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After surgery

Immediately after the surgery, you will be monitored. Intravenous fluids, antibiotics and medications for pain, swelling, nausea, vomiting, and nasal congestion will be administered as required. In most cases, your teeth will be tied together with rubber bands to stabilise the bite and you will not be able to open your mouth. Don’t panic as this is part of the surgery and the rubber bands can be cut off in case of emergencies.

Follow up and monitoring

Most of our patients are kept in the hospital overnight for close monitoring. If the recovery is uneventful, you should be able to go home the next morning. Typically, a follow-up appointment will be arranged around one week after the surgery. You will be seen periodically over the next one to two months by the surgeon before resuming orthodontic treatment.

Eating

You can start with clear liquid diet when awake and nurses will teach you how to feed with a syringe.

Medication

Pain and swelling are to be expected after the surgery. Thankfully, the extent of discomfort and pain is generally well managed with prescribed medications. A sore throat is also common after surgery and is due to the breathing tube used when you are ‘asleep’ under general anaesthesia. Swelling will be most prominent in the first three days after surgery. Ice packs can be placed on the sides of your face to moderate the swelling. Most swelling should reduce on its own after one month, with residual swelling taking up to several months to resolve.

Bruising of the facial region extending to the neck may occur. It is common to develop bluish-black, greenish or yellow skin bruising, which will dissipate on its own over the next few weeks.

Restriction of jaw movements

There will be some restriction of mouth opening and general jaw stiffness. Elastic bands placed at the upper and lower teeth are to guide them into a proper occlusion.

How long does it take for me to go back to my normal life?

Every individual is different. It can take anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks for patients to resume working or schooling depending on their healing progress and how they feel.