No one looks forward to minor surgery. To get you through the ordeal of having wisdom teeth removed, you just keep thinking about when it’s over and you can get back to normal life. However, recovery may not be sunshine and roses if you try to resume your usual diet right away. In fact, if you eat what you shouldn’t, your progress could slow down or regress with problems and infections. So, what exactly should you do? What can and can’t you eat following wisdom tooth extraction? Keep reading to find out!
Immediately Following Surgery
When you arrive home after having wisdom teeth extracted, your body needs time to set itself up for proper healing. You will be instructed to keep gauze on the surgical site for up to a couple of hours, switching when necessary if it becomes too saturated with blood. At some point during this time, bleeding stops, and a blood clot needs to form over the site. This essential protective layer prevents bacteria from accessing the sensitive, vulnerable tissue underneath. Without this clot, you could suffer from painful complications.
While gauze is in your mouth, refrain from drinking or eating anything, especially if you still feel numb. You don’t want to accidentally bite your tongue, cheek, or lips or burn yourself with something hot. Instead, take a nap or relax in a reclined position, which allows your body to rest and focus its energy on repairing itself.
What’s Not Safe to Eat
You can’t heal if you don’t regularly fuel your body! After the blood clot is in place, your face is no longer numb from the anesthetic, and you’re due for pain reliever, you may consider eating or drinking, but you need to be careful about what you have.
For drinks, do not use a straw for at least 48 hours because the sucking motion, similar to that used for smoking, will force the delicate clot off the site, exposing you to infection. However, sips of water without a straw are beneficial.
Your mouth will probably have some amount of discomfort in the day or two following the surgery, so you should steer clear of hard or crunchy foods that could poke or harm your sensitive tissues. Gummy or chewy foods are also a no-go because they require forceful chewing.
Even if they are soft, spicy foods can irritate your healing gum tissue and upset your stomach, so it should be avoided for a couple of days as well.
What’s Safe to Eat
The list of foods you shouldn’t have may seem long, but you have plenty of soft foods you can enjoy as you recover from wisdom tooth extraction. For instance, you can eat yogurt, eggs, mashed potatoes, pudding, oatmeal, avocados, cottage cheese, applesauce, and thin soups. After a couple of days, you can start to branch out to slightly sturdier foods like pasta, bananas, and the like, and you can slowly build up to a normal diet as tolerated.
Recovering from surgery, even wisdom tooth extraction, doesn’t have to be devastating or awful. If you keep the site clean and take care of yourself by eating the right things, you can heal efficiently and get back to your life as soon as possible!
About the Practice
Williamsburg Dental prioritizes patient comfort and health in every appointment. During wisdom tooth extractions or other advanced procedures, we can offer nitrous oxide sedation to provide addition pain relief and relaxation. We will give you specific instructions for aftercare and check on you to make sure you’re healing well. If you have questions about recovering from wisdom tooth extraction, give one of our six locations a call!