What to Eat After Wisdom Teeth Removal

Wisdom teeth are the last adult teeth to come in during early adulthood. For most, their wisdom teeth are too large for their mouth. For these individuals, when their wisdom teeth come in it is often at an odd angle or pressing up against other teeth. Due to the numerous complications linked to wisdom teeth, dentists usually recommend most individuals have their cleveland wisdom teeth removed. If your dentist has recently recommended you need to have your wisdom teeth extracted, you may be wondering what exactly the procedure involves and what the recovery would be like.

Wisdom teeth extraction procedure

Wisdom teeth extraction is not necessary for everyone. But if your dentist recommends extraction, they will have a discussion with you to walk you through the procedure. The procedure is fairly straight forward and can be performed in just a few hours. In order to minimize pain and discomfort, your dentist will give you anesthesia prior to the procedure. Sometimes the wisdom teeth are impacted, which means they are not fully developed and do not break through the skin. If your teeth are impacted or partially impacted the dentist or oral surgeon will need to make small incisions to access the impacted teeth. If the teeth are not impacted, they will just need to be pulled like a normal tooth extraction. After all of the wisdom teeth have been removed your surgeon will clean the area and use stitches to close the wound.

What to eat after wisdom teeth removal

To help your mouth recover quickly, it is important to follow your dentist’s instructions on what to eat and not eat post-procedure. The best thing you can do is to be prepared and stocked up on good foods before you go into surgery. Immediately after the extraction, you will want to start with liquids and soft foods. This will not only help minimize pain but will also help keep the surgical area clean. Examples of liquid and soft foods include:

  • apple sauce
  • yogurt
  • smoothies
  • broths and soups
  • mashed potatoes
  • Jell-O, pudding, and ice cream

Two to three days after the procedure as your mouth starts to heal you can try more normal foods. Semi-soft foods are a good place to start and test to see if chewing is painful. Examples of good semisoft options include scrambled eggs, oatmeal, and toast. After about a week you should be able to return to normal eating.

What not to eat after extraction

In order to help your mouth heal quickly and avoid pain there are some foods that you should avoid following your extraction procedure. Any acidic foods, spicy foods, seeds, and any foods that are tough to chew should be avoided for at least a week or more after the procedure. Why? Grains and seeds can get caught in the empty tooth sockets causing pain and swelling. Foods that are difficult to chew can cause damage to the recovering tissue and delay healing.  Lastly, it is very important that you avoid smoking or using any type of tobacco for at least 3 days after the surgery to avoid complications.

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