What You Should & Shouldn’t Eat After Getting Dental Implants

Unlike any other tooth replacement option, dental implants restore your missing tooth both above and below your gumline. This gives it unmatched comfort, durability, and longevity. However, this also means that it requires oral surgery and time to heal. Here are a few tips about what you should and shouldn’t eat after getting your new dental implants in Lynchburg.

Eating After Dental Implants

Eating probably won’t be the first thing on your mind directly after your procedure. However, you’ll likely begin to feel hungry after the anesthetic begins to wear off, especially if you fasted before your treatment! If you can, it’s a good idea to wait to eat until you’ve regained all feeling in your mouth. You can easily burn or cut your mouth while eating if it’s still numb! To limit the amount of pressure on your healing tissues and make chewing easier, take small bites or cut your food into smaller pieces. As an added bonus, this will also help with digestion!

Smile-Friendly Foods for the Recovery Period

Eating a nutritious, balanced diet is always important, but it’s especially essential when you’re healing after getting dental implants. Vitamins and minerals play a key role in helping your body recover after surgery. However, it’s just as important that the foods you eat are soft enough not to irritate the implant site. Thankfully, there are plenty of soft, nutritious foods to choose from when picking your meals during the first few weeks of your recovery, like:

• Vitamin-rich broths and blended soups to help you stay hydrated while providing nutrients.
• Mashed pumpkins, potatoes, and bananas, as well as applesauce, avocados, or hummus, all of which contain a variety of important vitamins.
• Low-fat yogurt or cottage cheese, which may be able to help ease swelling.
• Scrambled eggs, salmon, and protein shakes, since protein can help speed up the healing process.
• Ice cream, smoothies, or banana ice cream, which can help numb your mouth, ease swelling, and keep you in high spirits!

Foods to Avoid Until You’ve Fully Healed

Eating the wrong foods after getting dental implants won’t just be uncomfortable. It can draw out your recovery period, cause more bleeding, and even lead to serious infection and possibly dental implant failure. As your mouth heals, be sure to avoid:

• Drinking anything through a straw, which can irritate the implant site.
• Varieties of smoothies, yogurts, and other foods that have small seeds or grains in them.
• Hard, crunchy snacks, which can cause pain and lodge small bits into the implant site.
• Sticky or chewy items that can tug on your implant or get stuck in between your teeth.
• Alcoholic beverages, which may disturb the wound and slow down the healing.

If you want your dental implant to stay healthy and in place for decades to come, it’s crucial that you take proper care of it during your initial recovery period. As long as you keep these tips in mind, you’ll be eating all your favorite foods again in no time! Talk to your Lynchburg implant dentist to discover if this state-of-the-art tooth replacement option is right for you!

About the Practice

Peery & Woolwine Family Dentistry is proud to offer dental implants to the smiles of Lynchburg, VA and the surrounding communities. Our dentists have completed extensive training and have years of experience, so every step of your dental implant process can be performed right here in our Lynchburg office. While our state-of-the-art technology provides precise treatment for a comfortable and successful procedure, we also offer sedation dentistry to help you feel at-ease as well. If you have more questions about the dental implant process, we can be contacted at our website or at (434) 847-5331.