What to Eat After a Dental Implant

After Dental Implants, We Can’t Just Eat What We Want

Unless patients get mini-dental implants, it takes some time to heal after dental implant surgery. Dental implants are placed into our bone. After the healing process, a crown is placed onto the post, either titanium or ceramic. Once the crown is placed, the dental implant is ready for optimal use, but until the crown is placed, patients must be aware that they are healing from dental implant surgery.

Although we are healing after dental implant surgery, we’re also human beings, which means we’ve got to eat. What to eat, and what to avoid, are important information that every person who will or has undergone a dental implant procedure must know.

Check out info on the foods to consumer and the foods to avoid!

Avoid these foods after a dental implant

Before getting into what foods to avoid, it does us no good if we don’t drink plenty of water. Water hydrates us better than anything else. More importantly? Water is like the oil that keeps our engines, our bodies, running. Without water, we can’t digest food properly. So, think about this when deciding to drink tea, fruit juice, or water.

We’re trying to heal after a dental implant. That means we need to digest whatever we put into our bodies. Fruit juice and tea, although tea is healthy, doesn’t necessarily help with digestion. Load up on water and stay hydrated. That’s the first thing to remember.

Now, check out foods we most definitely want to avoid:

• Hot foods – Here’s another reason not to drink tea. Cold most definitely helps the healing process more than heat. Heat is actually better for our muscles and joints, but our mouths are constantly hot as it is! So, the heat will only exasperate the healing process.
• Hard foods – Nuts should be avoided. Anything that takes effort to chew should be avoided. This makes sense. Our gums, bones, entire mouth is healing after surgery. The last thing it needs is to battle a grape-nut.
• Tiny foods – By tiny foods, we mean something as large as a sunflower seed and something as small as cracked pepper. Be careful of coffee grounds as well and consider taking the skin off the fruit if you decide to eat fruit. Fruit skins are tough. Apple skin can get lost between our teeth, under our gums, in all sorts of places in our mouths when we’re not trying to heal. It could be worse when we’re trying to heal.
• Spicy foods – Spicy foods are healthy. But, remember, we’re trying to heal. Cayenne pepper, serrano chilis, jalapenos, and habaneros, any type of hot spice can be painful when we’re trying to heal. It will be like sticking a hot poker into your dental implants. Not pleasant.
• Foods with added sugars – Corn syrup doesn’t aid in healing. Stay away from foods with added sugars.

Eating these types of foods after a dental implant is all good

Here are the type of foods that are okay to eat after implant surgery.

• Soft foods – This includes eggs and all types of baby foods.
• Steamed vegetables – Vegetables get soft after they’re steamed. Make sure to stick with the less fibrous part of the vegetable. For example, don’t eat broccoli stems. Even though stems soften after steamed, they’re still much more difficult to chew than broccoli florets.
• Crushed fruit – Even watermelon could be difficult to chew depending on how you feel. Apples? Forget it. Dentists around the world know that apples are a good way to kill plaque. Why? Because apples work your teeth! Crush apples before eating them.
• Natural foods – Stay away from processed foods as much as you can whether your healing or not.
• Probiotic foods – Most dairy products have probiotics. Probiotics help for digestion. Probiotics also help our overall oral health. Check out the various ways probiotics are healthy for us.

7 Best Foods for Dental Implant Recovery

If you stick to the above list, you’re going to heal much faster than if you don’t. Make sure, above anything else, that you stay hydrated and eat non-processed foods.

With that being said, here are 7 foods that most definitely will help you recover from dental implant surgery:

• Whole milk – Whole milk provides three of the four nutrients the USDA says U.S. citizens don’t get enough of: calcium, potassium, and vitamin D. vitamin D is essential to the healing process. Only three things naturally provide vitamin D: the sun, whole milk, and mushrooms. Without a doubt, the easiest way to get vitamin D is via the sun. But, there are other issues that come up if we sun bathe. So, drink whole milk.
• Eggs, meat, fish – Whole milk provides protein. Eggs provide more protein. There are 6 grams of protein in the average size egg. Eat three eggs a day and you get 18 grams of protein. You need protein to heal. Another thing eggs provide is vitamin B12, which is essential to blood flow. You need good blood flow when healing after any surgery. In addition to eggs, consider thinly sliced meat or steamed, broiled, or even baked fish. Fish, especially, can be soft enough for us to chew.
• Berries – Berries can be difficult to eat. If we crush berries, they most definitely help us heal. One thing to consider about berries, strawberries are the dirtiest food in the United States. If you decide to eat berries go with blueberries or raspberries. Blueberries are so powerful that they’ve been shown to heal a sore throat!
• Watermelon – Vitamin C is essential to the healing process. Get your vitamin C from watermelon instead of orange juice. Why? Orange juice is much more acidic than watermelon. Acid can irritate our mouths during healing. Watermelon is low on the acidity scale. It’s also refreshing, will hydrate us, and is easy to chew once crushed. It also has a lot of fiber. Check out all the other benefits of good old watermelon on Medical News Today.
• Yogurt and cottage cheese – Yogurt and cottage cheese contain a lot of probiotics. Probiotics are great for our digestive tracts, oral health, and overall health.
• Steamed kale and broccoli – Steam your vegetables so that they maintain their nutrients. Kale can especially help after dental implant surgery. Kale has high-levels of vitamin K. Vitamin K doesn’t get as much attention as other vitamins. However, it’s very important. Vitamin K helps our bodies absorb calcium. Remember, dental implants are placed into our jawbones. Vitamin K helps our bodies use the calcium to heal our jawbone.

Best Dental Implant Recovery Foods for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Here’s a good way to go about breakfast, lunch, and dinner after dental implant surgery.

Breakfast

2 to 3 soft-boiled eggs along with crushed watermelon and berries. Consider cornflakes in whole milk.

Lunch

Steamed, boiled, or baked fish. Thinly sliced meat, turkey, or chicken if you prefer. Cut all meat up into thin slices. Steamed kale or broccoli.

Dinner

Traditionally, we eat our largest meal at dinner time. This is due to American social norms more than what’s good for us. Lunch or breakfast should be the largest meal of the day. As a general rule, we don’t want to eat too much at night. We’re usually resting at night while our bodies are used to using the food we eat for energy.

With that being said, yogurt or a small bowl of cottage cheese for dinner is a good way to help our bodies. You can also eat crushed fruit and steamed vegetables for dinner.

It takes longer for our bodies to break down meat protein than protein from dairy products with probiotics. So, avoid meat at night if you can.

Thinking of Getting a Dental Implant Procedure in Costa Rica? Let Care Overseas Help!

If you are thinking of getting a dental implant procedure, or any dental procedure, you must consider Costa Rica. In addition to saving money, Costa Rica provides other benefits. It’s close to the U.S. mainland, which will save on travel costs. There’s also plenty to do in Costa Rica.

At Care Overseas, we believe everyone should have access to professional and affordable dental care. Our goal is to help U.S. and Canadian citizens find dental clinics and dentists in Costa Rica. We provide an end-to-end service. We help you get to our nation, find a place to stay while you’re here, and even provide tourism tips during your stay.

You can get quote on our site from one of our partner dental clinics. If you prefer to call a Care Overseas customer service specialist, our phone number is 866-778-2766.