You should be able to go to a Chinese restaurant in your area and order tofu and porridge dishes.

dcarch

Glad to hear that you're feeling ok, and hope it's a speedy recovery.

It's nothing fancy, but mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs, tuna fish sandwiches, and peanut butter sandwiches (on squishy bread) have worked well for us. I think it's tempting to go carb-crazy, but it's good to have a little real food too.

I also remember once reading that if you lie down and keep your head still for 30 or 60 minutes after taking opiates, it helps with the dizziness. I'm not sure whether there's hard science to back that up.

And definitely have some ice cream. Ice cream is crucial to the healing process :-D

Dcarch, thanks for reminding me - I bought tofu on Monday and meant to put some of it in the egg rolls I made last night, but I forgot. I think I'll make some Japanese soup and put tofu in it, in addition to the potatoes! I'll probably end up with more leftovers than I will be able to eat! There aren't any Chinese restaurants in my neighborhood (that I know of), but there are several very good Thai restaurants. I might go to one of those - they do have very good soup.

I made a point of making crispy chicken eggrolls last night because I knew I wouldn't be able to eat them for a while.

I'm taking opiates?? No wonder the pharmacist told me not to drive!

Thanks for the suggestions.

Lars

Poor Lars, I'm sorry about what you are going through. I hope you will do OK with the Percocet which doesn't agree with me at all.

I would agree that a noodle soup with tofu should be really soothing and nourishing. I would think that avoiding acidic and spicy foods is just because they are irritating to cut tissue so when the actual wound heals you can add them back in. I'm not sure why your dentist would want you to avoid crunchy things after the wound heals unless it is an issue of getting a hard bit stuck under the gum there. You're already used to chewing on the other side so perhaps your dentist will also alllow a little crunch soon too.

Unless it's already too late, I wouldn't eat a lot at a time right now. Your drugs can be unsettling - better to have a small bowl of soup or a small smoothie now and some more in an hour.

Let us know how you are doing.

Lee

Hi Lars,

Yes, it's too late for a "long story short," but that's OK; I love your rambling posts. ;-) I sympathize with your experience because my DH has been going through the same thing for a couple years now (who knew it was such a long, drawn-out procedure?). His is a whole-mouth situation, not just a replacement of one or two teeth. He needed several teeth removed, "temporary"--but long-term--dentures fitted, and then the fun began with implantation of the "base" for the implants. After all this, he still doesn't have the tooth part of the implants yet, and he doesn't eat well with the dentures, so it's been quite a tough time. He's been on soft food for all this time, and that means the whole family is, too; I'm not going to prepare two dinners!

DH needs a soft diet, but not a liquid one. By tomorrow (or the day after), you could probably manage soft foods. (If any bleeding develops, sucking on a used teabag may help.)

In practice, I serve nothing chewy, crunchy, or fibrous at dinner. DH finds pasta very easy to eat; he can just slurp it down. He can manage potatoes and noodles, but rice is trickier; a bit of gravy or sauce is a big help. Most cooked veggies are OK if they're not crisp. He manages to eat meats if he cuts them into very small pieces, but I also serve a lot of dishes made with ground beef, turkey, or chicken. I use cut-up chicken in stir-fries. Fish is good, too, and I often make tunaburgers and crab cakes. Salads are difficult, however; it's hard for him to chew lettuce or anything raw or crunchy. I don't serve steak, roast beef, or brisket. And if we have corn on the cob, I cut the kernels off the cob for him. I'm sure DH could eat scrambled eggs, soft cheeses, puddings, etc, if he liked them, but they're not on his menu.

In the short term, remember to avoid dairy foods while you're taking the antibiotic. Save the yogurt and ice cream for a couple days. The spices shouldn't be a problem after the first day or two; until the surgical site heals, however, it's literally like "rubbing salt into an open wound," so take care.

I hope you continue to feel well and recover quickly!

Sue

My DH lived on chicken noodle soup (not his favorite) and oatmeal after his extensive surgeries. But he did get implants on both sides and bone transplant on one side as well.

