How Long to Stay in Istanbul After Orthognathic Surgery Before You Travel Home

The hotel room has a mini-fridge full of soup and a window that looks out over a city the patient has seen only from a taxi. Day four after surgery, the swelling has crested, the jaw is held with small elastic bands, and the phone keeps lighting up with the same message from home: when are you flying back?

Anyone who has had jaw surgery abroad knows how long to stay is the question that quietly dominates the week. It is tangled up with return tickets, employers, and the simple wish to sleep in a familiar bed. Yet it is, at heart, a medical question with a surprisingly orderly answer, provided you know what the surgeon is actually waiting to see.

Whether the hospital is in Istanbul or in any other city a long flight from home, the biology of a healing jaw does not change with the postcode. What follows is the evidence, the typical ranges, and the handful of checkpoints that matter before you board.

What orthognathic surgery actually involves

Orthognathic surgery is the clinical term for an operation that moves one or both jawbones to correct how the teeth meet and how the face functions. The upper jaw is the maxilla; the lower jaw is the mandible. When the two do not line up, the result is a malocclusion, which simply means a misaligned bite.

The operation is planned jointly by an oral and maxillofacial surgeon and an orthodontist, the dental specialist who straightens teeth. Braces usually go on first so the teeth are positioned to fit together once the bones are moved; the Mayo Clinic describes this preparatory phase as typically lasting 12–18 months. Then, under general anaesthesia, the surgeon makes cuts in the bone called osteotomies, almost always from inside the mouth so there are no external scars, repositions the segments, and fixes them with small titanium plates and screws that normally stay in place permanently.

When both jaws are moved in the same operation, people often call it double jaw surgery. A single-jaw procedure moves only the maxilla or only the mandible. Occasionally the chin is reshaped at the same time, a step known as genioplasty.

After surgery, most patients are not wired shut in the way older generations were. Instead, light elastics guide the bite while the bone knits. The Mayo Clinic notes that a hospital stay of 2–4 days is typical, that initial healing of the jaw takes about six weeks, and that complete healing can take up to twelve. Those three numbers, more than any airline rule, form the skeleton of the stay-or-go decision.

Jaw surgery abroad: how long to stay is a window, not a single number

Ask three surgeons and you will hear three slightly different answers, and all of them may be right. The length of stay after jaw surgery abroad depends on what was done, how the first days unfold, and what the surgeon needs to confirm in person before signing off on a long journey.

Three considerations shape that window. The first is surgical stability: the surgeon wants to see that the bite is settling in the planned position, the plates are secure, and there is no sign of bleeding or infection at the incision lines. The second is physiology: swelling, breathing through a congested nose, and the ability to drink enough fluid all improve over the first week, and each one matters on an aircraft. The third is public-health travel guidance, which exists precisely because clots and complications do not respect departure times.

US travel-health guidance on medical tourism advises waiting roughly 7–10 days before flying after cosmetic procedures of the face and at least 10 days after chest or abdominal surgery, and it stresses that the operating surgeon should set the date. Orthognathic surgery is reconstructive rather than cosmetic, but it involves the same facial tissues, the same swelling, and the same general-anaesthetic recovery, so most teams treat that range as a floor rather than a target.

In practice, that means staying near the hospital at least through the first post-operative review, with many patients told to plan for roughly two weeks when both jaws were moved or when recovery is slower than expected. Booking a flexible or changeable return ticket is not pessimism; it is the single most practical thing a patient can do before the operation.

How long after jaw surgery can you fly?

Flying is not banned after jaw surgery, but it asks more of a healing body than a car ride does. Understanding why makes the surgeon’s timeline feel less arbitrary.

Cabin air at cruising altitude is pressurised to the equivalent of roughly 1,800–2,400 metres above sea level, so the oxygen available to the tissues is lower than on the ground. A person breathing comfortably through the mouth and nose barely notices. A person with a swollen face, a congested nose after upper-jaw surgery, and elastics limiting how wide the mouth opens notices more. The air is also dry, which thickens saliva and makes it harder to keep the mouth clean and to drink steadily.

Pressure changes can also be felt in the sinuses. Upper-jaw surgery passes close to the maxillary sinuses, the air-filled spaces in the cheekbones, and some people describe a sense of fullness or ache during descent in the early weeks. This is uncomfortable rather than dangerous in most cases, but it is one more reason surgeons prefer to see sinus symptoms settling before a flight.

