How Long After Tooth Extraction Can You Eat Normally?
Tooth extractions during adulthood are relatively common among adults. The thought of having a tooth extracted can make you anxious and scared when informed by your dentist that you need to have a tooth removed. On the other hand, the information can encourage you to ask questions about the procedure, after-care, and recovery because you might want all information about the tooth removal before your appointment arrives. Most people raise the most common question about tooth extractions: “how long after tooth extraction can I eat normally.”
The question doesn’t surprise dentists and shouldn’t cause concern among patients because people having teeth extracted do not have to starve but merely exercise caution on the kind of foods they eat and how they do so. This article provides information on the above question to ensure you don’t worry about eating after tooth removal. Besides giving the extraction site the necessary care and safeguarding the blood clot, there are techniques to keep yourself nourished during your recovery. In fact, the dentist performing tooth extraction near you provides after-care instructions to care for the extraction site, warning you that dislodging the blood clot will require treatments from the emergency dentist near me.
When Can You Begin Eating after Tooth Extraction?
You can start eating a few hours after your tooth extraction surgery. However, you must realize the numbing medication delivered to your mouth by the dentist requires a few hours to wear off. Therefore you must wait until your mouth no longer feels numb before eating the suggested foods.
Foods to Have after Tooth Extraction
First 24 Hours
You must avoid eating foods that require chewing during the first 24 hours after tooth extraction surgery. Instead, you must exist on liquids like milkshakes, applesauce, smoothies, et cetera. However, if the drinks don’t satisfy your appetite, you might want to have some solid foods, which is fine as long as you stick to foods like pudding and porridge.
You must also exercise caution using a straw for drinking. While a straw may be convenient for drinking liquids, the suction caused can dislodge the blood clot in the extraction site, causing pain, bleeding, and delayed healing.
After 24 hours
You can start eating soft foods that require little chewing, exercising caution not to chew from near the extraction site. You must avoid scorching or freezing foods during the initial few days after tooth extraction. Hot foods increase blood flow to the extraction site to dislodge the blood clot. Having a liquid diet, although suggested, doesn’t include alcohol for at least 48 hours after the surgery because alcohol delays healing by interacting with your medications. You must also avoid smoking because the chemicals from tobacco interfere with your healing process to delay it.
Two Weeks Later
Tooth extraction in Smithtown, NY, suggests that you avoid chewing from the extraction site for approximately two weeks following the procedure because it may disrupt and delay your recovery. However, you can undoubtedly begin eating your usual foods after 72 hours so long as you avoid hot, sticky, spicy, acidic, and crunchy foods until your gum tissue and jawbone have healed entirely.
Why Do Dentists Impose Restrictions on Foods after Tooth Extraction?
Dentists recommend tooth extractions to eradicate an infection or disease from your mouth to ensure your oral and overall health improves significantly. In reality, surgical tooth extraction is a surgical process in your mouth where the conditions are constantly moist. Your mouth houses 600 species of bacteria, and a wet wound within is an open invitation for the bacteria to create complications if you aren’t careful.
The food restrictions are a minor inconvenience that you must endure because the dentist has eliminated a challenging infection from your mouth that caused immense pain and other problems. The restrictions dentists impose are mere to ensure smooth healing after tooth extraction. Follow the instructions carefully to the word, and your recovery proceeds smoothly as possible. If you want to play truant with the instructions, prepare yourself to endure a more extended recovery period and additional expenditure with repeated visits to the dentist requesting treatments for various problems.
If you must have a tooth or two extracted, you must prepare yourself for the minor inconvenience of staying away from some of your favorite foods for a few days until you recover from the surgical process.
If you need a tooth extracted and the instructions to recover smoothly without complications, you help yourself if you schedule an appointment with Joseph B Pantaleo, DDS, to discuss the procedure and have the tooth extracted from them.