You will need to exercise your jaw a few weeks after surgery, if your surgery involves the joint or near it. If you don't, you risk having it scar down, resulting in a permanently restricted opening. I couldn't open my mouth at first enough to slip a spoon tip into, but I'm fine now. Just remember to ask the doctor when you should begin.

And if you have a neck dissection, remember to ask him/her when you should begin to massage the skin and the scar to keep it flexible. Mine is perfectly normal now....not stiff or restricted at all, but if I had not massaged it regularly, after it had done its basic healing, it might have scarred down, leaving me with a permanently tight feeling in my neck.

Don't do either thing until you are told, but if they don't mention it, you need to ask....and don't forget...and don't neglect either thing!!!

For your neck massage, you get some nice moisturizer.....the greasier the better, and give it a good workover. Your care team will show you how. (though nobody showed me anything.....he just said I needed to massage the h--- out of it, so I did, using my good Mary Kay night cream! Cocoa butter would be nice...or Bath and Body's Body Butter.....or greasy Vitamin E cream.....It's the massage that matters, not the cream, but something greasy helps the massage to be more pleasant.)