was operated on, so there is not a great amount of pain. However, the swelling starts up immediately and there is some jaw stiffness to be anticipated. There is some soreness from the breathing tube that the anesthetist places and this soreness will also subside with time.

You may or may not be admitted to the hospital for an overnight stay. Your doctor will discuss the arrangements for your care after surgery with you and your family.

1. All patients feel discomfort or pain after an operation, although the level of pain varies from patient to patient. Take your pain medications as directed.

2. When you go home, it is important that a friend or relative spends the first night with you. Continue to take any medications you had been taking previously and follow the instructions on the bottle.

3. You will be able to shower on the second day after surgery. You must avoid hot, prolonged showers which may cause bleeding in the upper jaw if surgery was performed there.

4. Avoid excercises, any heavy lifting or activity that raises your blood pressure or pluse for at least one month after the surgery. the blood vessels are still healing from the surgery and any incrased in activity may cause bleeding. You may begin gentle exercies after 2 weeks, but do not do anh cardio for 4 mweeks after the surgery.

5. Do not drive a vehicle or perform any task that requires coordination or judgment for at least 48 hours following your anesthetic.

You will be provided with prescriptons for any medications you will need during your recovery period. Your doctor will discuss the medications with you prior to your surgery.

Immediately after surgery, you will need to stay on a clear liquid diet to ensure that the wounds do not get burdened with debris.There is not limit to what you should eat, as long as you don’t need to chew too vigorously.

The amount of swelling that will take place in your cheeks will make it very difficult to brush your teeth. In fact, you should not brush your teeth for 1 full week after surgery, otherwise the incisions can be damaged and bleeding may start. You should use warm saline rinses (1/2 teaspoon slat in a tumbler of warm water). You can rinse you mouth with salt water as often as you would like, even up to every 2 hours You cannot do enough rinses. This will keep your mouth nice and clean and will also tend to shrink the incision lines inside your mouth. You may also be given a prescription for Peridex, an anti-bacterial mouth rinse. If that is given to you, use it as prescribed.

The swelling is perhaps the greatest post-operative even tof your jaw surgery. This will vary from patient to patient. You mjust anticipate a large degree of sweling over your cheek area as well las down into your neck. The swelling is maximal at Day 4 and will slowly subside after 2 weeks. There is still about 10 to 20% of swelling that can maintain up to 2 months after surgery. You should only be critical of the result about 3 months after surgery. You will have been given medications during the surgery and immediately after to help settle down some of the swelling, but after Day 3, there is very little that can be done to eliminate it.

You should place ice on your face while you are awake for the first 3 to 4 days. The ice will also have anumbing effect that will reduce andy post-operative sensitivity. You must be careful not to apply too much ice directly on the skin,, as it may cause burns After Day4,a warm water bottle is then recommended to help reduce swelling.

Bruising is also quite normal after jaw surgery. Depending on which jay was operated on, you may have bruising in the area of your upper cheek and eyes as well as your lower cheeks and down into your neck. It is not unusual to have some bruising extend all the way onto your chest. The bruising is unsightly and disconcerting,k but you must understand it is perfectly normal and should not be of any concern. If will go away after about 2 weeks.

You should maintain minimal activity with the first week. You are able to walk and move about but you should not do any exercises, jogging or weight lifting, regardless of how well you feel. You will have lost soe blood during the operation and you may be feeling weak or faint.It may take one month before you fully recover from the amount of blood loss and strength due to your surgery.

You may have some altered sensation to your hearing due to some of the swelling extending into the area of the ear. This numbness or muffled sound is not unusual and you should expect some of it. You may also experience some joint noises on the right and left hand side. Your joints need to get accustomed to their new position.

If you were not given apost-op appointment, you should give the office a call.The doctor will want to see you between 4 and 7 dayspost-op.

In this phase, the majority of swelling and bruising will have peaked and are starting to subside. It is now a time to get your jaws actively working again so that you can resume normal activity. There are a few points to remember and a few changes:

Depending on the amount of mouth opening you have and also the amount of elastics that may be placed, your diet will be still restricted to your mouth opening. However, you can now start moving up to a more substantial diet. You can eat things such as: soft cheeses, milk shakes, nutritional supplements (such as Ensure or Boost), omelettes and scarmbled eggs, pureed vegetables and meast of a similar consistency to baby food, starches such as mashed potatoes and pasta, other proteins such as minced meat and white fish.

Now that the swelling is slowly starting to subside, you will be able to get into the mouth and cheek areas a little bit more easily. You should purchase a new toothbrush and using a small amount of toothpaste, concerntart on brushing the metal braces. You should spend at least 15-20 minutes in the evening prior to going to bed to do a thorough cleaning of all the teeth and brackets. Not only will this make you feel a little better, it will also help reduce any swelling arough the gums and cheeks. continue rinsing your mouth with salt water at least twice a day, but be careful not to injure the woulnds with the head of the toothbrush. If you do hit the wounds, there may be a little bleeding, but this is normal and should not cause any worry.

The swelling will not begin to subside and by the second and third week, the majority of it will be gone, but remember, there is still about 10-20% that can maintain up to 2 months. Ice will no longer help reduce the swelling; you may want to switch to using warm water bottles over the area. However, this small amount of swelling will go down on its own.

Brusing may still be evident into the second week, as far down as into the neck and chest areas. Although this is unsightly, it is perfectly normal and will go away.

You will still be feeling slightly weak due to the surgery itself and the minor blood loss. You can start a regular routine of physical exercise that you may have had prior to surgery, but you should still avoid any heavy running or activities that will produjce too much mmotion in the head and neck areas. Simple walking and stairs and mild activity is encouraged and will help with the elimination of some swelling.

The joints on the right and left-hand sides near you ears may now be functioning a little bit more, but due to the jaw surgery, they will find themselves in a new position. It is not unusual to hear some noises such as clicking or popping of the joint as you start to function more and more. these joint noises and discomforts will continue up until about 6 weeks post-surgery.

If you have had upper jaw surgery, the numbness tends to be reduced in the upper lip and jaw area and this is first felt as an itchy or pis and needles sensation. In the low ever lip area, there will still be some numbness and pins and needles at least up until 6 months after surgery.

Your appointments will now continue probably every 2 weeks. The antibiotics will have been terminated at this stage. If you need medication to help you sleep through the night, just speak to your doctor. Oftentimes, you may find yourself clinching and grinding your teeth in the middle of the night; this is not unusual, but if it is distrubing you, we can give you something to help you through this. Your final phase will be from approximately 4 to 6 weeks after the surgery until you have your braces removed. This phase will be further explained to you by your doctor at the appropriate time.