You need protein to heal...soft scrambled eggs are good. I don't think amoxicillin is a "no dairy" antibiotic....if it is it should say so on the bottle.
Other suggestionsa re bananas, stay away from fruit with tiny seeds to get into the incision area, noodles of all sorts....and most cooked fish is soft enough, just don't do lemon sauce until the incisions heal but do a brown butter sauce instead. mashed potatoes and all kinds of wonderful stuff like gnocci in a parmesan cream sauce.
And what sue said....a little at a time. don't pig out just because you have found stuff you can eat.
Won't you be glad to chew on both sides!!
Linda c

Lars, sorry to hear about your dental work. I've had several dental implants, both uppers & lowers. Remember, it will take weeks for your bone to knit around the implant & be solid enough to eat normal.

I'm unsure from your post if you had just the extraction done today or whether the implant also was done.

Do you have a "pack" inside your mouth?

Ice will help with both pain & swelling, if necessary.

When I had the lower implants installed it was about 6-7 months of healing before the denture could be placed. I wore what's called "healing caps" during that time...no lower teeth.

Take care while you're on the Percocet until you know how your body is going to respond. And don't let the pain get out in front...harder to get it under control. Take your meds as prescribed.

I'll be very surprised if you can eat crunchies for the next few months.

/tricia

How about mashed potatoes made with cream and butter (or with chive cream cheese, or cheddar (or other) cheese), and apple sauce alongside.

I would have to have clam chowder with very small clam pieces. LOL I hope everything works out and the meds don't continue to bother you.

Lars - I've been going through the same thing. From your posts, I know that you're a creative cook and adventuresome eater. Moreso than I am, but I would gladly eat at your table anytime!

Mashed potatoes get very old and fattening after a few meals. Plus - they're BORING.

I thought cottage cheese and fruit would be good, but the curds got over to the sutures and caught on the implant.Cottage cheese didn't work for me.Very small clam pieces abd groung meat get caught in the metal prongs and sutures. So do things like sesame seeds and peanuts.

One thing that really worked for me was soft chunky stuff on rice, like massamam curry (I love it with chunked sweet potato). I could eat sushi, too.

You could try some red beans and rice - etc. The rice didn't get stuck for some reason.

The biggest problem I have with any kind of narcotic pain killer is almost instantaneous constipation, so aim for fiber, fiber, fiber lol!

Best of luck to you.

seagrass

Sorry, almost forgot - in my case, the antibiotic made my stomach so raw that was the reason why I couldn't eat much in the way of spice.

Zantac. That's my recommendation. Ever since I went through chemotherapy, I'm never without it.

seagrass

Lars, I feel your pain. I had a root canal Friday and a temporary crown yesterday. I was prescribed Vicodin and Keflex at first and am now taking Amoxicillin. I am not used to taking meds and was advised to take Lactinex (otc), a probiotic supplement.

Sorry I can't help with any recipes, I've been eating soft, bland foods but still cooking normally for DH.

Hope you feel better soon.

Di

Thanks so much for your responses - this is very, very helpful. I made batch of rather bland ramen noodle soup, using some of my chicken stock. I added mushrooms, tofu, green onions, garlic, eggs (that had been beaten with hot sauce and ponzu sauce), mushroom soup base (which I bought at Surfas last week-end), and a bit of sesame oil. I decided to leave out the poached chicken that I have. I ate three small bowls of it and did not have any trouble with it and still have leftovers. I'll want something different next. I hope I didn't eat too much, but I had had nothing since early this morning.

Thanks for the info about the cottage cheese - I'll avoid that and leave it for DB, as he has been eating a lot of that since his extraction a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately I did not put sesame seeds in my soup - just the oil, and I'll avoid the peanuts and nuts for a few days.

I've never had problems with constipation, and so that will not be a concern for me. Some of my BP meds counteract that influence, as does tea. It's good to know that rice is okay.

Tricia, my implant was done today - the extraction was done six months ago, and I really did not have to wait this long, but I did anyway. I do not have a pack in my mouth, and it does not appear to be swollen. I just took another pain killer, but I don't think there is going to be that much pain, although that could be wishful thinking. The doctor said I was an excellent patient and that I had very bone for the implant, and from the X-ray of the finished work, it did look very good. There were no sutures and I did not require a bone graft, and so I think this is going to go very well, providing I am careful enough.

