4 Tips for Eating with Dental Implants: Making Your New Teeth Last
Dental implant surgery can greatly improve your health and well-being after experiencing tooth loss. This gold standard for tooth replacement can effectively replace missing teeth with material that feels like your own teeth. One of the many benefits of dental implants is that they can last a lifetime if you follow some simple steps for eating after your surgery.
The highly trained and compassionate team at Periodontal Associates walks you through dental implant surgery — including how to best eat after surgery.
Why Is It Crucial to Eat Right for the First 24 Hours After Dental Implant Surgery?
If you follow the surgeon’s dietary recommendations within the first 24 hours after dental implant surgery, you will lay a vital foundation for helping your implants last.
1. What to Eat After the First 24 Hours
Here are the best foods to eat right after surgery:
- Follow a soft food diet: right after surgery a soft food diet allows the surgical area to heal. Soft foods are easy to digest, simple to swallow, and do not require much chewing.
- Eat the following fruits and vegetables: salad, baked fruits, canned fruit, applesauce, vegetables that are steamed, and fruit such as melons and bananas
- Consume these grains: soft cereal, bread, pancakes or waffles, rice, pasta noodles, and cooked cereals such as oatmeal or cream of wheat
- Eat protein-rich foods for healing after surgery: soft fish and chicken, scrambled or boiled eggs, baked beans, smooth peanut butter, or tofu
- Follow these dairy options: milk, cottage cheese, soft cheese that is thinly sliced, and Greek yogurt
- Eat 2 servings of protein, 5 servings of veggies and fruits, 2 servings of dairy, and drink 8-10 glasses of water
2. Foods to Avoid During the First 24 Hours
It is important to avoid these foods or habits during the first 24 hours after surgery:
- Seeds and nuts, chewy proteins like jerky, bacon, and sausage, whole grains that are loaded with fiber, hard fruits, and vegetables that are difficult to chew
- Gassy, fried, or spicy foods
- Hot beverages
- Rapid eating, trying not to hurry your meal. Make sure to avoid having any distractions while you eat.
- Spicy foods, which can cause inflammation
- Using a straw
- Smoking: it is important to limit smoking, which can slow the healing process
3. How to Eat After the First 24 Hours
Once the first 24 hours after surgery have passed, you can begin to transition back to your usual diet. Follow these recommendations at this point in time:
- Still consume soft foods for at least a couple of days until healing occurs. However, you can begin reintroducing regular foods back into your diet. The key is to slowly return to eating your typical diet over the course of 2 to 3 days after dental implant surgery.
- Even after you transition back into your regular diet, you need to continue to be careful with sticky, crunchy, or hard foods — especially around the area of your dental implants.
4. Establishing Permanent Eating Habits and Other Recommendations
2 to 3 days after your dental implant surgery, you will have slowly returned to the normal diet that you followed prior to surgery. However, it is still recommended that you follow some basic eating guidelines for the remainder of the time you have your dental implants.
What Eating and Other Habits Can Help You Permanently Care for Your Dental Implants?
To get the most out of your new dental implants, follow these recommendations to make them last:
- Avoid chewing hard foods like hard candy or ice. These can break the artificial teeth that are attached to your dental implants. These can also chip and/or damage your natural teeth as well.
- Limit or avoid tobacco products: tobacco can stain your new teeth, which can make them look older and more worn
- Avoid caffeine-containing products, which can stain your new teeth
- It is important to seek treatment for teeth grinding, which is involuntary and can cause damage to your implant
The Periodontal Associates Team Is Here for All Your Dental Implant Needs
The team at Periodontal Associates in Charleston, SC, offers you friendly, comfortable, and state-of-the-art service. Besides being caring and compassionate, we are also thorough and comprehensive. Our energetic team takes pride in caring for you as an individual and is here to help guide you along the way through the implant process.
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