Foods to Include in Your Recovery Following Oral Surgery

The pain, swelling, and bleeding after oral surgery will limit your food intake because of difficulty with 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.

For more information on oral surgery including tooth extraction, jaw surgery, implant surgery, and more book a consultation with one of our expert oral surgeons in Austin and Buda, TX through our online form. While you’re here take a look at our before and after transformations in our gallery.

Soft Foods to Eat After Oral Surgery

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 drinking 48-64 oz of liquids daily. 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. Try to avoid alcohol and cold water, and don’t use a straw when drinking 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 noodle, and celery. Try to avoid soups with large, hard pieces of vegetables that require chewing and may be difficult to swallow.

Grains and Bread

Soft bread and grains are excellent after surgery, including white bread, wheat bread, flatbread, and flour tortilla. 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 and mashed beans, waffles, and various 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 protein-based foods that are acceptable include scrambled eggs, meatloaf, fish, pulled pork, and liver.

Dairy

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

Next Steps

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