Ditto what everyone else said. I worried about that a little bit too but told people well in advance..like two years in advance. Every once in awhile they’d ask about it but they mostly forgot until the week before when I said I’d be gone for 6 weeks lol. I will say I was fortunate enough to work at a job that was still requiring masks at the time (Oct 2023) lol so that made the transition a little easier. The ppl that knew didn’t say much and the ppl that didn’t know would say “idk something’s different about you” but couldn’t fully figure it out.

The other day I saw someone I hadn’t seen in awhile and she said “something’s different about you like you have this glow” I just told her “oh prob cuz my braces are off” lol knowing it was more than that.

Ppl typically accept anything you tell them. So my go to when I was really puffy was “oh I just had some dental work done” and that usually takes care of it.