Then there is the clot question, discussed in detail below. Public-health guidance identifies recent surgery and travel of more than about four hours as factors that raise the risk of deep vein thrombosis, a clot in a deep leg vein. Combining the two in the same week is what the 7–10 day minimum is designed to avoid.

Putting the pieces together: flying after jaw surgery is usually considered once the surgeon has seen you, swelling is clearly receding, you can drink and swallow reliably, and no bleeding or infection is active. For many single-jaw patients that falls at the end of the first week; for double-jaw patients it is often later. The surgeon’s clearance, not the calendar, is the deciding factor.

Who is usually offered jaw surgery, and who is asked to wait

Orthognathic surgery is reserved for problems that orthodontics alone cannot fix, typically because the bones, not just the teeth, are out of position. Mayo Clinic lists the common reasons: difficulty biting or chewing, trouble swallowing, chronic jaw pain, excessive tooth wear, an open bite where the front teeth do not meet, facial imbalance, a receding or protruding jaw, injury or birth differences affecting the jaws, and obstructive sleep apnoea, a condition in which the airway repeatedly narrows during sleep.

Timing is governed by growth. Moving a jawbone that is still lengthening risks undoing the result, so surgeons generally wait until growth has finished. Mayo gives typical ages of roughly 14–16 for females and 17–21 for males, with individual assessment by X-ray of the growth plates rather than birthday alone.

Some people are asked to wait for reasons unrelated to the jaw. Uncontrolled diabetes slows bone and gum healing. Active smoking impairs blood supply to the healing bone and raises infection risk, and many teams ask for a period of abstinence before and after. Untreated gum disease, poorly controlled high blood pressure, certain bleeding disorders, and recent clots are all reasons a pre-operative assessment may lead to a postponement.

For patients who travel for the operation, there is one more group often asked to pause: those who cannot stay for the recommended recovery period. A patient whose return flight is fixed for day three, or who has no clinician at home willing to take over follow-up, presents a continuity problem that no surgical skill can solve. Responsible teams raise this at the consultation stage, and patients should feel free to raise it themselves. A surgeon who wants to know your travel plans is a surgeon thinking about your safety.

The first week after jaw surgery: what the days usually look like

The pattern of the first week is more predictable than most patients expect, which is useful when every hour feels unfamiliar.

Days one and two are spent in hospital. Swelling climbs steeply, the face feels tight and numb, and breathing through the nose may be partly blocked by swelling and dried blood, especially after upper-jaw surgery. Nurses check the airway, bleeding, pain, hydration and the ability to sip liquids. Pain is managed with medicines chosen by the anaesthetic and surgical team; how and what you take is decided by them, and the general pattern is that discomfort is greatest early and eases as swelling falls.

Days three and four typically bring peak swelling. This is the stretch when patients panic about mirrors and family members on video calls go quiet. Cold compresses, sleeping with the head raised, and gentle movement around the room all help. Most people are discharged to their accommodation somewhere in this period, which lines up with the 2–4 day hospital stay the Mayo Clinic describes.

Days five to seven are the turning point. Swelling begins to recede visibly, nasal breathing improves, and the routine of rinsing, soft or liquid meals, and elastics becomes manageable. Numbness in the lower lip and chin, caused by bruising of the nerve that runs through the lower jaw, is common and usually improves over weeks to months, though the Mayo Clinic is candid that it can occasionally be permanent.

The first follow-up appointment usually falls at the end of this week. The surgeon checks the incisions, the bite, the elastics and the X-rays, and it is here, not at the airport, that the question of going home is properly answered.

Jaw surgery recovery timeline: weeks two to twelve

Once the first week is behind you, recovery shifts from hour-by-hour to week-by-week. The bone is doing the quiet work now, and the jaw surgery recovery timeline that follows is remarkably consistent across single and double-jaw procedures, even though the latter usually runs slower.

Week two is when most travelling patients are cleared to make the journey home, provided the first review was reassuring. Swelling is noticeably down but far from gone, speech is clearer, and most people can manage a liquid or blended diet without help. Energy remains low; a two-hour outing can feel like a full day’s work.

Weeks three to six cover what the Mayo Clinic calls initial healing. The plates hold the bone segments while new bone bridges the cuts. Elastics are adjusted or lightened by the orthodontist, and the diet usually progresses from liquids to soft, no-chew foods on the surgeon’s instruction. Numbness continues to retreat in patches, often felt as tingling before sensation returns.

