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Eating and Drinking Post Surgery
The First 24-48 Hours
During the first 24-48 hours, you should stick to a cool liquid diet, which means:
• Avoid any hot foods or beverages and consume only cool liquids instead.
• Do not drink through a straw or from a water bottle that requires suction, as this could put pressure on your implant site.
• Do not smoke or drink alcohol.
Eating a nutritious, balanced diet is always important, but it’s especially essential when you’re healing after getting dental implants. Vitamins and minerals play a key role in helping your body recover after surgery. However, it’s just as important that the foods you eat are soft enough not to irritate the implant sites.
Thankfully, with a planned soft dental diet there are plenty of nutritious foods to choose from when picking your meals during the first 24 – 48 hours after surgery
• Vitamin-rich broths and blended soups to help you stay hydrated while providing nutrients.
• Mashed pumpkins, potatoes, and bananas, as well as applesauce, avocados, or hummus, all of which contain a variety of important vitamins.
• Scrambled eggs, salmon, and protein shakes since protein can help speed up the healing process.
• Smoothies or banana ice cream, which can help numb your mouth, ease swelling, and keep you in high spirits!
So now, for the not so fun part of the process. Here is a list of foods to avoid during your recovery, we do advice to follow this guide as strict as ,possible to avoid any healing complications:
• Hot and spicy foods, they can cause irritation at your surgical sites, thereby slowing down your recovery. They could even increase your risk of infection. To stay on the safe side, it’s best to stick to warm or even room temperature foods and avoid anything that has been heavily seasoned with spices.
• Hard fruits and vegetables. Raw carrots and apples although nutritious are hard to chew so they should be avoided. Stick with soft alternatives like bananas and peas that offer the same levels of nutrition without being harmful to your teeth.
• Popcorn, and other crunchy snacks. Avoid popcorn, nuts and seeds or any other snack that can lodge in your surgical site, causing inflammation and discomfort.
• Sticky or chewy sweets. Stay away from sweets especially those with caramel or taffy. They tend to adhere to teeth and may dislodge a temporary restoration. If you need something sweet, choose a fruit protein shake.
• Alcohol, if you are in the habit of occasionally enjoying a glass of wine or a nice cocktail, you will have to put that custom on hold following your dental implant surgery. Alcohol can slow down healing and contribute to increased swelling. It could even have dangerous interactions with your post-op pain medications.
It is best to avoid drinking through a straw, you may get a dry socket caused by a blood clot. This can prolong healing, so sip from the glass to avoid this issue. After a few weeks, the sites will heal and improve so you can start using a straw again.
You might think eating only ice cream and pudding after implant surgery is an ideal plan. However, eating a balanced soft diet will make you feel better, providing your body all the vitamins and proteins it needs to heal more quickly.
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