What should I eat after I get my wisdom teeth out?

September 27, 2012 4:48 PM

What are the best, funnest, most satisfying foods to eat after I get my wisdom teeth out?

I'm getting all four wisdom teeth out tomorrow and I'm looking for suggestions for enjoyable food for the next few days. So far I've got Jell-o (DELICIOUS!), pudding, ice cream, and mashed potatoes. What else is really, really simple and delicious? More substantial food is preferred but I'll go with whatever. I've seen this old question but I'm hoping for updated responses.

I'd also appreciate suggestions for what I definitely should NOT eat. For example, I've heard that I shouldn't eat rice or any ice cream with little stuff in it because that can get stuck in the socket. Advice in this area is appreciated. Thanks!

posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl to Food & Drink (34 answers total)

Chicken pot pie. Cheesecake. Cream of Aspargus Soup.
posted by carmicha at 4:52 PM on September 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

Mack and cheese
KFC Potaotes and gravy

Actually, I wasn't in any pain after my extractions, I ate a PBJ and went to work.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 4:52 PM on September 27, 2012

Cold liquids can be really soothing. Milk shakes and fruit smoothies are good.
posted by medusa at 4:53 PM on September 27, 2012

I've been saving this for when my husband gets his wisdom teeth out. When I got mine out, I found that it took a very short period of time for me to get tired of carbs and sugar, and I would have killed for some tomato soup.
posted by mchorn at 4:53 PM on September 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

Eating was not at the top of my list of things that sounded fun. Fasting might be fun.
posted by bongo_x at 4:55 PM on September 27, 2012 [4 favorites]

Eat whatever you want, rinse thoroughly with water and gargle before you go to bed! I worked cleaning teeth for a while and you'll be fine. You may feel that the area is a bit tender when the anesthesia wears off, so most dentists will suggest softer foods so that you don't irritate the gums. If you take the anti-inflammatory and the prophylactic antibiotic, you will be fine.
posted by Yellow at 4:55 PM on September 27, 2012

I ate a lot of Spaghetti-Os, because they don't really require chewing. (Not the kind with meatballs or hot dogs or whatever, just the plain ones.)
posted by sarcasticah at 4:56 PM on September 27, 2012

Split pea soup made with the bone from a smoked ham was awesome. I missed meat, but couldn't chew it, so the meaty-flavoured-but-pillowy-textured soup gave me my fix. Puree everything with a stick blender if you didn't have time to cook it long enough that the legumes disintegrate.

Honestly though I had a lot of meal-replacement-type drinks, like Ensure. The drugs made me woozy and I just wanted to get some nutrients down for the first couple of days. Moved onto actual food (mashed potatoes, soup, etc.) after that.
posted by miss_kitty_fantastico at 4:59 PM on September 27, 2012

If you want something a bit more substantial than pudding, scrambled eggs were a godsend. Maybe a bit of cheese in them, otherwise just your basic nice soft scrambled egg.

Although after a couple days of pudding and scrambled eggs I said fuck it and started eating cheeseburgers. Very, very carefully eating cheeseburgers.
posted by Stacey at 5:03 PM on September 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh jesus christ do NOT eat broccoli. The little bits will get lodged in the pockets like crazy and three days later you'll be cleaning them out with that syringe thingy and STILL finding broccoli.
posted by phunniemee at 5:04 PM on September 27, 2012 [2 favorites]

for some reason pureed spinach from boston market was the best thing I'd ever tasted.
posted by changeling at 5:09 PM on September 27, 2012

If you do shakes/smoothies, do NOT use a straw!

My mom made me custard when I had a wisdom tooth out. I don't like custard at other times, but it was warm and bland and just lovely in its vanilla-ness at that time.
posted by xingcat at 5:19 PM on September 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

Be careful re: gargling, rinsing, sucking through straws, etc., you don't want to develop dry sockets.

Ditto creamy mac & cheese.
posted by SoulOnIce at 5:22 PM on September 27, 2012

The week after getting my wisdom teeth out fostered what has become a lifelong love of yogurt.

Be careful with scrambled eggs. A week after my extraction, eating some made my jaw hurt for hours. My teeth were impacted as hell, mind you, so luckier folks than I probably had no problems there.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 5:22 PM on September 27, 2012

Add some peanut butter to the milkshakes for some more substance.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 5:25 PM on September 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

Pumpkin puree soup or pie. Remember to chew gently and slowly. I chewed my cheeks since I couldn't feel them after the procedure.
posted by effluvia at 5:25 PM on September 27, 2012

Pina Coladas. That was how I managed after I ran out of good pain pills.
posted by kimdog at 5:38 PM on September 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

also cheesy polenta or grits. and thick soups. with an immersion blender, you can easily make pureed black bean soup, corn chowder, etc. (only if you feel like cooking, of course.)

tip: if you start bleeding, stick a black teabag back there & bite down. the tannins will stop the bleeding like ~magic~
posted by changeling at 5:57 PM on September 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

Mashed ripe avocado with salt & lemon.
posted by Ochre,Hugh at 6:06 PM on September 27, 2012

Man, I lived on savory cream of wheat - with parm, butter, and black pepper, or parm and very finely chopped herbs, with little bits of pancetta, etc. So good.
posted by peachfuzz at 6:08 PM on September 27, 2012

Edy's fruit bars are a healthy and fun go to when I can't eat - basically popsicles but not junk food. Total yay!

