Jaw Surgery Forums » Pre-Surgery Questions

Down time for surgical palette expander

(6 posts)
  • Started 3 months ago by LauraJean
  • Latest reply from sarah1000

No tags yet.

  1. LauraJean
    Member

    Sometime this month I should be having my palette expander put in and the first week of march is when I should have surgery. However I failed to ask my surgeon what the down time from work would be. Does anyone know about how many weeks one would have off after having this surgery. As a background I work at a group home. However I do minimal work. No heavy lifting. No bending over. So my thought has been if I feel up to working I would be able to continue to work maybe 2 or 3 weeks after surgery.

    And so it begins... Follow my surgery journey at
    http://jawsurgeryadventure.blogspot.com/
    Posted 3 months ago #

  2. Zoe62
    Member

    The norm i have heard is 2 - 3 weeks depending on what you are having done.
    i took 3 weeks off, im currently at one week post op, and i think i would be fine after 2, although i have only had lower jaw surgery not double. Hope that helps and goodluck with it all!

    Posted 3 months ago #

  3. LauraJean
    Member

    Thanks. I figured it being the upper jaw and hearing that it heals quicker than lower jaw surgery I was hoping 2 weeks would be good.

    Posted 3 months ago #

  4. sarah1000
    Moderator

    I had my palate broken and a rapid palate expander surgically fitted in Nov 10 for this surgery I took two weeks off which was enough. I have just had double jaw surgery and had 5 weeks off.

    Over bite: palate expander, braces & bi-surgery with genioplasty Jan 2012!
    Posted 3 months ago #

  5. LauraJean
    Member

    Wow. Why did they have to break it? They couldn't create incisions in the bone like I've seen other surgeries that used a palette expander!?

    Posted 3 months ago #

  6. sarah1000
    Moderator

    Not sure. But it was done under general - I think there are different types of expanders - mine was screwed into the palate bone. As an adult your bones are fused together so they have to break them apart, unlike when you are younger you can just expand. But to be honest I don't really know, I just had the same incision across the top of my mouth as I have just had for upper jaw surgery....

    Posted 3 months ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.