Are you scheduled for wisdom teeth extraction, dental implants, or another type of oral surgery? Preparing for dental surgery often involves considering what you'll be able to eat during the recovery period. After your surgery, adhering to a soft food diet is crucial, focusing on foods that are easy to chew and swallow. This article provides a comprehensive list of soft foods to eat after dental surgery, dental implants, or wisdom teeth extractions. These foods are also suitable for patients undergoing periodontal surgery.
Why a Soft Food Diet is Necessary After Dental Surgery
Following a tooth extraction, it’s essential to eat soft foods to protect the healing site, prevent irritation, and encourage proper blood clotting. It’s essential to watch what you eat after dental surgery in order to ease pain and heal as quickly as possible. Simple extraction involves removing a visible tooth using forceps. Surgical extraction is more complex and is typically required for impacted teeth, such as wisdom teeth. After a tooth extraction, stick to a soft food diet and take proactive steps to prevent complications.
General Guidelines for a Soft Food Diet
A soft food diet refers to food that is soft in texture, low in fiber, and easy to digest. This way of eating is sometimes called a gastrointestinal (GI) soft diet. The purpose is to choose foods that are easy to chew and swallow.
Your doctor may recommend following a soft food diet in certain situations, including:
- Post-surgery, especially if you’ve had surgery (or radiation therapy) on your mouth, head, neck, or stomach.
- Digestive issues like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), ulcerative colitis, diverticulitis, or diverticulosis.
- Difficulty swallowing (dysphagia).
“You’ll need to follow this diet for as long as your healthcare provider recommends,” says registered dietitian Julia Zumpano, RD, LD. “It could be for several weeks, days, or months depending on the reason the diet was prescribed.”
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While you’re limited on what to eat, the goal is to still follow a balanced diet.
Foods to Enjoy on a Soft Food Diet
When adhering to a soft diet, focus on the following foods:
- Protein: Chicken, turkey, ground meats, tender cuts of beef and pork, fish, eggs, creamy nut butters, and tofu. Make sure you’re still getting plenty of protein after your dental surgery. If needed, mix some protein powder into a milkshake or smoothie.
- Fruits: Bananas, avocados, seedless melon, peeled apples, peaches, and pears, or fruit juice without pulp.
- Vegetables: Potatoes without skin, well-cooked or canned vegetables without skins or seeds, tomato paste, olives, and vegetable juice.
- Cereal and Grains: Dry or cooked cereals, white rice, and pasta.
- Breads: Plain white bread, plain crackers, and graham crackers.
- Dairy: Cow’s milk, nondairy milk, kefir, cheese, and yogurt.
- Desserts: Plain ice cream, sherbet, pudding, and gelatin.
- Condiments: Sugar, honey, jelly without seeds, mayo, smooth mustard, and soy sauce.
- Oils, Butter, and Spices: Oils, butter, margarine, ground spices, herbs, and salt.
Foods to Avoid on a Soft Food Diet
While you’re on a soft food diet, try to avoid:
- Tough Fibrous Proteins: Meats with gristle, meat with casings (hot dogs, sausage, and kielbasa), lunch meats with whole spices, shellfish, beans.
- Nuts and Seeds: All nuts, seeds, and chunky peanut butter.
- Certain Fruits: Dried fruits, coconut, frozen or thawed berries, fruit juice with pulp, and jams or jellies with seeds.
- Certain Vegetables: Raw or lightly cooked vegetables, including Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, onions, corn, dark leafy greens, and pickles or sauerkraut.
- Certain Cereals and Grains: Bran cereals, granola, brown or wild rice, whole-grain pasta, barley, quinoa, and popcorn.
- Breads: Breads made with whole-grain flour, raisins, nuts, or seeds.
- Desserts: Desserts made with nuts, dried fruits, and fruits with seeds.
- Whole Spices: Whole spices like peppercorns, cloves, anise seeds, and fresh herbs.
- Carbonated Beverages
- Acidic Juices: Be cautious with orange juice (OJ) or any other acidic juices.
“These foods can irritate your digestive system when it’s trying to heal or if it’s inflamed,” says Zumpano. “The goal of a soft diet is to provide foods that are easy to digest to allow the digestive system (from your mouth to your colon) to heal and rest while still providing you with good nutrition.”
