Soft foods post-surgery

[mia137]

Thanks for all of this.

One major piece of advice I have is to avoid the processed foods and stick with as much natural, organic, fresh foods as possible. Obviously it's more important to get food down and anything is better than nothing, but the better the food you put in your body, the better and faster it will heal. If you're blending veggies, opt for fresh organic; if meat, try to find organic, grass fed meat and definitely avoid fast food and hot dogs; if nut butter, try to find natural organic without a bunch of fillers. Even things like ice cream - get real ice cream from a natural creamery if possible.

After my surgery, I plan to have fresh cold-pressed veggie juices delivered to help me get good nutrients. Depending where you live and your food budget this might not be an option and juicers are expensive, but you can cheat with a good veggie powder. I like Green Vibrance (great with apple juice or in smoothies) but there are tons of brands out there.

Again, if all you can get down is unhealthy food, this might be the lowest priority on your list, but eating well does wonders for a healing body. I've seen this go both ways multiple times.

[mia137]

I bugged my friend for great liquid recovery nutrition. Her first piece of nutrition advice for when I'm on all liquids was to mix fractionated coconut oil (the regular virgin coconut oil is great for smoothies but not liquid enough for pure liquid diet) with casein powder and good juice (I'm going to use the fresh cold pressed veggie juices I can get here). It's very nutritionally balanced and will help keep the weight on.

Fractionated coconut oil is primarily used for skin care so make sure you get a good, 100% natural one, that's pure enough to drink. She recommended Dr. Adorable brand.

My friend has not had jaw surgery but she was in an accident last year that resulted in a string of surgeries. Car lost control on a rainy day around a curve on a canyon road and slammed into her truck, totaling it. She was standing next to her truck and was crushed between the two cars from her hips down. She placed in an endurance mountain bike race sooner than when the doctors said she'd walking, and she credits it mostly to her nutrition and sleep schedule, so I'm listening to everything she says. She also said to be careful drinking the pure veggies juices on an empty stomach because she found that when her belly was sensitive from everything it made her a little queasy, but that mixing them with a little fat and protein helped.

[theman]

BOOST PLUS! It's easily the most substantial thing I've been eating (drinking?) since my surgery 10 days ago. 360 calories for 8 mL is a lot.

[casydee]

Does the Boost Plus taste ok? I've been loading up on meal replacement drinks, but there are so many different brands. I heard good things about the Special K protein shakes, too.

[boodles8]

I love oat bran made into hot cereal! I like it so much I haven't stopped even though I'm allowed to eat whatever. Well, I do eat other things, but I still eat oat bran hot cereal most days. It tastes like oatmeal, but the consistency is like cream of wheat.

1 cup milk or water, or half milk half water, whatever you like as long as it's a cup
1/4 to 1/3c oat bran
1/8 tsp salt

Put it all in the pot and bring it to a boil over medium heat. After it boils, keep cooking it for one minute. The minute of boiling does wonders to it. Add sugar and enjoy!

I sometimes add applesauce, or you could add jellies or other things to mix it up a bit. I often also add cinnamon.

I provided a range for the amount of bran because less makes a thinner cereal. If you like it thicker, you can add more.

Note, this recipe WILL NOT WORK WITH SYRINGES! The particles clog it up too much. It has to wait til no-chew or soft is allowed.

[LawStudentBraceFace]

Hey everyone!

I had seven extractions exactly a month ago.

All four wisdom teeth (two of which were impacted), an incisor and two pre-molars. I had them all at once and so the recovery was very hard for me. It took about four days for the swelling to go down and about two weeks to be able to eat real food.

In anticipation of the surgery, I stocked up on pudding, chicken noodle soup and yogurt. However, a few hours after surgery I realized that even swallowing the yogurt was going to be a big job for me (I was incredibly scared of getting anything at all in the wounds).