I had forgotten about fish! We'll have to have that tomorrow, and we can plan to have sushi this week-end.

Linda, you are right that Amoxicillin does not react with dairy, and so I will have some ice cream later and some yogurt tomorrow morning. The doctor also did say that I need protein to heal, and so I think the eggs and tofu in the soup today will be helpful.

I started cooking some garbanzos so that I can make some kind of stew out of them tomorrow - I still have a serving of leftover lentil soup that is pretty spicy, however.

I have some urgent work to do tomorrow to finish up a model for a new dining chair, but I still might leave work early, if I begin to get dizzy or very tired. My commute is 1.3 miles, and so I'm not terribly worried about driving that distance. I don't even go on a very busy street! I have walked to work a few times, but I won't have the energy for that tomorrow.

Thanks again for all of your help. I very much appreciate all the information you have given me, and I feel like I have a better handle on it now.

Lars

Oh, I didn't realize that dairy is OK with amoxicillin. Good to know!

Also, Lars, I was thinking about your wonderful hummus. It would probably be great, but you'd need to forgo chips and crunchy veggies with it. I'd just eat it with a spoon!

Sue

I didn't have implants, but I did get a "bridge" the first part of the year and found that I needed soft things for a while. Soups were good, as were refried beans with cheese, and I don't liike things very spicy anyway. Bread pudding was easy, as was rice pudding. Scalloped potatoes, although I had to cut them in small pieces, mashed/whipped sweet potatoes and vegetables cooked soft and in small pieces. Tuna salad, salmon cakes, cheese omelettes and those refried beans added protein.

Pasta was good, I wish I liked it, and I'm betting that grits/polenta/mush would be easily tolerated too, I ate oatmeal.

Percocet, Darvon, Darvoset, they all make me nauseous, so maybe that's why your stomach is a little upset. Frozen fruit juice pops are good too, and I found them to be easy on the stomach when I was a bit queasy, with ice cream, pudding and yogurt a couple of days later.

Take care, my friend, I hope you and Kevin are both recovering well and quickly and that you can have your spicy curry very soon.

Annie

I might make some more grits, but I'm afraid they might get stuck in places like sesame seeds do. Kevin asked me to make hummus with the garbanzos I just cooked, and so that's what we are having next. I think I can eat some soft lavash bread with it.

Annie, Kevin hates his bridge and is going to have it replaced with an implant as soon as he is finished fixing the tooth that is now ailing. The dentist still has not finished extracting it, and there is part of it left because the root was hook shaped. He always has more complications at the dentist than I do. I think I will be able to eat fairly normally in a couple of days, but it will be a bit longer for Kevin.

I think the Percocet makes me feel a bit weird or edgy, and so I might switch over to some of the Vicodin that I have left over from the extraction. It doesn't seem to bother me as much.

I need to get some frozen fruit pops - they gave me an ice pack at the dentist office in case I was swollen, but I haven't noticed any swelling at all.

Lars

Just for anyone contemplating inplants, the ones common in US are very time consuming and very costly. There are cheaper and better alternatives available. My DH had 7 done in a week and results have been very good and it did not cost an arm and leg either. If anyone is interested to learn more, just drop me an e-mail.

I had an implant done and it was pretty easy. Lars, like you I was well qualified because the bone in my jaw is very strong, no loss. I almost fell asleep during the actual implant of the titanium post. It was boring, not painful. I don't remember any pain after at all. They also gave me an ice pack, but I never used it.

Later I had a problem with the crown, which had to be replaced. Getting the first one off was quite a process. However, I am thrilled with the end result. A bridge would have meant destroying the two healthy teeth on either side of the missing tooth, and I didn't want to do that, plus the problems with keeping the area under the bridge clean.