And I made roulade (German stuffed beef rolls) with potato balls when I had surgery on my face. Real substantial (and personal favorite) dinner. It is probably too short notice to make roulade but you can sometimes find box versions of potato balls. I never learned to make homemade, from scratch potato balls so some box versions are fine. If you have never done it before and hav a choice, get the boil-in-bag version rather than the mix. The mix can be tricky to work with.

The beef barbacoa at Chipotle is probably similar in texture to well done roulade. If cooked long enough, you can eat it with a spoon.
posted by Michele in California at 7:08 PM on September 27, 2012

This organic baby food is so delicious I kept buying it for months
Mashed potatoes warmed up, with parmesean cheese and a little kosher salt
Beef or chicken broth or tomato soup out of a mug
Gelato

Make sure to incorporate fiber, the pain pills can be very...clogging.
posted by sallybrown at 7:09 PM on September 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh and Ovaltine, the malted kind!
posted by sallybrown at 7:10 PM on September 27, 2012

(and get 4 bags of frozen peas to mold to your face--2 sets of 2 each so you can rotate)
posted by sallybrown at 7:15 PM on September 27, 2012

Deviled ham!
posted by milk white peacock at 7:45 PM on September 27, 2012

Oh, I just had mine out this year.

I drank a lot of protein shakes because I was terrified of dry socket. The Gold Standard 100% Whey line from Optimum Nutrition and the Muscle Milk line were both pretty good and reasonably nourishing and there were a number of flavors available to keep it from getting too boring. There's a line of pureed food that's I think intended for the elderly in my grocery store in various flavors (so it's not with the baby food, it's around the pharmacy). It was okay, but not fantastic.

Once I could have something a little more solid, I went to scrambled eggs, slightly overcooked pasta (if you want something a bit more nourishing/fatty, get the raviolis with cheese in them) so it was more squishy than chewy, and sugar-free pudding and Jello. The fat in the pudding/cheese/eggs/pasta seemed to help with the "feeling full."

Mine wasn't too bad, I spent most of the day I had them done dead to the world (I go down like a bull elephant so he had to knock me the hell out), then a day or two of shakes, then a couple days of soft foods, then back to normal.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 7:46 PM on September 27, 2012

Chocolate shakes, Mango lassis, blended fruit with milk, strawberry and chocolate milk
posted by Sal and Richard at 8:08 PM on September 27, 2012

My mom bought me a few shakes from McDonalds and we kept them in the freezer. Every few hours I'd pull one out and let it thaw a bit. Then yum, yum, yum.

BTW, in my case it was no big deal. I went out with friends that evening.
posted by 26.2 at 9:39 PM on September 27, 2012

Oh, I got dry socket! They put a nasty flavored cloth in the corner of your mouth. The only thing that would help cover the flavor was McDonald's french fries.

In terms of eating things now, smoothies (if VERY SMOOTH), mashed potatoes with lots of butter, and no rice. I ate a cheeseburger soon after the surgery and regretted it; who knows whether that contributed to the dry socket.
posted by ramenopres at 9:39 PM on September 27, 2012

I wasn't up for eating at all for a while, and then I subsisted mostly on mashed potatoes with cheese for a few days. I didn't feel like ice cream and the coldness irritated my incision sites.
posted by charmcityblues at 10:14 PM on September 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

Something about the way they had to pry my mouth open left my jaw extremely sore, so I could barely open my mouth. I spent the next two days licking take-out Mexican refried beans off the back of the spoon. I became quite the connoisseur.
posted by KathrynT at 10:40 PM on September 27, 2012 [2 favorites]

Cheese and garlic mashed potatoes.
posted by Silvertree at 6:25 AM on September 28, 2012

A friend brought me won ton soup from a Chinese place when I got mine out. I never ate it much before, and I haven't eaten it much since, but at the time it was EXACTLY right.
posted by dlugoczaj at 7:27 AM on September 28, 2012

Response by poster: Update: Jell-o and pudding have been fine, as have mashed potatoes and ice cream. The thing I liked best so far was actually macaroni and cheese with breadcrumbs on top because what I really wanted was a different texture and (for me at least) the breadcrumbs were a little crunchy without being problematic. Mchorn is definitely right about carbs and sweet so tonight I'm getting hot and sour soup and I'm going to pick out all the weird stuff. Thanks for the advice!
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 2:03 PM on September 29, 2012