Weeks six to twelve are when the bone approaches full strength. Mayo gives complete healing as taking up to twelve weeks, and this is the period when more normal chewing, contact-free exercise and a wider range of foods are typically reintroduced, again on the team’s timetable rather than a generic one. Orthodontic fine-tuning continues; braces usually stay on for a period after surgery to settle the bite, followed by retainers.

The practical lesson for a patient recovering a long way from the operating team is that the most intensive supervision belongs to the first two weeks, but the need for follow-up stretches across months. Someone at home needs to own that later stretch, and that arrangement is best made before the first incision.

Milestones that matter before a long journey home

Dates are reassuring, but surgeons clear travel on milestones, not on days since the operation. The table below sets out the checkpoints most teams want to see, why each one matters on a long flight, and the typical range in which it is reached. Ranges are drawn from the Mayo Clinic’s description of jaw surgery recovery and from US travel-health guidance on flying after surgery, and they describe common experience, not a guarantee for any individual.

Milestone	Why it matters for travel	Typical range
Discharged from hospital	Confirms airway, bleeding and pain are stable without nursing supervision	2–4 days
Swelling clearly receding	Reduces breathing difficulty and sinus discomfort with cabin pressure changes	Peaks about day 3–4, then falls
Reliable fluid intake	Dry cabin air and low mobility raise dehydration and clot risk	Usually by end of week 1
First surgical review completed	Bite, incisions, X-rays and elastics checked in person	Around 1 week
Minimum interval before flying	Public-health guidance for facial procedures	7–10 days, surgeon decides
Initial bone healing	Jaw stable enough for soft chewing and more activity	About 6 weeks
Complete bone healing	Normal diet and contact activity usually reconsidered	Up to 12 weeks

A useful way to read this table is from the bottom up. The six and twelve-week landmarks will almost certainly be reached at home, under the care of a local surgeon or orthodontist. Everything above the midline, by contrast, is the part the operating team wants to witness themselves. That split is the real answer to how long to stay.

Blood clots on long journeys: why recent surgery changes the math

Deep vein thrombosis, usually shortened to DVT, is a blood clot that forms in one of the deep veins, most often in the calf or thigh. If a piece of it breaks off and lodges in the lungs, the result is a pulmonary embolism, which can be life-threatening. MedlinePlus and the NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute both describe the same trio of causes: slowed blood flow, damage to the vessel wall, and blood that clots more readily than usual.

Surgery contributes to all three. Anaesthesia and bed rest slow circulation, tissue injury releases clotting signals, and the inflammatory response of the healing period tips the blood toward clotting. Long-haul travel then adds immobility, cramped seating that compresses the veins behind the knee, and dehydration from dry cabin air.

US travel-health guidance notes that journeys of more than about four hours raise the risk of venous thromboembolism, the umbrella term for DVT and pulmonary embolism, and that the risk stays elevated for weeks after the trip. Recent surgery sits on its list of factors that raise risk further. This is the mechanism behind the advice to leave a gap between an operation and a flight; it has nothing to do with the jaw itself and everything to do with the legs.

The basics of prevention are undramatic. Walk the aisle every hour or two when the seatbelt sign allows. Flex and circle the ankles and tighten the calf muscles while seated. Drink water steadily; the same guidance notes that alcohol and heavy sedation worsen dehydration and immobility. Avoid crossing the legs for long periods, and choose an aisle seat if you can. Properly fitted graduated compression stockings are often suggested for people at raised risk. Whether a blood-thinning medicine is warranted around a flight is a decision for the surgical team, based on your history, and should never be improvised.

Is jaw surgery a high-risk surgery?

Patients searching this question usually want a yes or no. The honest answer is that orthognathic surgery is a major operation under general anaesthesia with a well-described set of risks, most of them manageable, and that it is generally considered safe when performed by an experienced oral and maxillofacial team on a properly assessed patient. The Mayo Clinic frames it exactly that way: generally safe, with specific risks worth understanding.

Those risks, in Mayo’s own list, include blood loss, infection, injury to nerves, fracture of the jaw during the procedure, relapse of the jaw toward its original position, problems with how the bite fits, pain in the jaw joint, the need for further surgery, and the possibility that a tooth will later need root canal treatment. The nerve injury of most concern is to the inferior alveolar nerve, which supplies feeling to the lower lip and chin; temporary numbness is common, and permanent loss of sensation happens in a minority of cases.

