ORAL SURGERY — so much for having teeth.
What I learned, ate, and what I wish I knew beforehand.
Okay, first let’s tackle the obvious — I am not a medical professional — please seek medical/dental advice if you are in pain — that said I did have three wisdom teeth and one molar removed on the same day.
Below I’ll tell you all about what I ate during doctor-prescribed bed-rest and some of the things I wish I knew beforehand.
I wasn’t “prepared.”
You’ll have a lot of time on your hands…that is…when you’re not knocked out from the surgery.
Since I couldn’t eat or drink anything past the midnight before my surgery I was excessively hungry leading up to it. What made it worse was having someone tell me that I couldn’t eat or drink.
Now, you may have had the luxury of going to bed the evening before your surgery but I work overnights and by the time I made it to my shift I was pleading with the clock to slow down.
Already feeling my stomach grumbling ten minutes to twelve I decided to ask a coworker if it would be so bad to have a bite of something or even a sip of water after the stroke of midnight.
She’s studying medicine but she’s also had some wisdom teeth removed. She said unless I wanted my stomach pumped then I should listen to direction. I groaned and swallowed as many almonds as I could while the clock edged forward. Apparently the point of not eating or drinking is so that the passage is clear for the dentist and techs to do their job properly. Honestly, the last thing I wanted was to add another procedure to my bill, so I stomached the pain and muscled through my shift.
If you work overnights like me, consider requesting not just recovery days but the night before your surgery too. This way you can go to bed and not even worry about eating past midnight.
I was famished by the time my surgery came around the next morning. Couple that with my anxiety of what might happen while I’m under, I was a wreck on the inside, bordering on nauseous. However, once the surgery was finished I forgot all about my hunger.
All it took was the after effects of the meds they used. Not to mention the discomfort of a swollen face, drool, blood, and an incredible urge to sleep. I didn’t feel any sort of hunger until the following day, despite not having eaten for over twelve hours.
All wrong.
I was told I was an idiot for not buying groceries beforehand.
The reason why people say this is is because you’ll be so out of it after your surgery that you won’t be able to function enough to make yourself food, let alone drive a vehicle to get to the grocery store. (And honestly you shouldn’t be driving anywhere on the medicine they give you. No heavy machinery either.)
I felt guilty for this at first. Like I made some sort of grand mistake, but I’m here to tell you that it worked out okay. In fact I would recommend only having certain foods in your home and not to do a full shopping trip until after your surgery. Had I gone shopping before my surgery I would have gotten it all wrong.
Not all surgery is the same. And what your dentist recommends for you might be different for someone else.
Luckily, before the surgery, I had informed my nurse that I was vegan and she came up with a list of foods I could prepare.
I’m glad I didn’t overspend on the foods I wasn’t too keen on eating anyway (like meal replacement drinks). However, I do regret not buying three pints of vegan ice cream.
Foods you should have in your home before surgery.
Note — The amount you have of these items should coincide with how many times you normally eat a day, your level of physical activity, and how long your doctor placed you on a liquid diet. I normally eat two large meals and three snacks throughout the day. Roughly 1600–1800 calories. My doctor placed me on a liquid diet for three days.
Ice cream. The flavors should be smooth, nothing chewy or crunchy because you won’t be able to bite or chew and you don’t want to risk any food messing with your blood clots or sutures.
Food for smoothies. Bananas, spinach, berries, mango chunks, or frozen fruit. I even used frozen cauliflower once. The point is to make sure the foods are blended down to a smooth texture. You can also buy almond milk or whichever milk you normally use for smoothies. Water works too. I used both water and almond milk.
There isn’t much you can eat when the doctor say liquids. It really means JUST liquids.
Soup or broth that you don’t mind having at room temperature. I wasn’t allowed anything hot. Personally if you enjoy vegetable broth plain then go right ahead but I stayed away from it. Tomato soup, however, would have been a great choice even at room temperature. I wish I had thought of tomato soup.
Coffee. [This item you don’t really need in your pantry. But it’s coffee, c’mon.]
I was allowed coffee as long as it wasn’t hot but I knew that coffee wouldn’t have had the nutritional value that a smoothie or water would provide and so I didn’t consume any until the fourth day.
The main goal is to heal. If you get a feeling that what you’re eating isn’t going to speed up that healing then you should listen to yourself. For me that meant giving up coffee for a few days.
Water. [I drank tap, but if you can’t have tap, bottled water or filtered water will do.]
