Hi there! I had double jaw surgery a week ago to correct an underbite. Recovery has been going well apart from this one thing - the pain I get at night, specifically when I sleep.
I don't really get any pain during the day at this point, it only creeps up as I'm getting ready for bed but it's easily solved with some painkillers. However, I find that within an hour or two of drifting off, I wake up with a start to find my mouth in agony. It doesn't matter how careful I am to make sure I'm sleeping upright, or if I take painkillers before bed or not.
I'm posting this now because it happened again not ten minutes ago, i woke up in a horrible cold sweat to acute jaw pain. It was actually pretty scary to me! I could only have been asleep an hour.
Anyway, this has been a long and rambling post but has anyone else had any similar experiences with pain? What has your experience been? Thanks!
Night time pain?
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3cheersforsweetteeth
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Re: Night time pain?
Absolutely. I'm 12 weeks post-op at this point, and night time pain plagued me for about 2 weeks (maybe slightly more) after my surgery. It was awful, and like clockwork...I could get through the day fine and then within minutes of lying down to go to sleep, the pain began. The pain was so bad for me that I had several practically sleepless nights, and when I did finally get over, I'd be woke by the pain at 7 or 8 in the morning again. And like you said, sometimes I could get to sleep okay and then I'd be yanked awake by agony...
Unfortunately it's one of those things that only time will improve, but there are ways to try and mitigate it. I'd recommend taking your pain meds about half an hour before getting in to bed (as you seem to have been doing) and don't be afraid to take more if you wake up in the middle of the night and enough time has passed that you're allowed a second dose. Dragging yourself out of bed to get a few hours more sleep is worth it. One thing that also really helped me (and this will sound totally weird haha) is that I would tie a hot water bottle to the side of my head using a scarf before bed. The pain for me came from the right side of my head, so I filled a hot water bottle with water warm enough to soothe but not so warm that it hurt...back then I was sleeping propped up, so I placed the water bottle where I'd wake up with pain and tied it to my face...it did genuinely help quite a bit!
Unfortunately it's one of those things that only time will improve, but there are ways to try and mitigate it. I'd recommend taking your pain meds about half an hour before getting in to bed (as you seem to have been doing) and don't be afraid to take more if you wake up in the middle of the night and enough time has passed that you're allowed a second dose. Dragging yourself out of bed to get a few hours more sleep is worth it. One thing that also really helped me (and this will sound totally weird haha) is that I would tie a hot water bottle to the side of my head using a scarf before bed. The pain for me came from the right side of my head, so I filled a hot water bottle with water warm enough to soothe but not so warm that it hurt...back then I was sleeping propped up, so I placed the water bottle where I'd wake up with pain and tied it to my face...it did genuinely help quite a bit!