Specific Food Ideas After Dental Surgery
Sarasota Dentistry has compiled a list of foods to eat following dental surgery, dental implants, or wisdom teeth extractions. Any of the foods to eat after dental surgery listed below can be liquified using a blender - our favorite is the Vita-mix. These liquifying blenders can also make a variety of flavorful, healthy drinks or smoothies which can include raw vegetables that are extremely helpful in the healing process. It may not sound good, but Dr. Michael’s kids actually drink raw spinach in their smoothie and they like it!
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Here are some ideas on what you can eat that falls into the soft foods category. Some dishes are more popular depending on the season.
Additional Tips for Following a Soft Food Diet
While you’re on a soft food diet, Zumpano offers some additional advice:
- Pay attention to your fiber intake. Pick foods that contain less than 2 grams of fiber per serving. Once your symptoms resolve, begin to slowly add fiber-rich foods back into your diet. “Add one new food into your diet every two to three days to watch for gut upset,” suggests Zumpano.
- Focus on chewing. Chew all foods slowly to a mashed potato consistency. The more you chew your food, the easier it will be for your body to digest it.
- Eat throughout the day. Continue to eat every few hours during the day. You may feel more comfortable eating four to six meals daily rather than three large meals.
- Stay hydrated. Drink at least eight cups of fluid every day. Also, drink lots of water to stay hydrated and help reduce swelling after your oral surgery. “You can count pudding, ice cream, sherbet, frozen fruit pops, soup and gelatin as fluids,” says Zumpano.
- Food Temperature: All food and drinks need to be room temperature to cool. Avoid anything hot for the first 24 hours.
Other Food-Related Tips to Keep in Mind After Dental Surgery
- On the day of surgery, begin with clear fluids (juice, broth, tea) and progress slowly to more substantial soft foods. Remember, it is important to maintain nutrition for optimal healing to occur.
- Don’t drink through a straw. This could cause a blood clot to come loose.
- Be sure to rest and take it easy for the first few days.
- Do not consume foods that require you to chew.
- Moisten dry foods with soup, broth, gravy, butter or margarine, or sauce.
The Importance of Protein
It’s essential to watch what you eat after dental surgery in order to ease pain and heal as quickly as possible. Make sure you’re still getting plenty of protein after your dental surgery. If needed, mix some protein powder into a milkshake or smoothie. Eat high protein, high calorie foods to speed up healing time.
Things to Avoid
- Over-the-counter Mouth Rinse: It’s not a food but patients commonly use mouth rinses such as Listerine or Scope following a dental surgery and it significantly interferes with healing so it’s worth mentioning.
Addressing Other Oral Health Issues
You know that what you eat directly impacts your health, and that includes the health of your teeth and gums. But it can work the other way around too. If you have an orthodontic appliance, such as braces, or have had certain dental problems or procedures, the health and comfort of your teeth and gums can directly impact what you eat.
- Any food that you need to bite into to eat is prime for breaking braces. You can get around this by cutting the food, such as corn off the cob or rib meat off the bone, or slicing apples and chopping carrots into small, bite-size pieces. You may also experience problems eating after your braces are tightened-teeth may feel sore.
- There is no cure for canker sores but you may be able to reduce how often you get them by avoiding foods that irritate your mouth. Spicy foods, acidic foods like pickles and sauerkraut, and citrus fruits can cause irritation.
- Dry mouth is not a normal part of aging. If you have dry mouth, talk to your dentist or doctor. Dry mouth can be a sign of certain diseases or can be caused by certain medications or the result of medical treatments.
Long-Term Nutritional Needs
Your nutrition and dietary needs following oral surgery or getting implants depends on factors including your nutritional status prior to your procedure, the extent of your procedure, how much impact there is on oral function and how long your recovery is expected to last. A liquid or soft foods diet may be required for a few days or longer, until your mouth heals. Chewing problems may be caused by tooth loss, gum disease, cavities and ill-fitting dentures, so your first step should be a visit to your dentist to help determine the cause of your problem. Swallowing problems can occasionally happen, but if it persists, talk to your doctor since it could be related to something serious. Depending on level of swallowing difficulty, the following foods may be included in the diet. For 3-5 days only soft foods after surgery to allow the surgical site to heal.
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