Post op: how long 'til mouth open wide enough for soft food?

[Helen82]

Advice sought from those who have been there and done that! It's been four weeks since I had surgery on both jaws; I've been tightly banded shut since then. A week ago my orthodontist gave me the green light to remove the bands at meal times only so I could move onto soft food. The only problem being my mouth won't open wide enough to get anything in, no matter how hard I try. As there's no point unbanding at meal times yet, I've been taking the bands off for about an hour a day and practising opening my jaw, but I can still barely get one finger in. Is this situation basically not going to change while I have to be tightly banded for the majority of the day? I've got at least another two weeks of this, and another two weeks of soup is a depressing thought! After I can lose the bands, approx. how long might it take until I can open wide enough to get some soft food in? I know that's like asking how long is a piece of string, but I would appreciate any insight from others who were banded shut for six weeks so that I have some point of comparison. Also does anyone have any jaw exercises they can recommend?

[samoorelaw]

Well, I can only speak from my own experience. I had upper jaw surgery only and was tightly banded shut for 5.5 weeks. When I was given the "green light" to take out my bands to start on soft foods, I was no longer tighly banded shut, but my elastics were still tight enough that I could not eat with them in. The first day, I could barely open my mouth 1 finger length and it took me 1.5 hours to eat pancakes and an omelet: what a sight I must have been but I'll never know because I barricaded myself in my room when I attempted to eat for the first time post-op, ha! After about a week, I was able to open about 1.5 finger lengths. At two weeks, I was at 2 finger lengths. At three weeks, I was at 2.5 finger lengths and finally at four weeks, I was comfortably at 3 finger lengths.

This may be different for you because of your double jaw surgery but I would think it would be similar to what I've experienced. I was not given any jaw exercises to increase range of motion from my surgeon, either: I would just have the bands off for about maybe 2 hours per day and whenever I'd have them off, I would attempt to open my mouth as wide as I could and hold it that way for as long as I could, never forcing anything. Your range of motion will come back with time: I know how frustrating it is at first but it will be so worth it.

[Helen82]

Thanks for your reply - it gives me an idea of timescales. Now that I've got more energy than I had the first two weeks, I just want everything to go back to normal or at least 'new normal', as quickly as possible. Totally unrealistic I know but my patience has worn quite thin!