Your dental implant surgery is over, and you’re headed back home. You get home and you’re a little hungry. And you’re wondering, what can I eat? Well, I’m here to tell you I’ve got you covered.
Hi. I’m Dr. Brett Langston. I’m an experienced prosthodontist and director of dental implant and aesthetic specialists in Brookhaven, Georgia. And I’m here to help you watch your mouth.
What to Avoid After Your Surgery
So before we talk about what you can eat, let’s talk about a couple of things you want to avoid so you won’t irritate the area right after surgery and so you can help the healing go better. Take care to only have cold drinks and definitely be careful after the numbness wears off. We don’t want you biting on your cheek or tongue thinking it’s something to eat. The worry is if you have hot foods, you might not be able to tell if you’re burning or traumatizing the tissue, so definitely wait until the anesthetic wears off before you start chewing and eating.
Do Not Probe or Touch the Area
It may seem like common sense but don’t probe the area with your finger or tongue. A lot of times with sutures. We want the tissue to stay close and not manipulated. So if you go in there, probing and exploring and looking around and grabbing your lip to pull it down and look in the mirror, you’re gonna rip the sutures and you’re gonna cause the healing to be delayed. Also, one thing to remember is for the first 48 hours, you want to avoid anything strenuous.
Avoid Strenuous Activity
So no going to the gym, no cycling classes, no yard work. Normal chores around the house are okay, but you just don’t want to get your heart rate up too high because extra blood pumping the heart rate can cause the area to cause damage and not let it heal properly. So the key thing to remember is why you’re healing from surgery, whether it’s a single tooth implant or whether it’s a full arts implant, extractions, or anything along those lines, soft foods are going to be the key for the first 24 to 48 hours.
Avoid Any Hard Foods
I know everybody wants to get back to eating and you want to test out if you have a new appliance. But the key thing with soft foods is that you’re not going to cause any more damage. If you eat something hard, whether it’s Nacho chips something with a hard edge, or crusty breads. A lot of times you can damage that tissue and you need to remember that right after surgery. That tissue is very vulnerable. So you need to protect it. And soft foods will definitely allow you to eat get the things you need without causing any damage. Nothing with small seeds or pits.
What Can You Eat?
So an everything bagel is nothing to you until you’re healed. So you may be wondering, what are some soft foods that I can eat? Some great things. Mashed potatoes, yogurt. Most fruit or applesauce. Now I know you’re not a baby, I know you’re not 80 years old, but Apple sauce does a great job of kind of soothing the area.
One thing I like to tell my patients is ice cream and Frosties from Wendy’s are great because not only are they cold, so they help kind of numb the area, but they’re very easy to eat. And they’re very tasty. But don’t get the peppermint one. You don’t want those little peppermint pieces in the healing sites.