“When can you eat normally after jaw surgery?”

You will need to eat a soft diet which needs very little chewing for at least six weeks after the surgery. This diet sheet goes through meal ideas for a liquid, purée, blended and soft diet.

If you mean orthognathic jaw surgery, current surgical techniques will use plates and screws to set your jaws in their new position. It will take about 12 weeks for the bone to heal in their new positions so although you should be able to open and close your mouth after surgery, most surgeons will limit your diet initially to liquids and purees and then advance to soft solids after 6 weeks and then finally to firmer foods at 12 weeks. This is to allow the bone a chance to heal without placing to much force on the bone which may create poor healing.