How long does it take for banding of esophageal varices to fall off. My spouse had the procedure two weeks ago, with five veins in the esophagus being banded. He has previously had three bandings which took about 7-10 days before he felt better. It has been more than 2 weeks now and he is still hurting pretty badly in the area of his body between his adams apple and his stomach and we were wondering how long it would take for the bands to fall off and for him to get relief of his discomfort/pain.