Breathing is the risk anaesthetists think about most in the first hours, because swelling and blood in the mouth and nose can narrow the airway. This is why the early period is spent in hospital rather than a hotel, and why discharge waits until the airway is secure.

Where you recover does not change these risks, but it changes how quickly they can be addressed. A bleed, a loosened plate, or a developing infection in week one is a straightforward problem for the operating team and a logistical puzzle for a patient already at a departure gate. That is the fairest way to think about risk and distance together: not as a reason to fear the surgery, but as a reason to respect the recovery period near the people who performed it.

Eating, speaking and breathing on a long trip home

The practical realities of a day in transit deserve their own planning session, ideally with a nurse at the pre-discharge visit.

Food first. In the early weeks after jaw surgery, meals are liquid or blended, taken slowly, often through a syringe, spouted cup or small spoon depending on how far the mouth opens and what the team allows. Airport and airline food rarely cooperates. Patients who travel in week two generally bring their own supplies: smooth soups in insulated containers where security rules allow, meal-replacement drinks, yoghurt, and plenty of water. Ask the team in advance about what is permitted with elastics in place and whether they should be removed to eat; the answer varies by surgeon and by stage.

Oral hygiene continues on the move. Rinsing after anything other than water is usually part of the routine, so a small bottle of the rinse the team recommended, a soft children’s toothbrush and a travel mirror belong in hand luggage, not the hold.

Speech is clearer by week two but still effortful, and a long conversation tires the facial muscles. A written card explaining that you have had jaw surgery and may be hard to understand smooths interactions at check-in and security, where a swollen face can draw questions.

Breathing is the item to think hardest about. Nasal congestion after upper-jaw surgery eases over the first week or two, and saline sprays are commonly suggested to keep passages moist in dry cabin air. Patients who had surgery for sleep apnoea should ask explicitly whether and how to use their breathing device during the journey. Sleeping upright in a seat with the head slightly elevated is usually more comfortable than lying flat anyway, which for once makes economy class an ally.

Arranging follow-up before you leave the city

US travel-health guidance on receiving care abroad places a striking amount of emphasis on paperwork, and for good reason. The surgeon who moved your jaw will not be the clinician who adjusts your elastics in week five or who sees you if a screw head becomes exposed in week nine. Continuity has to be built deliberately.

Start before the operation. Identify an orthodontist at home willing to manage the post-surgical phase, and ask whether they will need to speak with the operating team directly. Many orthodontists prefer to be involved from the planning stage, since the surgical movement is designed around their pre-surgical alignment. Ask, too, whether a local oral and maxillofacial surgeon can be named as a point of contact for any surgical complication, so that a problem does not begin with a search engine.

Before leaving the hospital city, collect a complete written record: the operation note describing exactly which bones were moved and by how much, the make and position of the plates and screws, pre and post-operative X-rays or scans in a format your home clinicians can open, a list of every medicine prescribed with the reasons, and the planned schedule of elastics and dietary progression. Keep digital and paper copies, and carry them in hand luggage.

Clarify how the operating team wants to stay in touch. Many offer video reviews and ask for photographs of the bite at set intervals; find out who responds, in which language, and how quickly. Ask what happens if something goes wrong at home: who pays for and performs any revision is a question to settle before, not after, a complication arises. None of this is pessimism. It is the ordinary scaffolding of safe care, made visible by distance.

How long do you need to rest after jaw surgery?

Rest after jaw surgery is less about lying still and more about protecting the healing bone and letting a tired body recover from a general anaesthetic and a period of reduced nutrition. Both demand patience, and both have a timetable that lines up with the healing phases already described.

In the first week, the aim is gentle movement rather than bed rest. Short walks around the room and the corridor help circulation, reduce clot risk and lift mood, while anything that raises the heart rate significantly or risks a knock to the face is off the table. Sleeping with the head elevated reduces swelling and makes nasal breathing easier.

Returning to desk-based work is often possible within two to three weeks for single-jaw patients and a little later after double-jaw surgery, though fatigue from a liquid diet is the limiting factor more often than pain. Speaking all day is tiring, and video calls with a swollen face are a social hurdle some people prefer to postpone. These are planning considerations, not medical rules, and the surgical team’s advice should take precedence.

