Metal Mouth Message Board

How long will it take to open your mouth normally again after surgery, can full range of motion come back without daily jaw opening exercises?

I'm just over 8 weeks post op and can only open my mouth about 1.5cm. I can open it ever so slightly wider after I've been eating. I wasn't given any exercises to do, they just said that it will take a long time for it to return to normal and that I may never open my mouth quite as much as I could before but that it should be enough to do 'everything that I need it to do' I'm only wearing elastics at night now and the ortho said that should help a bit as my jaw will actually move when I talk now.

I was never given any exercises to do, and I am now 5 months post op and have almost 100% of my mobility back. It is not perfect, but doesn't cause issues unless I am at the dentist and they ask me to open wide (I can't!)... I too was in very tight elastics, which likely contributed to my mobility returning without exercises.

Tomorrow I will be 4 weeks post op for having my lower jaw moved forward. My OS told me at my 2 week post op appt that I didn't need to wear my elastics if I didn't want to...that they were really only like a sling for the jaw but I could go without if I chose to. I came home and took the elastics off...now I am wondering if that was a mistake.

Troubledpatient, how do you feel the tight bands help you not have to do excersises? I would think the opposite...that the tight bands would cause more ridity which would lead to needing to exercise. I'm wondering if I should start wearing my bands again??? My dr didn't seem like the bands were that important.