Foods To Include in Your Recovery Following Oral Surgery

Patients prepared for oral surgery typically experience a quick and successful recovery. Your dietary needs following oral surgery depend on your overall health, the surgery, oral function impact, and the expected healing period. A liquid or soft food diet is typically required for a few days following your oral surgery. Hill County Oral Surgery recommends choosing nutrient-rich foods like fruits, vegetables, protein, and dairy. These food types provide the necessary nutrients and vitamins required for optimal healing.

The pain, swelling, and bleeding after oral surgery will limit your food intake because of difficulty chewing and swallowing. During your recovery, you should only choose soft foods to include in your diet. These soft foods are easy to prepare by mashing, moistening, pureeing, or grounding, giving your body the essential nutrients it needs to heal.

Here at Hill Country Oral Surgery, we recommend that you stick to the following foods that will have you back to normal in no time.

Soft Foods to Eat After Oral Surgery

Your surgeon may suggest a soft food diet following the below procedures:

These procedures frequently require patients to limit food intake to soft foods and don’t bite or chew with the treated dental area for a period. In addition, the American Association of Endodontists recommends patients avoid biting or chewing after a root canal, allowing the tooth to heal and a crown is in place.

The best place to begin your recovery food intake is with liquids.

Start with Liquids

Oral swelling after surgery may prevent you from chewing solid and semi-solid foods. The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons recommends daily drinking 48-64 oz of liquids. These liquids should not include caffeine beverages like coffee, soda, and tea.

Flavored gelatins and juices extracted from fruits and vegetables are appropriate. Other suitable liquids include yogurt, milk, smoothies, shakes, tapioca, and protein drinks. Avoid alcohol and cold water, and don’t use a straw as it may increase your discomfort.

Soups

Soups made from vegetables and meats are easy to prepare. They will give your body the necessary nutrients to remain healthy and recover. We recommend soups like tomato, pumpkin, chicken noodles, and celery. Avoid soups with large, hard vegetables that require chewing and may be difficult to swallow.

Next, you can move to grains and bread, then fruits and vegetables and Protein-based foods.

Grains and Bread

Soft bread and grains, including white bread, wheat bread, flatbread, and flour tortilla, are excellent after surgery. In addition, grains like oatmeal, cream of wheat, rice, pasta noodles, and saltines are also suitable foods.

Other choices include polenta, congee, nut butter, ramen noodles, soft pastry pies, risotto, peas, mashed beans, waffles, and semolina dishes.

Fruits and Vegetables

Well-cooked vegetables and canned fruits are excellent foods after surgery. Also, soft fruits and vegetables that are easy to chew and swallow, like bananas, avocados, mashed potatoes, and cooked spinach, give ample dietary vitamins and nutrients.

Other suggestions include boiled sweet potatoes (or mashed), baked apples or applesauce, beets, canned carrots, and au gratin potatoes.

Protein-Based Foods

Your body will need plenty of protein to heal. We recommend soft protein-based foods after oral surgery because they will cause less stress on the teeth, jaw, and throat.

These include broiled, stewed, baked, or chopped lean beef, tuna, tofu, salmon, and chicken. Other acceptable protein-based foods include scrambled eggs, meatloaf, fish, pulled pork, and liver.

Dairy

Many dairy foods are easy to consume after oral surgery. These include custard, yogurt, plain ice cream,  cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, milkshakes, mild cheese, cream cheese, and milk.

Other Considerations

The food and beverage temperature, hot or cold, is also vital to consider. For example, consuming hot drinks while healing from tooth extraction can irritate gum tissue and complicate recovery. Instead, focus on foods that are warm, not piping hot. In addition, stick to colder foods, like yogurt, until your surgeon allows you to expand your dietary options.

It is crucial to avoid the following foods for the first week after surgery to avoid discomfort and delayed healing:

  • Citrus juices
  • Spicy foods
  • Foods like deli meats and steak that are difficult to chew
  • Crusty breads, bagels, cookies
  • Crunchy foods like pretzels, popcorn, and potato chips
  • Alcoholic beverages

On the day of your surgery, we recommend starting with clear fluids (broth, tea, juices, and Jell-O). Then, as the healing processes, gradually introduce more substantial foods.

Next Steps

Hill Country Oral Surgery provides some of Austin, TX’s best oral surgery procedures and patient care. If you are considering oral surgery in Austin, TX, and would like more information, we invite you to contact us today for a consultation!