Exercise comes back in stages. Light cardio such as walking and stationary cycling is commonly reintroduced once the surgeon confirms early healing, while anything with impact or risk of facial contact usually waits until the Mayo Clinic’s six-week initial-healing landmark, and contact sports until complete healing at up to twelve weeks. Lifting heavy weights early is discouraged by many teams because straining and clenching load the jaw.

The quiet rule underneath all of this is that the bone cannot be hurried. Resting well in week one and two is not lost time; it is the part of the process that makes the later weeks uneventful.

What people often get wrong about recovering from jaw surgery abroad

Myths cluster around any surgery, and distance seems to breed more of them. A few deserve direct correction.

Myth: there is a single best country for jaw surgery. No guideline or systematic review ranks countries for orthognathic outcomes. Results depend on the training and experience of the individual surgical and orthodontic team, the quality of planning, infection control, anaesthetic care and follow-up, all of which vary within every country far more than between them. Public-health guidance on care abroad asks patients to check clinician credentials, hospital accreditation and complication pathways, not national reputations.

Myth: once the swelling is down, you are healed. Visible swelling retreats over weeks, but the Mayo Clinic puts initial bone healing at about six weeks and complete healing at up to twelve. A face that looks normal in week three still sits on a jaw that is not yet ready for a steak.

Myth: flying is dangerous for the jaw. The jaw is not the concern. Clot risk in the legs, dehydration, breathing comfort and the simple distance from your surgeon are. That is why the waiting period is measured in days, not months.

Myth: numbness means something went wrong. Altered sensation in the lower lip and chin is an expected consequence of operating near the nerve, and most of it recovers gradually. Persistent numbness should be reported, but it is not an emergency.

Myth: a video call replaces the first review. Checking a bite, pressing on an incision line and reading an X-ray are in-person tasks. The first follow-up is the one appointment worth missing a flight for.

Questions to ask your care team before and after jaw surgery abroad

Good questions do two things: they surface the information you need, and they signal to the team that you are planning your recovery seriously. These are worth asking in writing so the answers travel home with you.

• Which bones will be moved, and does that change how long you want me to stay nearby after surgery?
• When is my first in-person review, and what specifically will you be checking before you clear me to travel?
• What is the earliest date you would be comfortable with me flying, and what would make you postpone it?
• How many hours is my journey, and does its length change your advice about clot prevention, compression stockings or any medicine?
• Should I remove elastics to eat or clean my teeth during travel, and how do I replace them if one snaps?
• What should I eat and drink in transit, and is there anything I must avoid?
• If I had upper-jaw surgery, what should I expect from my sinuses and nose on the flight, and what can I do about it?
• Who do I contact, and how quickly will someone respond, if I develop a problem once I am home?
• Which clinician at home will manage my orthodontics and any surgical concern, and will you communicate with them directly?
• What records, images and written instructions will I receive, and in what format?
• How will we handle a complication that needs treatment after I have left, including who performs it?
• What signs should make me go to an emergency department rather than wait to speak with you?

Answers that are vague on any of the last four points deserve a second conversation. A team confident in its care is usually equally confident about what happens when care has to continue somewhere else.

When to call your doctor

Most of the discomfort after jaw surgery is expected: swelling, bruising, numbness, a stiff neck from sleeping upright, and a tiredness that seems out of proportion to the day’s activity. A small group of signs is different, and knowing them in advance removes the guesswork, whether you are still near the hospital or already home.

Seek urgent, same-day medical attention for any of the following: difficulty breathing or a sense that the airway is narrowing; bleeding from the mouth or nose that does not stop with steady pressure over 15–20 minutes; a fever that rises or persists beyond the first couple of days, especially with increasing pain, foul taste or pus near an incision; swelling that worsens again after it had started to improve, or that spreads to the neck; a sudden change in how the teeth meet, a clicking or shifting of the bone, or an exposed plate or screw; inability to keep fluids down for more than a day; or severe pain not controlled by the plan your team gave you.

Treat the following as an emergency and call emergency services or go to the nearest emergency department: pain, warmth or swelling in one calf or thigh, which can signal a deep vein thrombosis; sudden shortness of breath, chest pain that worsens with breathing, coughing blood, or a racing heartbeat, which can indicate a pulmonary embolism, particularly within weeks of surgery and travel; confusion, fainting, or a seizure.