Finding Ensure protein shakes were the best thing that every happened to me. I probably would have starved if it hadn't been for these drinks. I was drinking 2-3 a day for about a week and a half. My only complaint is that on day 4 I had to go back to the doctor's because some of the ensure had found its way under my stitches. Figured that had happened because I woke up to swelling and a foul taste in my mouth.

Regardless, I still would suggest that anyone stock up on these drinks before surgery. If you can't get anything else down, you know you can at least drink these and that you're getting all the good stuff you need to help you recover the fastest.

Good Luck!

[LyraM45]

Hey, guys! Got an addition to this old thread. Hopefully it can help a few people out! I'm making a 'jaw surgery recipes' section to my website/blog. If anybody wants to check it out, take a look. Hopefully you see something yummy you can make for your recovery!

http://confessionsofametalmouth.weebly.com/

[DeadEye]

Thanks for the information! I'm having surgery too soon, and these forums seem to have alot of posts so I'll be reading here for a few days for some research

[MemeAimee]

I just had SARPE on the 16th, I was told to stay on a liquid diet for 3-4 weeks. This made me worried because the idea of blending whole meats and other foods REALLY grosses me out to the point of gagging! :O I tried to stay good on my diet so far, I had an abundance of Ensure, chocolate milk and fruit juices - but I was starving. So I asked my orthodontist if I could switch to some soft foods, and he said yes. So, now I eat mashed potatoes, potato salad, coleslaw, and any type of well-cooked pasta or macaroni salad. Anything that needs 0 to little chewing. Good luck to everyone getting Oral surgeries. <3

[DisneyNerd]

OMG yeah, Ensure is awesome. <3

[mameem]

wow! Im learning so much on this site

[kboykb]

Just to reiterate what many others have said, Ensure all day. It saved my life when I had my impacted wisdom teeth removed and couldn't stand even the slightest bit of pressure !

[katsface]

I've been making a concoction the past two days that's been awesome and super smooth. I don't have a gap at the back of my molars so everything I'm eating has to be able to sieve between my teeth and this new concoction is fitting the bill.

I'm using infant rice cereal with equal parts milk and homemade chicken stock, a little butter and cheddar cheese, salt to taste, and this time I mixed in an egg. I just microwave the whole thing in a cup and, stopping to stir about every 45 seconds. Then I wiz it in the blender for good measure, but it really doesn't need it. I think I could add in a little soft cooked bacon to make a kind of bacon egg and cheese effect too.

It's satisfying my salt/fat craving enough that I don't murder the people around me for eating potato chips.

[katsface]

Some more notes on what I've been eating lately:

Wish I made more chix stock and fewer soups before surgery. I can blend just about anything with chix stock and in addition to tasting great it ups the nutritional value some.

I've been eating a lot of baby food fruit purees lately becuase they are so easy. Ella's Organics have no additives so I prefer those, but there are some others that are pretty good too. I just tried Happy Tot coconut berry mix and it is FANTASTIC.

Pro Tip: Look for ones that are labeled for babies as young as 4 months if you have to have your food perfectly smooth. The ones for older babies have too much texture and could clog up your teeth depending on how you can eat. If you have a large space at that back of your molars where food can go through, this probably won't matter much but if you're sucking food through your teeth it gets very frustrating to eat anything that isn't perfectly smooth.

I ended up using the Zip-N-Squeeze bags for only the first 4 or 5 days after surgery. They were honestly probably more hassle than they were worth. They are very flimsy and thin plastic. My husband was afraid to put anything hot in them because the plastic seemed too delicate. The zips at the top are not that sturdy, and one of them burst on me after only one or two uses. They're also very difficult to squeeze unless they are pretty full. Imagine plastic a little thicker than a plastic grocery bag, and trying to squeeze liquid from the bottom of the bag to the top... not super easy. All in all, not worth the effort or money I put into getting them. I know others have had good experiences with them so, your mileage may vary.

[Lislap89]

I puréed up some homemade chili 4 days post op and drank out of a syringe. Best meal so far in my first week!