Another year, another dental insurance plan, another dental surgery!
When I tell people that — thanks to genetics — I don’t have wisdom teeth, they always crow about how lucky I am.
Ehhh… not so much.
While it’s true that I’m grateful I never had to have impacted molars removed, I’ve had a slew of other dental problems over the past three decades. I have hypodontia so I’m missing several teeth that I should have, and my remaining teeth are laden with issues.
I’ve had braces four (yes, FOUR) times, extractions (baby teeth fused to my jawbone), bone grafts, implants… you name it, and as long as it isn’t wisdom tooth removal, I’ve had it performed. I’ve had more bottles of that medicinal mouthwash prescribed than you can count.
So, my latest procedure? Gum grafting! Guys, lemme tell ya. NOT FUN. The periodontist had to cut an inch-long incision in the roof of my mouth to scrape out tissue to add to two places along my bottom jaw.
Plus, I’m a redhead. So local anesthesia just… doesn’t work on me.
Seriously… NINE shots of Novocaine and I could still feel the sutures going into my face. Argh.
Anyway. While the dental procedures suck enough, what’s even harder is being hangry and grumpy and relegated to liquid and soft foods for two weeks.
In the past, I’ve always just ordered egg drop soup every day for weeks on end(it’s funny that I’ve had enough of these procedures done now that I have a literal post-dental-work routine) but with quarantine still in full effect, I decided to switch it up and try making some new periodontist-approved post-dental-surgery dishes. Plus, I’m old now, and if I don’t eat things like green vegetables, my body protests. I can no longer survive on mashed potatoes alone.
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Iced coffee. You have to be really careful to avoid eating foods and drinking beverages that are too hot. I played it safe and mixed cold brew with oat milk.
Brothy and creamy soups. If you’re buying soups, you have to be really careful about what the ingredients are. It’s recommended to avoid spicy foods because capsaicin can irritate the healing process, and small grains like rice and quinoa can get stuck in your stitches. So… cream of mushroom soup is fine, but mushroom and wild rice soup is not. Tomato soup is OK, but chili is not. It’s honestly a lot safer to just make your own soups so you know what’s going into them.
Like I said… egg drop soup is my go-to after dental surgery. Make it at home so you can avoid using too much sodium. It’s cheap, easy and filled with protein. I also made both cold cucumber soup and asparagus soup, because it’s hard to get vegetables into a liquid/ soft food diet. I bought tomato soup and butternut squash soup from Imagine and Pacific because I’ve had both brands before and know they’re not going to harm my healing process.
Soup photo break!
Smoothies. Really crucial note here: You have to avoid fruits with hard seeds that can get stuck in your stitches. So no strawberries, raspberries, etc. I went with a combination of almond milk/ banana/ peanut butter or almond milk/ mango/ spinach to get protein and vegetables into my diet.
Soft dairy products. I can’t bring myself to eat things like brie without crackers, BUT, I did eat cottage cheese and greek yogurt (separately) topped with seedless and finely-diced fruits like peaches, pineapples, (cooked) apples and pears.
Oatmeal. You’re not allowed to eat rice, bread, quinoa or most grains after surgery, but overly-cooked plain oatmeal is OK. (Just avoid steel-cut oats or anything that doesn’t get completely mushy after cooking.) I topped mine with bananas and peanut butter OR seedless fruits and honey OR applesauce and cinnamon.
Eggs scrambles and omelettes. I ate so many eggs during these two weeks. Like I said, though… no spicy foods allowed. So, skip the Cholula. You can add soft foods to your omelettes and scrambles, like seedless tomatoes, soft avocados and cooked onions. I think I ate an egg-and-avocado scramble every single day.
Kiddie foods! OK this is your ONE excuse to go all out and buy the pudding snack packs and Jell-O containers and ice cream and push pops and applesauce and ALL THE OTHER FOODS that you ate as a kid. I personally devoured pudding and ice cream on a daily basis and I have no shame. Just make sure your ice cream doesn’t have add-ins that could potentially get stuck in your open wounds.
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So, there ya have it. There are — of course — tons more soft foods you can eat, like mashed potatoes and pasta and hummus and whatever small teething children eat, but this is just a fairly comprehensive list of what I ate.
Honestly it’s just that I still can’t bring myself to eat potatoes after my Peace Corps service.
