A broken jaw typically takes 6 to 8 weeks to heal, though full recovery including the return of normal jaw function often stretches to 3 months or longer. The exact timeline depends on the severity of the fracture, the type of treatment used, and individual factors like smoking status and overall health.
What Happens During Healing
Jaw bone heals through a staged process. First, the body forms granulation tissue at the fracture site, which is essentially the raw material of early repair. That tissue gradually becomes more fibrous and dense, then transitions to cartilage, and finally hardens into new bone. The last phase, remodeling, is when the bone reshapes itself to handle normal stress again. This entire sequence is why healing can’t be rushed: each stage builds on the one before it.
How the fracture is treated affects this process directly. If your jaw is wired shut (a technique called maxillomandibular fixation), the bone heals indirectly through all of those stages over 4 to 6 weeks of immobilization. If the fracture is repaired surgically with metal plates and screws, the bone edges are compressed together and can heal more directly, often eliminating the need for wiring. Either way, the bone itself needs roughly the same amount of time to regain structural strength.
The Diet Progression
What you eat and how you eat it changes significantly during recovery. For the first three days after surgery or fixation, most people are limited to clear liquids: water, clear juices, broth, popsicles, and gelatin. This gives the surgical site time to stabilize without any mechanical stress.
From about day three until your first follow-up appointment (usually one to two weeks out), a blenderized diet is standard. Everything goes through the blender until it’s completely smooth. After your surgeon evaluates your healing, you may be cleared for a no-chew diet of soft, small foods that don’t require biting or grinding. Throughout the full six weeks of recovery, straws are typically off-limits because the suction can disrupt healing. You’ll eat with a cup, spoon, or large syringe instead.
The transition back to normal food is gradual. Even after fixation is removed or your surgeon clears you, chewing feels stiff and weak at first. Most people find it takes several additional weeks before they’re comfortable eating tougher foods.
Regaining Jaw Movement
If your jaw was wired shut or held in a fixed position, expect significant stiffness when the fixation comes off. Your mouth may only open a few millimeters at first. This is partly because the muscles have been immobilized for weeks and partly because of residual swelling and surgical healing at the fracture site.
Jaw exercises are not recommended during the first week to ten days after surgery. Once your surgeon gives the go-ahead, the process is methodical. A common technique involves stacking tongue depressors between your back teeth to gently stretch the opening, holding for 5 to 10 minutes, and gradually adding more depressors as tolerated over days and weeks. The goal is five repetitions, three times a day, done in front of a mirror to make sure you’re opening straight rather than deviating to one side. Range of motion increases steadily as the muscles loosen, but patience matters here. Pushing into pain can set you back.
Factors That Slow Healing
Smoking is one of the most significant risk factors for a jaw fracture that doesn’t heal properly. A large meta-analysis published in The Lancet found that smokers have 2.5 times the rate of nonunion (where the bone fails to knit together) compared to non-smokers. Smokers also face higher rates of deep infection at the surgical site. If you smoke, stopping or at least reducing during the healing window meaningfully improves your odds.
Infection is the other major concern. Some surgeons consider any jaw fracture more than 48 hours old to have some bacterial contamination, since the mouth is full of bacteria and many jaw fractures communicate with the oral cavity. A fracture is considered clinically infected when there’s pus draining from the site (either inside the mouth or through the skin), or when the surrounding tissue develops spreading swelling and redness. If infection develops, the 6 to 8 week healing clock doesn’t start until the infection is controlled and drainage stops.
When a fracture progresses to nonunion, which becomes apparent after 3 to 4 months of fixation without adequate healing, a bone graft is typically needed along with an additional 2 months of immobilization. This is uncommon but worth understanding, especially if you have risk factors.
When You Can Return to Normal Activity
Light daily activities can usually resume within a few weeks, but anything involving impact to the face requires considerably more caution. For contact sports like boxing, martial arts, or football, the general recommendation is a minimum of 3 months before returning. This allows the remodeled bone to reach enough strength to absorb a blow without refracturing.
Even outside of sports, the practical reality is that a broken jaw affects your life for longer than the bone healing period alone. Between the dietary restrictions, jaw stiffness, potential numbness in the lower lip or chin (from nerve involvement near the fracture), and gradual return of chewing strength, most people feel functionally back to normal somewhere between 2 and 4 months after the injury. The bone is structurally sound well before everything else catches up.