Metal Mouth Message Board

Hey everyone! I just finished my pre-op consults with my surgeon as my surgery will be in three weeks. I asked him about using ice packs and heat to help with swelling and discomfort once I get home after 2 days in the hospital, and he said not to I was a little surprised by this (I already bought a Jaw Bra) and he seems to think it won't help much. For anyone that has had the surgery, were you ever told specifically not to use ice/heat at home? If so, did you listen? haha

I was also told not to bother with ice after the first few days; that it wouldn't speed up the swelling going away. I followed what the surgeon said and stopped icing after the first few/several days. Took like a year for the swelling to totally go away. Maybe more. I don't think icing would have helped that

snapdresser wrote:I was also told not to bother with ice after the first few days; that it wouldn't speed up the swelling going away. I followed what the surgeon said and stopped icing after the first few/several days. Took like a year for the swelling to totally go away. Maybe more. I don't think icing would have helped that

Ok, that makes me feel better. I'd never heard anyone mention not using ice/heat at home, but I guess that makes sense in terms of the swelling is what it is at that point and it just takes time.

I wasn't told not to use ice or heat at home, but I ended up not doing it anyway. In my experience with sports injuries, ice is only used to limit swelling and numb pain. By the time you're home, ice won't do much for the swelling and your pain would be managed much better by painkillers. As for heat, heat is used to open blood vessels. When you're injured, this usually aids healing because it enables the body to get more blood to the site to promote healing, but so early on in your recovery, you're already so swollen that opening your blood vessels to direct more blood there would just clog things up more and result in more swelling.

So neither ice nor heat will do much. Just drink lots of water, get as many vitamins and minerals as you can, take your pain meds on schedule, and you won't even think about the ice.