Could Difficulty Opening the Mouth After Contouring Surgery Be a Side Effect?

Hello, I’m Director Jo Hyun-woo of Stature Plastic Surgery.

When I read columns or YouTube comments, I often see questions like, “It’s been a few months since my contouring surgery, but I still can’t open my mouth. Was the surgery done wrong?”

In conclusion, in almost all cases, the surgery was not done wrong, so there is no need to worry.

So why is it difficult to open the mouth after contouring surgery? Let me start with zygoma surgery.

As shown in the image above, the cheekbone has a connected area with the square jawbone and the masseter muscle.

Even if the cheekbones are fixed firmly after surgery, frequently chewing hard or chewy foods or opening the mouth wide can interfere with bone union. Therefore, in my case, I restrict these kinds of actions as much as possible for about 6 weeks.

In that case, our muscles have a limited range of motion, and the range of motion of the jaw joint decreases.

As an easy example, if a splint is applied to our arms or legs for about 6 to 8 weeks, it becomes difficult to bend the arms or legs.

This is also because the muscles shorten and the joints become stiff, and in such cases, rehabilitation exercises are performed.

As you gradually increase the range of motion, you will return to your previous movement.

Therefore, mouth-opening exercises after cheekbone surgery can begin after 6 weeks, once a CT scan shows that the bone is healing well.

If you open your mouth as much as you can, up to the point of pain, several times, movement will start to improve.

After about 1 to 2 weeks, you will likely notice that it returns to its previous state.

This is not a side effect of surgery, but part of the recovery process caused by not moving the muscles and joints, so there is no need to worry.

However, there are cases where the mouth cannot open because of the surgery after cheekbone surgery.

If the cheekbones have been moved too far backward or overcorrected, the jaw joint may meet the cheekbone and limit movement.

This is definitely a side effect of cheekbone surgery.

In such cases, you may feel as if the bone is catching, so it would be a good idea to get a CT scan and check it carefully.

Next, let’s talk about cases where the mouth cannot open after lower jaw surgery.

In fact, lower jaw surgery and mouth opening are not directly related.

So why do patients have difficulty opening their mouths after lower jaw surgery?

This is simply because they are afraid and do not open their mouths much.

If you do not open your mouth wide for about a month because of fear, then, for the same reasons mentioned earlier, the muscles and joints become stiff, and you end up unable to open your mouth.

When you try to open your mouth, it hurts, so you become worried.

But this is also something that can improve right away with practice, so you just need to work hard on mouth-opening exercises.

In fact, after square jaw surgery, opening the mouth a lot can help prevent the muscles from stiffening, so after square jaw surgery, I recommend living as usual while making sure to open your mouth fully.

Today, we briefly looked at the causes of difficulty opening the mouth after contouring surgery.

In most cases, it is best to think of this as a simple degree of stiffness in the muscles and joints.

I hope this was helpful. Thank you.