I think I paid $4,000 for one tooth but over the long run, it's an excellent investment. My dental insurance paid for a small portion and I paid for the rest using my HSA, so I saved some that way, too. There is a huge difference in the quality of the material and the workmanship, so don't go for the bargain procedure. You'll end up paying when it fails. My XH is a dentist and I learned plenty about cheap dentistry (he is an excellent doctor, by the way, just not a great husband!!). Go for the best.

I can't imagine having seven done in a day. It seems that you would have to spend an entire day in the dental chair with the doctor working on your jaw if each was done well.

When my mom's neighbor had jaw surgery and his mouth was wired shut, she made beef vegetable soup and whirred it up in the blender. He drank it with a straw, even though it was kind of the color of baby poop!

Lars, hope you had a painless night and can eat anything you want today.

Ann

Ann, I did have a painless night, thank you. I took my last pain pill at 11:00 PM, and I might not have needed even that. Not sure I can eat anything I want today - I'm going to play it safe and wait until tomorrow to be more adventurous. I made hummus last night and ate it with toasted lavash. I was trying to heat the lavash after spraying it with water, thinking that would soften it up, but instead it made it into a very thin crisp wafer, which was still easy to eat - I just ate on one side of my mouth.

Pam, my tooth is the last one in the back, and so a bridge was not an option, but I would not have wanted one anyway. My titanium post cost $2150, and the crown will be extra. I don't think my dental insurance will pay anything on the post, but it will help with the crown. I do agree that it is worth the investment, and I also am leery of bargain dentists. I did have a filling replaced in Mexico City one time, and it only cost $25. The dentist was a friend of the friend (Jose) I was staying with, and I met the dentist at a dinner party at Jose's house right after losing my filling. I happened to mention it at the party, and the dentist offered to pick me up on Saturday, take me to his office and do the work when he would normally have been closed. Jose did not even know that his dinner guest was a dentist and was very impressed how I worked that out!

Lars

I really do not want to get off topic here, but again my DH 7 were done in a week, not a day. The dentist was the best he has ever experienced in his whole life and they have been trained and use the technology developed in USA. The USA doctors mostly use technology developed in Sweden that require long delay between the implant and crown and now a days there really is no reason for that, just that the latter requires more visits and allows the dentist to charge much more. For my DH each implant was $ 500 and the crown was $ 250.00. As I said, he was very happy with the original treatment and still very happy after two years with the outcome. But I am not selling anything here, just wanted to interested to be aware that there ARE affordable alternatives out there. In fact many USA insurances pay part or the whole for this doctor's services and yes, it is not in USA, it requires little travel and many USA, Canadians use some of their savings from the implants to enjoy and have fun vacations while getting their implants. In fact, one couple we met was there on their 25th anniversary getting their teeth done and having fun as well.

My DH did get his first implant here in USA, paid through the nose, was supposed to have lifetime warranty and this implant failed in less than 10 years. No USA dentist was willing to try to fix it, all wanted to do a new implant, as that meant much more money for them. The dentist who made his new implants had no problem fixing the old one, inserting the new post and saved us tons of money. So affordable does not always mean cr*ppy.

Seven in a week is a lot different than 7 in a day. Sorry for the confusion. Yes, I guess you can get less expensive medical care by traveling. However, there are many advertising dentists who say they can do an implant and crown for less than $1000 in the USA. In that case, you get what you pay for, which is cr@p.

The delay between the implant and crown is to allow the bone to grow around the implant so it is good and solid before the crown is applied. Perhaps there are new methods now to hasten the time it takes for bone to grow naturally. I just don't know about them.

I had 7 implants last year along with several bone surgeries in my jaw. The implants were a wiz but the bone surgeries were terrible! I stayed on soft for fabout 7 days with the implants and 2/3 weeks with the jaw surgeries.

I ate lots of ice cream, popsicles, soup, rice, grits (but be careful), eggs, soft cooked veggies and beans. I really needed to get creative with the spices so it didn't seem like I was always eating the same thing. Cheese that melts easily was nice in grits and on rice. Spicy foods burned like the dickens!

I hope you are feeling better Lars. I have no problems with pain medication but I don't drive as long as I'm on them.

