Hello all,

My grandfather got surgery on 11/01, and had most of the left floor mouth and some near the base of his tongue removed, and some of his jawbone shaved. He just came home to us the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. He's doing pretty well, but has been concerned with the swelling in his mouth. (It's a lot better now than it was even last week, but he's wishing he was 100% back to normal again!)

I've read quite a few posts on here and it seems like the swelling takes quite a while to go down, but I'd just like to ask about how long it took for anyone's swelling to go down?

Thanks to everyone for the kind welcome, and in advance for your commentary!

Cheers!

-Robin

Hi Robin

Swelling can take months to go down. After about 8 weeks everyone could see a huge improvement in my face. Internally my mouth started to feel a lot better by then also. Unfortunately, your grandfather still probably has several weeks to go yet because his surgery was only 4 weeks ago.

I hope your grandfather has a speedy recovery.

Karen

Thank you Karen. We know it will take time (sadly!), but appreciate having some perspective.

-Robin

It would depend on many different things as to how long to expect for swelling to subside. My surgery removed about 1/2 of the lower jawbone and went thru 2 surgeries so it took several months. I would have to guess at about 2 or 3 months depending upon how invasive his operation was. My docs told me that at the 6 month point it would show what it will look like. The swelling can go down a little more but usually the 6 month point is a good example of what will be the end result. It can take up to a year to heal from a big operation.