My silent period was a week however the swelling was so great that I couldn't make any sound for two weeks. Even after I could speak, my voice sounded pretty bad for a couple of months. I continued to carry my pad and pen just incase I couldn't be understood.
The surgery is pretty rugged and if you accidentally make a sound, it probably isn't going to do any damage. It's important that you don't worry about accidentally making a sound so your recovery is stress free. On the other hand, Dr Haben said not to worry about accidents. You might snore or talk in your sleep and there isn't much you can do to control that but control what you can.
In my case, I let a few words slip out about 4 days after surgery and it didn't do any damage. I suspect the reason those word got out but the latter ones didn't was because the latter ones were after I ran out of steroids that where controlling the swelling. In either case, my voice settled down at a nice 220 HZ so all turned out well.