Before I had my surgery I was consuming about 60 oz of water daily which is still less than the recommended amount of 64 oz. However, I was working my way up to 75 oz because I knew the benefits of drinking more water for muscle development. And so, before the surgery, some days I logged in 80 oz of water.
Water played an extremely important role in my healing. It kept the headaches at bay, it helped me feel full during my liquid diet, and it allowed me to sleep better and for longer.
Not to mention it soothed the inside of my cheeks which felt sore from the surgery and cold from the ice packs I had to wear.
So what did I eat.
Smoothies for three days straight.
Note — I don’t own a blender. I own a smoothie maker which is over five years old and only has three pieces left to it. But it works and that’s what matters. If you happen to have a blender that can crush down dense foods then you can practically eat anything, just in soupy form.
My smoothie was one banana, one cup of spinach, and either four pieces of frozen mango or four pieces of frozen blackberries. Plus a packet of natural sweetener depending on the fruit I chose. I used almond milk and water for my smoothies.
I counted down day four to the minute. On day four, I was ready to eat mashed potatoes and some soft tofu. This doesn’t sound appealing at all to me now that I’m recovered from surgery but after three days of just liquids, trust me when I say it was a god send to have something with a different texture. Oh and did I mention I was eager to eat salt. Yum.
Note — I am of a mind to believe that the reason I looked slimmer during my liquid diet was because I couldn’t consume any salt, beans, broccoli, anything that would normally give me that bloated look. Or stay in my digestive tract. But as soon as I could eat a bit more regularly I put that “look” of weight back on.
Did I do good, Doc?
By day seven it was time for my check up with my dentist to make sure that everything was going okay.
To my surprise and yet secretly to my satisfaction my dentist literally used the word “wow” when I opened my mouth.
He mentioned that I was healing surprisingly fast. I wasn’t humble about it at all (not sorry) because I was taking great care of myself, not just with my diet but making sure to change my ice packs regularly (as annoying as they were), taking my medications, avoiding the foods I was told to avoid, and drinking plenty and plenty of water.
A simple recipe?
You see the list I was given with directions, which included foods allowed and what to do, was pretty straightforward. Think of it as a full proof plan, the more you adhere to it the odds are you’ll be successful.
To help me, I posted the list of directions they gave me on my fridge so that every time I was in my kitchen I could check it. I also placed a lined sheet of paper nearby so I could write down what medicines I took and the times I took them. People don’t tell you this about the surgery but afterward you can feel pretty loopy at first and even several days after you still might not feel like yourself. Having my info ready and within reach on my fridge really helped with my organization.
Note —Despite my successes, I wasn’t the perfect patient. Sometimes I past the alarms to take my medicines because I was so exhausted I stayed asleep. And other times I forgot to put my ice packs back on after eating, but I didn’t beat myself up about it. I simply corrected my behavior and got back on track.
Overall the checkup had gone fantastic and I wasn’t so proud of myself that I couldn’t thank the staff and my dentist for their great work. I mean it was them that expertly took a knife to my mouth and gave me the directions and suggestions to follow. No wasted time spent on the internet searching for answers that wouldn’t apply to my particular surgery. And just in case I did have any questions I was encouraged to call them or leave a voicemail.
The last thing I would like to point out, just in case I’ve missed mentioning it, was that I had originally scheduled five days off for a day trip to Colorado but it so happened that I needed this surgery immediately. Although I wasn’t able to enjoy some time hiking with my doggy, I felt blessed to have had the time off needed to recuperate.
So, if you are able to and if you can afford to take extra days off then do so. The recommended amount of time is three days. (Although some dentists will allow a return to work after two.)
Ask the dentist or the staff how long your surgery will put you out for and be as honest and detailed as possible about your concerns.
I had made sure to tell my dentist beforehand that I work overnights and that I’m required to lift up to 75 lbs for my job. And so he was willing to write a note which would have kept me on light duty even after my three days rest, however, as I mentioned above, I already had five days granted for my vacation and so it actually worked out perfectly. Perhaps coincidentally? Well, I don’t believe in coincidences but I do believe in drinking water. Seriously, the water really helped.
If you have any questions regarding my experience with the dental work please feel free to leave them in a comment. I understand that it isn’t always ideal to get dental work done, and sometimes it has nothing to do with money but the fear of the procedure or life afterwards. I am here to provide my best insight. Until next time, friends.
