“What foods should I eat after going to the dentist?”
I just went to the dentist this morning, and I was told that I shouldn't eat right away. Now the pain has subsided and I feel like i can eat, but are there foods that I should stay away from?
25 Answers
Follow the instructions your dentist gave you
You nailed the hat right on the hammer.you will have some discomfort and overtime that will fade away and you must go in periodically to your dentist to make sure they can adjusted properly for you. Do not try 2 help yourself because that will end up in a bad mess. You need to go to the dentist and have him make minor adjustments until things work out for both of you.
Yes, stay away from sugar and foods that contain sugar. Avoid sticky foods. You may eat vegetables, fruit, fish, chicken, other meats in moderation. Nuts are good in moderation.
There is no specific type of food patients should eat after finishing their dental treatment. However, for some procedures, like tooth extractions, your dentist will have specific instructions on which foods to avoid. In my experience, choosing what to eat before going to the dental office is actually often more important than what to eat after procedures.
Just because you are very numb after getting local anesthetic for your treatment, it’s better to eat after the numbness goes away. Depending also on what treatment you got done, the food options may vary. Soft foods are still the best choice after all kinds of dental treatments.
Dear patient,
Avoid eating nuts, spicy foods, and seeds 24 hours after visiting the dentist. You can eat soft foods.
Avoid eating nuts, spicy foods, and seeds 24 hours after visiting the dentist. You can eat soft foods.
Stay away from hard and sticky foods for a few days to let your mouth settle after dental surgery.
Okay! Since you didn’t mention what was the dental procedure that was done on you, I will go over several dental procedures and the foods you need to avoid.
Cleaning (regular and deep): if the mouth was irrigated with antibiotic rinse or fluoride application was applied, we ask the patient not to eat for 30 minutes.
For kids, if any work was done on the lower teeth because of numbness of the tongue, they tend to bite their cheeks and tongue, so no eating till the numbness goes away.
For surgeries, nothing too hot as it can induce bleeding. Also, for faster recovery, avoid sweets as bacteria thrive on sugary foods and your immune system instead of healing the surgical site, fights the bacteria.
If you had a crown preparation, avoid hard and crunchy food till you receive the final restoration (crown) as your tooth without the crown is fragile, and temporary crown is not as strong as the crown is.
For composites (white fillings), avoid the foods that have red colors and alcoholic beverages and generally the things that can stain your teeth for 2 days, the same thing applies for in office teeth-whitening procedure. For that one, you need to avoid coffee and tea as well for at least 7 days.
After crown delivery, avoid sticky foods for 2 days.
Cleaning (regular and deep): if the mouth was irrigated with antibiotic rinse or fluoride application was applied, we ask the patient not to eat for 30 minutes.
For kids, if any work was done on the lower teeth because of numbness of the tongue, they tend to bite their cheeks and tongue, so no eating till the numbness goes away.
For surgeries, nothing too hot as it can induce bleeding. Also, for faster recovery, avoid sweets as bacteria thrive on sugary foods and your immune system instead of healing the surgical site, fights the bacteria.
If you had a crown preparation, avoid hard and crunchy food till you receive the final restoration (crown) as your tooth without the crown is fragile, and temporary crown is not as strong as the crown is.
For composites (white fillings), avoid the foods that have red colors and alcoholic beverages and generally the things that can stain your teeth for 2 days, the same thing applies for in office teeth-whitening procedure. For that one, you need to avoid coffee and tea as well for at least 7 days.
After crown delivery, avoid sticky foods for 2 days.
Depending on the procedure that was done, we sometimes tell patients to avoid certain foods. For example, if it's a filling and you were numb ,we tell patients not to eat till the numbness goes away and after that are free to eat anything you are comfortable with. If, however, it was a root canal or a crown, we usually will have you avoid certain things that are crunchy or sticky that would damage the temporary fillings.
There should be no reason why your diet can not return to normal after a filling. As always, try to avoid sugary or sticky foods and drinks to maintain good overall dental health and especially avoid cavities.
It depends upon the procedure you had. If you just received a temporary crown, stay away from sticky foods and chew on the opposite side. Usually you can eat anything as long as you chew on the other side.
I good rule of thumb is soft foods for 24 hours. It really depends on the procedure you had done. Normally if there were any true concerns you would be given a written list of Post-op. instructions to take home. Just don't bite your cheek or tongue! lol
Actually you should eat anything you want. There is no such food you should stay away from after your dental visit.
Depends what procedure you had done...I would always recommend soft foods
You should be able to eat everything. Possibly avoid very acidic or spicy food.
After fillings it is recommended to avoid eating because you are still numb and hot things will burn you and you can chew on your cheek and tongue. Also it allows time for dental materials to set up. After the recommended time frame you should be able to eat whatever you want. This differs if it is due the pulling of a tooth at which point a long list of things should be avoided pending on the surgery.
This depends on what you had done. For example if you just had a cleaning, you aren't supposed to eat anything for 30 minutes because of the fluoride treatment. After 30 minutes you are good to eat whatever. If you had a filling or something that required getting numb, they may have told you not to eat right away because you. may chew on your cheek and not realize it because your are numb. In this case you can eat once the numbing wears off. If you had a tooth extracted, the above applies because you would be numb but also add that you shouldn't eat anything too hot or too cold for about 24 hours and nothing chunky like vegetable soup where you could get bits of debris in the socket.
Hello,
Great question. Without knowing what you had performed, I will try my best to answer.