I had considered traveling in order to get dental work done, but I prefer the idea of having it done where it can be repaired if something goes wrong. My dentist does guarantee her work, and I feel more comfortable working with someone I know. If I had a lot that needed to be done, it would be a different matter, and I hope I don't get to that situation any time soon. I've read about good dentists in Hungary, Poland, and Thailand that are inexpensive. It seems that a lot of people from UK go to Eastern Europe for dental work.

Lars

My bridge is in the back on the bottom. I grind my teeth when I'm tense and had already ground off the back teeth and both the one in front of and the one in back of the empty spot were already crowned. I just ground that middle tooth off so far it broke and I didn't have enough jawbone for an implant. My dentist is the only person in the worl that says my mouth isn't big enough, and he says I have a "child sized" jaw and very shallow roots on my teeth because my jawbone is small.

I don't seem to have any trouble with the bridge, so it's all good, although my insurance didn't pay much and it cost about $2,000. My dentist will guarantee it for 10 years.

The only thing that I seem to get "stuck" there is popcorn, but I've always had problems with popcorn sticking in between my teeth.

At any rate, I think maybe you could have something like meatballs if you use a recipe like "Mama's Meatballs", which are relatively fragile and all the onions and garlic are blended in broth before they are added, so there are no chunks and the binder is bread crumbs, so they'll just disintegrate, they can't get stuck.

Annie

Oh, I just remembered, when I had to have my failed root canal extracted, bean burritos came in very handy. Very smooth refried beans, omit onions, add cheese and very mild, smooth sauce, sour cream, maybe pureed avocado. You could even omit the wrapper and just put it all in a bowl.

I'm glad to hear that you had a pain free night and hope today is all good too. Thanks for letting us know.

Lee

Thanks, Lee! I've been very happy with my almost immediate recovery, as I was expecting something much worse. Since I have no pain, I tend to forget that I just got the implant, and so I have to remind myself to be careful. I had a sandwich for lunch, and I hope bread crumbs didn't get stuck back there. I rinsed out my mouth very well.

I make bean burritos frequently and always have the ingredients to make my bean dip recipe. I used up the last of the tahini making the hummus (which I expect to go fast), and so I'll have to remember to pick some up at the next Arab or Lebanese market I go to. We need more lavash, but I can get that anywhere. The tahini is much cheaper at the Lebanese market.

Annie, Kevin and I both have mouth guards to wear at night, and I never ground my teeth until fairly recently. I do notice myself doing it when I'm working intensely on a furniture model. I'll make a note not to make popcorn, but that gets stuck in my teeth even when they are normal!

I might make some Avgolemono soup with Greek meatballs - I have frozen ground turkey I could defrost, but I need to use up the poached chicken meat first, I think. Of course I could freeze that and defrost the other.

Lars

Speedy recovery! My hubby really enjoyed dumplings after his oral surgery.

Thanks, AHS (I like to sew also)! I see that you are new to this forum from your first thread. I hope you enjoy it here.

Dumplings will be good - I think I have some in the freezer. That also made me think of making gnocchi, since I have the potatoes.

Lars

Hope your feeling better by now Lars. Pancakes might be good a good option too. I'm in the middle of getting a bridge put in. The extraction was no fun at all. I'm not a fan of the dentist, doctor, or hospitals at all. They all creep me out and I'm a nervous wreck when I have to go to one.

David

David, pancakes are a very good option, and for the past two days I've been having leftover waffles for breakfast instead of granola. I stored the waffles in a plastic bag in the fridge, and they got soft, making them easier to eat. Pancakes would have been even better.

I guess it's too late, but I would have recommended getting an implant instead of a bridge, if that would be an option. Everyone I know who has had bridges complains about them endlessly, and Kevin cannot wait to have his bridge replaced with an implant. Were you offered that option? For me, the implant was no pain at all, and it took about 20 minutes. Of course I still have to have the crown put on, and that might be a bit of a problem.

Lars

Too late to for me to change not that I could at this time Lars. It all came down to what my insurance would cover and my out of pocket cost. We have to keep changing options on our company insurance due to the yearly increases we have been having for what seems like forever! Just glad we are still in business at this point in the game. Hopefully I can upgrade in a few years.

David