If you are unsure whether something is normal, the right move is to ask the team rather than wait for the next scheduled review. Operating surgeons expect these calls in the early weeks; a photograph of the mouth sent through the agreed channel often settles the question within hours. Every decision about treatment, including whether to travel, sits with the clinicians who know your case, and they can only act on what they are told.

Frequently asked questions

How long after jaw surgery can I fly?

Most surgeons prefer at least 7–10 days and a completed in-person review before a flight, in line with US travel-health guidance on flying after facial procedures. The exact date depends on how swelling, breathing, fluid intake and the bite are settling, and on the length of the journey. Double-jaw patients are often asked to wait a little longer. The treating surgeon makes the final call.

Which country is the best for jaw surgery?

There is no evidence-based ranking of countries for orthognathic surgery. Outcomes depend on the training and experience of the surgeon and orthodontist, the quality of planning and imaging, anaesthetic and infection-control standards, and how follow-up is arranged. Public-health guidance on care abroad recommends checking individual credentials, hospital accreditation and complication pathways rather than relying on a country’s reputation.

How long do you need to rest after jaw surgery?

Gentle walking starts within days, but strenuous activity waits. Desk-based work is often possible within two to three weeks, light cardio once the surgeon confirms early healing, and impact or contact activities typically after the Mayo Clinic’s six-week initial-healing landmark, with full clearance nearer twelve weeks. Fatigue from a liquid diet is usually the limiting factor rather than pain.

Is jaw surgery a high-risk surgery?

Orthognathic surgery is a major operation under general anaesthesia that the Mayo Clinic describes as generally safe when performed by an experienced oral and maxillofacial team. Recognised risks include bleeding, infection, nerve injury with lip and chin numbness, jaw fracture during surgery, relapse, bite problems, jaw joint pain and the need for further surgery. Airway swelling in the first hours is why the early period is spent in hospital.

What is the typical double jaw surgery recovery time?

Recovery after double jaw surgery follows the same phases as single-jaw surgery but tends to run slower. The Mayo Clinic gives initial bone healing at about six weeks and complete healing at up to twelve weeks for jaw surgery generally. Swelling, nasal congestion and fatigue are usually more pronounced when both jaws are moved, so travelling patients are often asked to stay nearby for about two weeks.

Is flying after jaw surgery dangerous for the jaw itself?

The jaw is not the main concern. Plates and screws hold the bone securely, and cabin pressure does not affect them. The medical issues are clot risk in the legs after surgery and prolonged sitting, dehydration from dry cabin air, breathing comfort with a swollen face and congested nose, and distance from the surgeon if a complication arises. Those are what the waiting period addresses.

How do I prevent blood clots on a long flight after surgery?

Walk the aisle every hour or two, flex and circle your ankles while seated, drink water steadily, avoid alcohol and heavy sedation, and avoid crossing your legs for long periods. Properly fitted graduated compression stockings are often suggested for people at raised risk, which includes anyone with recent surgery on a journey over about four hours. Whether any blood-thinning medicine is needed is a decision for the surgical team.

Can I eat on the plane with elastics in place?

It depends on the stage of healing and your surgeon’s instructions. Some teams allow elastics to be removed briefly for meals and cleaning; others want them in place continuously in the early weeks. Ask before you travel, carry spare elastics and know how to replace them. Bring your own liquid or blended meals, since airline food rarely suits a post-surgical diet, and rinse as instructed afterwards.

Who looks after me once I am home?

Ideally an orthodontist you have identified before surgery, who manages elastics and bite refinement over the following months, plus a named local oral and maxillofacial surgeon for any surgical concern. Carry a full operation note, imaging, plate details and written instructions so they can take over without guesswork. Agree with the operating team how remote reviews will work and how quickly they respond.

What if a complication develops after I get home?

Contact the operating team through the agreed channel and, if the problem is urgent, see a local clinician or emergency department without waiting. Breathing difficulty, uncontrolled bleeding, calf pain or swelling, chest pain or sudden breathlessness are emergencies. Before surgery, clarify in writing who would perform and pay for any revision treatment at home, so that question is already settled if it ever arises.

References

• MedlinePlus: Deep Vein Thrombosis
• NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute: Venous Thromboembolism
• NHS: Orthodontics

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a qualified doctor about your individual situation.