If you had a cleaning and fluoride treatment, eating or drinking with 30 minutes won't give the fluoride time to break the matrix and exchange with the calcium in your teeth; fluoride helps make your teeth cavity-resistant.
If you had a crown preparation, if you had shouldn't eat anything sticky to displace the "temporary" restoration. This restoration helps to protect the tooth from sensation (the enamel layer was stripped away and the layer left contains the nerve, which is more open to stimuli,) protect the integrity of the work performed, helps the appearance of the tooth and keeps the tooth from shifting while you're waiting on your crown (if the tooth shifts, the crown may not fit, even after adjustments, and the procedure will have to be repeated.) If your temporary becomes displaced, report to your dentist immediately to have it replaced. If this isn't possible, your local pharmacy should carry dental temporary material until you can return.
If you were numbed, or had to take an injection for any reason, while eating, you may not be able to feel your tongue or lips and may mistakenly bite them. This is especially true for children.
Lastly, if you had an extraction, the most important thing is that the extraction needs to form a clot. A clot walls off the area to promote healing similar to a scab on your knee. Spicy foods can raise your blood pressure to disrupt a clot. Citrus acid and carbonated drinks can wash it away, as does hydrogen peroxide, salt water and mouthwash. Hot foods, such
as soup, and crunchy foods can irritate the site. Bottom line, if the clot is washed away, a "dry socket" can form; these are more uncomfortable than a toothache! Should this happen, go back to the treating dentist immediately.
Hope this helps. Good luck!
Great question. Without knowing what you had performed, I will try my best to answer.
If you had a cleaning and fluoride treatment, eating or drinking with 30 minutes won't give the fluoride time to break the matrix and exchange with the calcium in your teeth; fluoride helps make your teeth cavity-resistant.
If you had a crown preparation, if you had shouldn't eat anything sticky to displace the "temporary" restoration. This restoration helps to protect the tooth from sensation (the enamel layer was stripped away and the layer left contains the nerve, which is more open to stimuli,) protect the integrity of the work performed, helps the appearance of the tooth and keeps the tooth from shifting while you're waiting on your crown (if the tooth shifts, the crown may not fit, even after adjustments, and the procedure will have to be repeated.) If your temporary becomes displaced, report to your dentist immediately to have it replaced. If this isn't possible, your local pharmacy should carry dental temporary material until you can return.
If you were numbed, or had to take an injection for any reason, while eating, you may not be able to feel your tongue or lips and may mistakenly bite them. This is especially true for children.
Lastly, if you had an extraction, the most important thing is that the extraction needs to form a clot. A clot walls off the area to promote healing similar to a scab on your knee. Spicy foods can raise your blood pressure to disrupt a clot. Citrus acid and carbonated drinks can wash it away, as does hydrogen peroxide, salt water and mouthwash. Hot foods, such
as soup, and crunchy foods can irritate the site. Bottom line, if the clot is washed away, a "dry socket" can form; these are more uncomfortable than a toothache! Should this happen, go back to the treating dentist immediately.
Hope this helps. Good luck!
My advice is to call the dentist and ask for the post-op instructions regarding the dietary intake.
Two things come to mind that should have been explained. If the restoration the dentist placed required a secondary set they may have wanted you to postpone eating for a short period of time usually 4 to 6 hours to allow the set to cure. The second thing would be if they gave you a nerve block which numbs your tongue there could have been concerned that you might traumatize your tongue until the feeling came back usually 30 to 45 minutes. Sounds like they just didn't elaborate on why they needed you to wait
Hello,
First of all, I hope the procedure went well for you. If it was a filling, the only reason we recommend waiting to eat is due to the numbness. We don’t want you biting or burning your lip/cheek/tongue. You are more than welcome to eat soft foods immediately after a filling/crown/root canal, but we do recommend eating on the opposite side that you are numb.
If it was an extraction, we recommend the same timeline for numbness to go away, but I recommend eating on the opposite side of the extraction for 24 hours to give the trauma site initial time to begin healing. For extractions, try to avoid smoking, drinking through a straw, spitting, and blowing your nose hard for 48-72 hours to minimize the chance of dry socket.
Thanks,
Dr. Coe
First of all, I hope the procedure went well for you. If it was a filling, the only reason we recommend waiting to eat is due to the numbness. We don’t want you biting or burning your lip/cheek/tongue. You are more than welcome to eat soft foods immediately after a filling/crown/root canal, but we do recommend eating on the opposite side that you are numb.
If it was an extraction, we recommend the same timeline for numbness to go away, but I recommend eating on the opposite side of the extraction for 24 hours to give the trauma site initial time to begin healing. For extractions, try to avoid smoking, drinking through a straw, spitting, and blowing your nose hard for 48-72 hours to minimize the chance of dry socket.
Thanks,
Dr. Coe
It would depend on the procedure you had today. If you had a routine cleaning and check-up, there would not be any restrictions or limitations. If you had a filling, crown, etc., we would typically recommend soft foods for the first 24 hours.
It is always a good idea to wait until any numbness is completely gone before eating. After that, assuming you are not in the middle of treatment, enjoy.
That depends on the procedure that you had, Iam sure that your dentist will sure let you know. There are certain procedures that you can't eat for two hours and others, no hot food...etc
Thank you for your question. Really, this depends on the procedure you had at the dentist office. With routine white fillings, there are no restrictions, but use caution if your tissues are anesthetized.
