What Can I Eat After Dental Implant Surgery?
One of the many questions we receive prior to a patient undergoing surgery for a dental implant in Richmond is “What can I eat after my surgery?” It’s important after surgery that the implant site isn’t disturbed or there’s a chance that stitches could get pulled out and the implant may get dislodged. However, it’s only natural that you’ll want to start eating once more, and indeed it’s essential that your body receives the nutrients that it needs to heal and recover from surgery.
It’s important to stick to eating soft food for 5-7 days after implant surgery. However, this doesn’t mean that you have to put everything into a blender and mash it up like baby food. There are a variety of soft foods that you can consume in your diet, and you should also speak to your dentist about any special requirements in the first day or two after surgery. Meanwhile here are some ideas for a tasty well balanced soft food diet.
Dairy
As the majority of dairy is already soft, it’s easy to include this into your diet. Choose soft spreadable cheeses like Philadelphia, or soft cheeses such as Brie and melt harder cheeses like Cheddar to have on top of food. Yoghurt is another simple option which is healthy and easy to eat. Try and include plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables such as spinach and kale, milk and yoghurts into smoothies which you can drink with a straw to obtain multiple nutrients. For an extra special treat you could mix up a milkshake using milk, fruit, and a scoop of ice cream.
Protein
It’s important that you get your protein intake but using meat for this can be difficult when you’re on a soft food diet. Instead you could try fish, such as tuna, salmon, and halibut which is rich in protein and could be lightly seasoned with salt and pepper and simply grilled with a knob of butter. Eggs are another good option and are soft however you cook them. An omelette or scrambled eggs is a good dish to have because you can add other ingredients like chopped vegetables or cheese, to make it tastier. Other protein options are beans which could be mixed with vegetables and rice to make a complete meal.
After the first week you can gradually introduce harder foods but wherever possible, try and eat on the opposite side to where your implant is. It’s always best, however, to err on the side of caution in these early days following surgery, and avoid any obviously hard crunchy foods such as nuts and boiled sweets until your dentist is happy that your implant has fully healed.
It’s also extremely important that you attend all of your scheduled follow-up visits as it gives your dentist a chance to monitor progress and to spot any early problems. You’ve invested a lot of money into your dental implant in Richmond, so it makes sense to take care of it.
If you’re considering dental implants in Richmond then here at Sheen Dental we’ve been placing dental implants for a great number of years and have hundreds of satisfied customers. Why not come and talk to us to find out how dental implants could benefit you. We offer a free consultation with Dr. Harmit Kalsi which you can arrange by contacting us online at www.sheendentalimplants.co.uk or by phoning us direct on 020 8876 5277