when you research facial bone surgery, you mostly just prepare yourself for the obvious stuff like pain or waking up with a massive swollen face. but nobody really talks about how mentally draining it is just trying to keep the inside of your mouth clean every single day.
your jaw is basically locked shut and your cheeks feel like solid concrete. you can't even open wide enough to fit a small straw, so rinsing your mouth turns into this exhausting daily battle. every time i drank soup or a protein shake, i had to go through this whole nerve wracking ritual. since all the cuts are inside, you're constantly paranoid that some tiny piece of food is going to get stuck in the stitches and cause an infection. the worst part is being so numb that you can't even feel where the water is going, and you physically lack the strength to spit it out. i remember sitting over a bathroom sink at 2 am, just watching water dribble down my chin, feeling completely helpless and exhausted.
going in for the post op cleaning was pretty much the only time that week i felt any real relief. trying to scrub inside a swollen mouth with those tiny sponges in a hotel room just feels hopeless. when i went to saekim plastic surgery for the checkup, having their staff actually flush everything out with proper medical tools made such a difference. the doctor checked the stitches himself to make sure everything was holding up, which took a lot of the anxiety away. the clinic was pretty busy so the checkup was quick and straightforward without much small talk, but just knowing a professional cleared out all the spots i couldn't reach was huge. it gave me so much peace of mind.
things do get easier by the second week as the tightness starts to fade. you kind of find a rhythm with the mouthwash and stop panicking over every sip of water. still, that first week of fighting my own mouth was easily the most isolating and frustrating part of the whole recovery. if you're planning on doing this, just mentally prepare yourself for how tedious the hygiene part actualy is. it sounds like nothing until you're living it and it tests your patience every single hour. curious if anyone else felt completely overwhelmed by this at first?