Your mouth will be sore for a couple weeks after having your wisdom teeth removed. While this may tempt you to live on a liquid diet, the fact is that you can eat soft foods without increasing your pain levels. If you are getting ready to have your wisdom teeth pulled in the near future, you need to stock up your fridge ahead of time. Here are the top five foods to eat after wisdom teeth removal.
Ice Cream
For this one time, we’re giving you an excuse to eat ice cream. The cooling sensation that ice cream offers will feel great on your aching gums. You can eat ice cream of any flavor, but try to avoid anything with hard pieces inside. Almonds, chocolate chips, and peanut butter cups will not be pleasant to bite into. If you’re in the mood for a different kind of desert, try Jell-O or pudding as an alternative to ice cream.
Protein Shakes
Protein shakes may not exactly be food, but they have all of the basic nutrients your body needs in them. While these should not be considered long-term meal replacements, they can help supplement your diet while you are eating mostly soft foods. Products like Boost and Carnation Instant Breakfast are full of healthy nutrients that will help your body heal faster in the end. Get these ready to go in your kitchen.
Soup
Soup is the go-to food when you’re feeling too sick to chew, and it is full of wonderful nutrients your body may be craving. You can get a wide variety of soups to eat during different parts of the healing process. Start with something completely creamy, like tomato soup or cream of mushroom, and then work your way up to something chunky, like chicken noodle or clam chowder. When you feel up to it, add some crackers in the mix that you can soak in the soup to soften.
Macaroni and Cheese
Macaroni and cheese is a classic American dish loved by kids and adults alike. It’s soft, tasty, filling, and gentle on sore teeth. You will need to do a little chewing to get this down, so you might want to wait until the ending stages of your healing before fixing this up. Test out some different types of macaroni and cheese before you go in for surgery so you’ll know what you like when you get out.
Mashed Potatoes
Mashed potatoes are incredibly versatile. They can be flavored in a million different ways and come out tasting great every time. Try to reserve eating mashed potatoes for lunch or dinner as they tend to be more filling than a lot of the other foods on this list. You can use different varieties of potatoes to make this aspect of your meal, just to have a change of pace. The more creative you are with your post wisdom teeth foods, the better off you will be.